Computer History: Control Data CDC 6600 Supercomputer (Naval Weather Global tracking Climate) 1972

CDC 6600 video:
Computer History: A brief look at the CDC 6600 Supercomputer, from Control Data Corporation. This vintage 1972, color Navy film includes rare footage of the CDC 6600 and the U.S. Naval Weather Service Command procedures for tracking and reporting weather conditions from satellite data and ground data to ships on a global computerized network. Various naval equipment is shown including radio teletype, radar, magnetic tape units, computer consoles, plotters, scanners, and more. {This is an 8 minute excerpt from the film “The Story of a Storm” produced for the U.S. Navy in 1972.}
Hope you enjoy this brief introduction to the CDC 6600
CDC 6600 designed by Seymour Cray and James Thornton was the fastest computer in the world from 1964 to 1969, when it was superseded by the CDC 7600.
CDC 6600 Supercomputer Installations:
In addition to the Navy Computing Center, other notable CDC 6600 installations included:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) (Livermore, CA)
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (CIMS) (NY)
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (Geneva)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) (California)
About 100 CDC 6600 computers were eventually sold.
Cost was about $6 million to $10 million dollars each.
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[@rdvqc]

Some of the greatest systems I worked on in my long career both with Control Data Canada and others. This included the 7600 at the Canadian Meteorological Centre. Compared to most systems of the time, these systems had almost no system overhead CPU. The bulk of the operating system was in the 10-20 peripheral processors leaving the CPU(s) to do real work.

[@b43xoit]

The CDC operator's console was cool. It had those two tubes, and they were driven by a dedicated peripheral processor (12-bit auxiliary computer). The operator could see details of processor scheduling ("control points") and could interfere with scheduling decisions in real time. The processor could draw characters on the tubes in three sizes. One of the modes simulated the 12x12 toggle switch bootstrap program in the mainframe. It showed a boot program in octal. The operator could change digits and reboot without getting up and walking to the mainframe to change the switches.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Great info! Thanks for sharing that. It certainly has an awesome look too.

[@awuma]

I used a CDC 6400 at Kitt Peak National Observatory in the 1970's. It was a cut-down version of the 6600, with about six peripheral processors but little RAM. Very fast, nice to use with a big word length for good scientific precision, but it needed programs which loaded a small chunk at a time, a common property of computers in those days, leading to such languages and tools as FORTH and eventually IRAF when multi-user terminals came into vogue in place of cards-over-the-counter.

[@chap666ish]

In the video you see two "operator consoles" labelled B and C, which suggests there were three 6600s. Anyway, I was lucky enough to see one of those CRT consoles at Leicester university in the late 1970s when they had a CDC Cyber 72. The "machine room" was like something from science fiction, it was amazing. I still remember the computer operators wearing white lab coats. One of the programmers was especially helpful to me, a guy called Pete Humble. Sadly no longer with us.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Chap666ish, thank you for your observations on the CDC 6600 video clip. It is always great to hear from someone who has had some connection to one of these vintage systems. Glad you found our channel too. ~ VK

[@댄성-l5v]

02:26 I like her hairstyle. Very unique, beautiful retro fashion.

[@null_carrier]

They picked her for a reason.

[@Rob2]

Those tape drives surely get special attention!

[@shamrock1961]

I wonder when she got a chance to really let her hair down? Alas we'll never know. 😪☹

[@8BitNaptime]

@@null_carrier She was stunning.

[@mandrews1245]

Yes, I worked for CDC from 1969 - 1977. I wore my hair the same way. Interesting, we all used to comb and curl it ourselves. Never went to hairdressers.

[@4wheelwarrior]

WOW that is some amazing footage. That console is from a mystical realm, I swear ...

[@AP-zw6ql]

Always interesting to see something about Control Data. They had a large facility in my hometown and then they just sort of disappeared.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi A P, thanks for visiting our channel. Finding films with Control Data equipment is a challenge. Surprising, since they made some very powerful and innovative computers. ~ You said they were in your home town, what town was that? ~ Victor

[@peterw4338]

CD was still around in the early 1990s and they were doing rather good data comms training.

[@MinnesotaGuy822]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject In the 1970s Control Data's corporate headquarters was just east of what is now the Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb. There were operational facilities in Arden Hills and I believe, in Hopkins and some other places in the Minneapolis area. Later on, on a facility to warehouse & fulfill orders for service parts for CDC computers was built in St Paul, MN. In 1969, there was a facility in the Los Angeles, CA region. Undoubtedly, these are only a handful of Control Data facilities that existed at various times; they are just the ones I remember. Source: I was a kid in the 1970s whose dad worked for Control Data.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject A lot of CDC and Cray systems were used for highly classified programs etc… so unfortunately a lot of stuff never makes it out. No tapes etc..

[@captainkeyboard1007]

I watched this film because I am a computer user and a fan of computer technology.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Captain Keyboard, (nice name), glad you visited our channel. Hope you will enjoy some of our other vintage computer films as well. Welcome! ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@captainkeyboard1007]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Thank you, and Thank you! I was a hit typist who worked in several business offices, since I was a high school student. I am a keyboard specialist who does business productivity on a microcomputer with Microsoft Office 2019 to create a variety of documents and files for printing. I enjoy doing work with my Dell computer that makes accomplishing work, especially organizing information easier than doing work the old-fashioned way. Victor, I am grateful that you took your invaluable time to write to me.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FWIW: Norfolk, Virginia is mentioned in this film. When this was produced, I was a kid growing up in Florida. I now live in northeast North Carolina, not too far from Norfolk.

[@branetraveler]

In grad school in the early 70s I got time on a CDC 6600 because our univac 1108 wasn’t fast enough. The speed of the 6600 at the time was impressive for calculation based analysis such as pattern recognition and topographic analysis.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @branetraveler, yes, it was a fast one! I wonder what they charged for the CDC 6600 time? ~ VK

[@branetraveler]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProjectdon’t know it was covered by an Air Force grant. Also cool was the larger word length for greater accuracy and faster double precision operations. Long time ago, haha. We were analyzing multi spectral returns from an earth resources satellite to determine wheat blight in the Ukraine. That and topological recognition for the Defense Mapping Agency.

[@erpktiwari]

Excellent Ma'am

[@erpktiwari]

Please consider subscribing and sharing

[@VictorianMaid99]

I worked on this computer.

[@neillthornton1149]

OTSRs are still a thing today, and Fleet Numerical provides ships with recommended routes around the globe. Of course they have much more powerful computers and much more data to work from these days!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Neill, thank you! Yes, OTSR (Optimum Track Ship Routing) is good ticket to efficiency.

[@SallySallySallySally]

That sounds like Burl Ives doing the narration. Oh, I see now in the end credits that he did, indeed, do the narration. They misspelled his first name as "Berl."

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Sally...Sally, yes, and 5 lashes for the proofreader on that slide. ~ Thanks!

[@afnDavid]

03:55 and 02:02 ZCZCWN 093H 0211Z These weather report messages are still transmitted in 2022 using that same old formatting.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Fascinating! Thank you! ~

[@fiziwig]

Wow! I worked with one of those at Cal State Univ, Northridge (which at the time was called San Fernando Valley State College). That was a long, long time ago.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Very cool! That sounds like it was a very interesting experience. It was a massive machine, with a unique place in computer history. I wonder if the school would have any videos of the data center from back in that time. That would be awesome. Thanks for your comments and glad you found our channel! ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@PaulFurber]

4000 bits per minute = 500 bytes per minute. About eight bytes per second - ~7000 times as slow as the bits coming down the wire just so I can watch this video.

[@MikeF1189]

I thought the same thing, but even for this time, that's too slow. I think in this context, they are referring to 4000 bits, meaning pieces of information. Maybe 4000 weather reports per minute.

[@dalecomer5951]

Could have been 4000 weather observation data values per minute.

[@prismstudios001]

Burl Ives? “I told ya I`d shoot. Why didn’t you believe me?”

[@winstonsmith478]

I wonder how accurate the weather predictions were using old computer models and a machine far less powerful than a modern smart phone. It would be interesting to make a comparison somehow.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Excellent question! That would make a good study. ~

[@dalecomer5951]

They weren't running models on the system in the film. It's collecting and storing weather observation data from stations all over the world and image data from satellites. At that time U.S. Navy ships at sea reported weather observations. They used that data to quickly produce weather maps for meteorologists to use to make weather forecasts. Now the Navy relies mostly on satellite data. The weather models then would have been very primitive and not of much use for weather forecasting.

[@davidhaertzen6576]

Narrated by Burl Ives

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi David, absolutely right! : ) ~

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FYI, the narrator of that film was _"Burl_ [not Berl] _Ives._ I *thought* that is who it sounded like, so I waited for the 'credits' at the end. I looked him up on IMDb to make sure I was correct about the spelling. {SPELLING is one of the FEW THINGS I am usually GOOD at...😊}

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

You are still a very good speller! Thank you for spotting this. Yes, it is "Burl Ives" : )

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject >>> You're Welcome. BTW, _Thanks_ for posting this video...👍👍

[@jxh02]

Burl Ives!

[@don_n5skt]

It's one of my favorite Christmas movies . . . oh . . . wait.

[@ricksarvas6563]

Was that Lucky Severson doing the narration?

[@awesomusmaximus3766]

Sounds like a retro Tamiya ad

[@michaelturner4457]

Narrated by Berl Ives, who I usually associate with Christmas songs.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Michael, yes, it was a surprise to hear his voice on a film subject like this. His voice is so unmistakable. "May you have a Holly Jolly Tape Drive, this year." : ) VK

[@skamandrios]

I expected a reminiscence of the big blizzard that almost canceled Christmas.

[@GH-oi2jf]

Is that the same as Fleet Numerical Weather Central in Monterey? I knew someone who had worked there.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Good question, but we do not have a clear answer for you. It appears from Internet research there are numerous Naval related organizations involved with weather monitoring, communications, oceanographic research, etc., in various parts of the country and beyond. Perhaps contacting one of the agencies involved could help answer that question. The agency names sometimes change over the years. ~

[@GH-oi2jf]

In the audio I heard a reference to the “other weather centrals,” so I suppose this is one part of the network of systems.

[@frankowalker4662]

1:00 I thought he was going to say World Wide Web. LOL. And that chair in the photo at the end is hideous. :)

[@pnewman1112]

i would like to see some coverage of datapoint corporation

[@captainkeyboard1007]

That would be good.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

That is an excellent idea. We have this on our list of things to research. Datapoint had a fascinating history. There is a group interested in its history, at www.datapointremembered.org/ Hopefully, they will help pull some historical information together also.

[@dalecomer5951]

Enjoyed seeing the system operatoon in the film although the script was badly written and Burl Ives would never be my choice for narrator.

[@l27tester]

LOL