The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry hosted an event organised by the British Computer Conservation Society (CSS, www.computerconservationsociety.org). Retired in 2008, the software professional Dik Leatherdale, currently editor of CCS’s journal Resurrection, spoke about CDC (Control Data Corporation) 6600 (www.dikleatherdale.webspace.virginmedia.com) introduced in 1964, then delivered to CERN’s laboratory near Geneva in 1965. CDC 6600 was the first mainframe to achieve business success.

The machine was designed by the “father of supercomputing”, Seymour Cray (1925-1966), one of the legendary figures in IT history. After CERN, another CDC 6600 was delivered and put at work at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, part of the University of California (Berkeley).

The machine, which was built for 8 million US dollars now equivalent of 60 million US dollars, had a single central processing unit (CPU). Between 1964 and 1969, CDC 6600 was considered to be the world’s fastest computer: its 40 megahertz processor was able to perform more than 3 million floating-point operations per seconds (3 megaflops).