The Computer Research Corporation (CRC) was an early developer of
minicomputer
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...
s. It was founded on July 16, 1950.
[Reilly 2003, p. 164.]
The founding owners of CRC were
Floyd Steele
Floyd George Steele (June 28, 1918 – September 23, 1995) was an American physicist, engineer, and computer designer who grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He is known for leading the design team at Northrup that developed the MADIDDA, an early digi ...
, Donald Eckdahl, Hrant (Harold) Sarkinssian, Richard Sprague, and
Irving S. Reed.
With the exception of Reed, all members of the CRC had been on the design team for the
MADDIDA
The MADDIDA (Magnetic Drum Digital Differential Analyzer) was a special-purpose digital computer used for solving systems of ordinary differential equations. It was the first computer to represent bits using voltage levels and whose entire logi ...
, a special-purpose digital computer developed from 1946 to 1949 for
Northrop.
Realizing that a
problem-oriented language (POL) could be used to make a general-purpose computer function as a
differential analyzer, the MADDIDA design team left Northrup in 1950 to focus on designing general-purpose computers, leading to them to found the CRC.
After developing the
Cadac, an early minicomputer, the CRC was sold to
National Cash Register (NCR) in February 1953, launching NCR into the digital computing business.
Notes
References
*Reilly, Edwin D. (2003). ''Milestones in Computer and Science History''. Greenwood Publishing Group.
American companies established in 1950
American companies disestablished in 1953
Computer companies established in 1950
Computer companies disestablished in 1953
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
NCR Corporation
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