Control Data Corp has unveiled two new models at the very top of its Cyber line of 64-bit mainframes. The new Cyber 992 and 994 succeed the 990E and 995E and are direct descendents of the CDC 6600-7600-Cyber 76 machines. The new models have maximum main memory doubled to 256Mb, and input-output capacity is also doubled by means of more and faster channels; the input-output subsystems are also air-cooled on the new machines where they were water-cooled on current ones. Enhancements to the operating system and the Fortran compiler are claimed to improve performance by between 10% and 20%, and cost-of-ownership – sale price plus maintenance costs, is claimed to be down by 40%. Both machines come in single and dual processor models, and the Minneapolis company claims that each is about 30% cheaper than the IBM 3090 models of comparable components. Deliveries begin in August and the single-processor 992 starts at $1.9m, a dual 994 $3.3m.
