Control Data 160

[Chuck Guzis]

On 09/08/2015 07:35 PM, Billy Pettit wrote:

>
> Which would make it even more scarce.  There were only a little over
> a 100 of the 160 models made.  And 40+ of them were rebranded as NCR
> machines.
>
> There were 495 160-As made officially.  (There were also a small
> number shipped without serial numbers to the good people at
> Langley.)
>
> I know of at least 5x 160-As still in existence, besides my own.
> Which should be going to a museum this week if they can sort out
> shipping glitches.  My system includes a 161-A Typewriter in lousy
> shape and a 167-2 Card Reader in perfect shape.  Plus all manuals,
> software (with listings) and spare parts.  Even the paper tape
> rewinder!
>
> I did not know any 160 machines survived, so who ever bought it has a
> unique item.

Well, I'm not much of a collector, so I don't know about values of old 
gear too much.  I do recall seeing a 160A and a 1604 on the machine 
floor at SVLOPS sometime during the mid 70s, however.  Since that's what 
the CEs at the time were doing a lot of, I suspect they were there for 
demolition.  I wonder if they were from FNWC or the Naval PG school in 
Monterey.

Really shows CDC's "scorched earth" policy during the 1970s, after it 
was discovered that some "customers" were purchasing parts on the scrap 
market.

Wonder what it was worth?  Probably about the same $0.60 per pound 
(IIRC) that the scrapped STAR-65 brought after it came back from Canada...

Now *that* or even a 1B would be rare indeed.

--CHuck