Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems was a computer company started in 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard-Bell and Bendix. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon transistors. The company concentrated on larger scientific workload focused machines and sold many machines to NASA during the Space Race. Most machines were both fast and relatively low priced. The company was sold to Xerox in 1969, but mismanagement and dwindling sales (in part due to the end of the Space Race) caused Xerox to close the division in 1975 at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Scientific Data Systems was one of the eight major computer companies (with IBM - the largest, Burroughs, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC) through most of the 1960s.
Some successful SDS machines:
- 910 and 920 - early 24 bit scientific machines
- 940 - 24 bit timesharing machine, similar in application to the PDP-10. Used by Tymshare.
- Sigma 7 - 32 bit high-end scientific machine. Used by NASA for Apollo.
In 1979 Jack Mitchell and Henry Harold, former SDS engineers, along with some other ex-SDS people re-started the company along with some funding from Max Palevsky. They introduced a microprocessor based computer called the SDS 420. It was based upon a 6502 based processor and had up to 256KB of memory and a proprietery OS and the BASIC language. The 420 Series had little to do with scientific computing and more with word processing and business services. The second incarnation failed and SDS was out of business in 1984.
External links
- http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/profess/SDSigma7.htm (much SDS technical info)