On today’s On This Day from TEST Huddle.
1959 – CDC Model 1604 is released
In the United States, the Control Data Corporation (CDC) releases the model 1604 computer. The machine is a 8-bit computer with 32K 48-bit words of magnetic core memory with a cycle time of 6.4 microseconds organized into two banks of 16K words each. Each 48-bit word contains two 24-bit instructions: 6 bits for its operation code, 3 bits for a “designator” (access or jump instructions), and 15 bits for a memory address. At the time of manufacture, the machine is is the most powerful computer on the market. It is designed by electrical engineer Seymour Cray, who will later go on to found Cray Research and be dubbed “the father of supercomputing.” The main body of each computer weighs one ton with its console weighing another half ton. The machines quickly went into use managing fleet operations or missile control for a number of different countries.
