Cyber 170

In 1975, Control Data Canada sold a $1 million Cyber 170 system to Spain for use in agrarian research.

The Cyber 170 had one (or two) CPUs running at either 25 or 40 MHz and the memory operated in units of 60-bit words. A Control Data byte was 12 bits (same as the bit width of the peripherals), a character was 6 bits, the CPU instructions were either 15 or 30 bits. The memory addressing was 18 bits which results in a maximum of 256K words of addressable memory. The CPU was incapable of input or output and relied on Peripheral Processors to do any IO - the CDC170 could be configured with 10, 14, 17 or 20 of these processors.

In the photo is Irene Lazaro of the Spanish Tourism office, Layton Kinney (president of Control Data) and Harold Fishleigh, honorary vice-consul for Spain.

Photo courtesy of Toronto Public Library.