CDC 7600

<p>The CDC 7600 was designed by <a href="/facts/Seymour_Cray/uDpXUsXc">Seymour Cray</a> to be the successor to the <a href="/facts/CDC_6600/QpnT1Ltl">CDC 6600</a>, extending <a href="/facts/Control_Data_Corporation/ChfGgfPM">Control Data</a>'s dominance of the <a href="/facts/Supercomputer/HT9NwGAN">supercomputer</a> field into the 1970s. The 7600 ran at 36.4 MHz (27.5 ns clock cycle) and had a 65 Kword primary memory (with a 60-bit word size) using <a href="/facts/Magnetic-core_memory/4TFIXSNd">magnetic core</a> and variable-size (up to 512 Kword) secondary memory (depending on site). It was generally about ten times as fast as the CDC 6600 and could deliver about 10 <a href="/facts/MFLOPS/6zYlH68F">MFLOPS</a> on hand-compiled code, with a peak of 36 MFLOPS. In addition, in benchmark tests in early 1970 it was shown to be slightly faster than its <a href="/facts/IBM/QszA7nwd">IBM</a> rival, the <a href="/facts/IBM_System%2f360/7znvpy4K">IBM System/360</a>, Model 195. When the system was released in 1967, it sold for around $5 million in base configurations, and considerably more as options and features were added.
</p><p>Among the 7600's notable state-of-the-art contributions, beyond extensive <a href="/facts/Instruction_pipeline/3zy6CcX1">pipelining</a>, was the physical C-shape, which both reduced floor space and dramatically increased performance by reducing the distance that signals needed to travel.
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CDC 7600 open-in-new

CDC 7600