Watson Jr. memo about CDC 6600 (1963)
In 1963, IBM CEO Thomas Watson Jr. penned a famous memo questioning how a tiny team at Control Data Corporation beat IBM to supercomputing leadership with the CDC 6600.
summary is enough The archival memo is brief, but the discussion provides fascinating historical context on Seymour Cray's engineering philosophy.
summary
Thomas Watson Jr.'s 1963 Janitor Memo expressed dismay that Control Data Corporation, with a tiny staff, managed to eclipse IBM's supercomputing leadership with the CDC 6600. Seymour Cray famously quipped that Watson had answered his own question regarding the bloated nature of big companies. Commenters explore Cray's philosophy of small, multidisciplinary teams and CDC's eventual decline.
key points
- Watson's memo questioned how a competitor with 34 people could out-engineer IBM.
- Seymour Cray believed complex computers should be built by teams of about 12 people representing core disciplines.
- While the CDC 6600 damaged IBM's prestige, it barely dented their overall sales.
who should read it
Computer history enthusiasts and engineering leaders interested in organizational dynamics.
discussion positive
consensus
Commenters appreciate the articulate prose of historical memos and dive into Seymour Cray's legendary approach to small team engineering.
pushback
Some note that CDC ultimately collapsed decades later due to architectural missteps, despite early technical triumphs.
"You need a little bit of logic... and programmer here and there"
--
"So, let me tell you a little bit, a few of the problems, that ah, and the solutions that I see in building large computers. First of all... I think that building large computers should be done with the fewest possible people. One is perfect, but you can't quite work with one. So.. the next best thing is about 12."
"The reason you need 12 is you kind of need one person from each of the disciplines that are necessary. You need a mechanical engineer to build the box that it'll go in. You need an electrical engineer to put …
It shares Seymour Cray's detailed breakdown of why large computers should be built by teams of around 12 people.
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