CDC 160 series

CDC 160
CDC 160-A with close-up of control panel
DeveloperSeymour Cray
ManufacturerControl Data Corporation
Release date1960 (1960)
Introductory price$100,000 equivalent to $1,029,921 in 2023
Units shipped400
Storage4096 words of magnetic core
Power115 V, 12 A
Dimensions29 by 61+12 by 30 inches (740 mm × 1,560 mm × 760 mm)
Mass810 lb (370 kg)
SuccessorCDC 6000 series

The CDC 160 series was a series of minicomputers built by Control Data Corporation. The CDC 160 and CDC 160-A were 12-bit minicomputers[1][2] built from 1960 to 1965; the CDC 160G was a 13-bit minicomputer, with an extended version of the CDC 160-A instruction set, and a compatibility mode in which it did not use the 13th bit.[3] The 160 was designed by Seymour Cray - reportedly over a long three-day weekend.[4] It fit into the desk where its operator sat.

The 160 architecture uses ones' complement arithmetic with end-around carry.[5]

NCR joint-marketed the 160-A under its own name for several years in the 1960s.[6]

  1. ^ 160 Computer Programming Manual (PDF). Control Data Corporation. 1960. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  2. ^ Control Data 160-A Computer Programming Manual (PDF). Control Data Corporation. March 1963. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  3. ^ Control Data 160G Programming Reference Manual (PDF). Control Data Corporation. May 11, 1965. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  4. ^ Lawrence Liddiard (May 1986). "Seymour Cray's Machines (Part 2)" (PDF). The CDC 160, rumored to have been designed over a weekend by Cray, was CDC's first $60,000 desk (not desktop) computer that became the prototype I/O processor for the peripheral processors surrounding the CDC 6600 and 7600.
  5. ^ "A Programmer's Reference Manual for the CDC-160" by Douglas W. Jones
  6. ^ Flamm, Kenneth (1988). Creating the computer: government, industry, and high technology. Brookings Institution Press. p. 118. ISBN 0815728506.