CDC 8600 Prototype
Notes:
The 8600 proposed in 1968 was targeted to have 4 processors, an 8 nanosecond clock, and built from discrete circuits. As the team tried to solve the problems of heat and speed, CDC was building its STAR under Jim Thornton, and fighting IBM in court. Budgets were tight.
At this point, the CDC bureaucracy took over with budget cutting. This left Cray no choice except to leave and form Cray Research. Norris was supportive and CDC invested $250K.
It would be interesting to know whether the 8600 architecture resembled the Cray 1 architecture.