The CDC 160 and CDC 160-A were 12-bit minicomputers built by Control Data Corporation from the late 1950s, through the mid-1960s. The 160 was designed by Seymour Cray - reportedly over a long three-day weekend. It fit into the desk where its operator sat. Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (traditionally, mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ... Control Data Corporation, or CDC, was one of the pioneering supercomputer firms. ... Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996) was a U.S. electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who founded the company Cray Research. ...
The 160 architecture was modified to become the basis of the peripheral processors (PPs) in the CDC 6000 seriesmainframe computers. Large parts of the 160 instruction set were unchanged in the peripheral processors. However there were changes to incorporate the 6000 data channel programming, and control of the central processor. In the early days of the 6000s, almost the entire operating system ran in the PPs. This left the central processor unemcumbered by operating system demands and available for user programs. CDC 6000 series were a family of mainframe computers manufactured by Control Data Corporation in the 1960s. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. ...
NCR joint marketed the 160-A under its own name for several years in the 1960s. NCR Corporation is a technology company, specialising in solutions for the retail, and financial industries, as well as decision support systems. ...
CDC was one of the eight major computer companies through most of the 1960s; along with CDC these were IBM, Burroughs, NCR, General Electric, Honeywell, RCA, and UNIVAC.
CDC decided to fight back, but Norris agreed with Cray in thinking that the company had become too ossified to be able to quickly design anything competitive.
By the early 1990s CDC was a major player in the hard drive market, their Wren series drives were particularly popular for "high end" users.
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