The college I was at in the late 70s had a CDC 6600 which I learned FORTRAN. With around 100+ sold, I wonder if that was donated to the school from a company that upgraded their system ? While still at school it was replaced by a CDC 7600.
To me, the system ran very well.
Sad to see all those computer companies disappear over the years, I think there may be only 3 or 4 left making big iron.
I might have gone to the same college, in the 80s. I was a TA helping students punch FORTRAN on cards - already pretty obsolescent.
One thing about the CDC - it had perhaps the worst command interface I've run into. Data files were modeled as tapes, and you had to keep rewinding them.
Compiling a program appended to the object file, but running ran the start of the file, so you needed to rewind between, lest you run an old version. Much time lost trying to figure out why changes were ineffective.
FORTRAN variables had 8 significant characters, but the linker had only seven, so it was possible to get unintentional aliases.
University of Arizona? I remember their antediluvian Cyber in 1984 and helping my roommates punch Fortran on cards. I at least got to use a VAX 11/750.
To me, the system ran very well.
Sad to see all those computer companies disappear over the years, I think there may be only 3 or 4 left making big iron.