Watson Jr. memo about CDC 6600 (1963)

Watson Jr. memo about CDC 6600 (1963)(computerhistory.org)

16 points by mooreds 14 hours ago | 11 comments

adonovan 1 hour ago |

The most striking thing to me about IBM memos from this era is just how literate executives were. These days most VPs struggle to write a single sentence worth reading.

imglorp 18 minutes ago | |

Many people from that era were well read and well spoken. He in particular sounded like he had some interesting life experiences: air force pilot, ambassador to the Soviet Union, president of the Boy Scouts, etc.

kristianp 1 hour ago |

So the CDC 6600 wasn't considered a RISC machine, but a precursor?

rbanffy 13 hours ago |

Interesting to note the question had the answer all along. How would a modest effort outrun a vast organisation?

I never imagined he’d be caught by that mistake.

gshubert17 3 hours ago | |

Cray's reply was sardonic: "It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_6600

KerrAvon 3 hours ago | |

He wasn't. The CDC 6600 cost IBM some prestige, but it didn't put a dent in IBM's sales, which were about to skyrocket due to the 360 series.

AirPath 14 hours ago |

6600

bediger4000 11 hours ago |

I used CDC computers 1986-92. They sucked, and CDC employees could not comprehend that they sucked. They had convinced themselves that their alternate universe was real.

projectileboy 2 hours ago | |

That was many, many years after Cray had left. By the 80s, CDC was a shell of its former self.

pinewurst 2 hours ago | | |

One can argue that CDC was obliviously dead by the early 70s.

Incompatible, increasingly archaic platforms, the best of those optimal for batch Fortran number crunching, counter to industry growth/interest. Organizational metastasis with a next gen platform (Cyber 180 as Star was stillborn - CISC from hell as 2nd system(s) syndrome) only at the end of the decade. Standards, coupled with profound organizational incompetence, ground it to dust. They made really good OEM disk drives for a while but sold the business off to fund their continuing failures.

There really needs to be a history that’s not an encomium to William Norris, Philosopher King of CDC.

kjs3 2 hours ago | |

What...you didn't like NOS/VE?

The 180/990 and the 205 were a pretty good FORTRAN vector machines if that was the problem you wanted to solve; the compiler was quite good. The other 170/180s were...for everything else...not so much. That boat had sailed.