Periphere Computer Systeme (PCS) was founded in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

by the brothers Georg and Eberhard Färber in 1969. In the 1980s and 1990s it was a manufacturer of a line of

UNIX Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

-based workstations called "". Their flavor of

System V Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...

was called ; it was the first port of

performed in Germany. They also developed a networking protocol that was based on the Newcastle Connection ("UNIXes of the World Unite!") and dubbed MUNIX/net, at the time competing with

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

' NFS. In addition to UNIX computers, PCS also manufactured industrial terminals. In 1985, PCS founded a US daughter company named ''Cadmus Computer Systems'' to distribute the workstations in the US. Eventually, PCS was bought out by Mannesmann-Kienzle, which in turn was bought out by

Ken Olsen Kenneth Harry Olsen (February 20, 1926 – February 6, 2011) was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson and his brother Stan Olsen. Background Kenneth Harry Olsen was bor ...

to become part of DEC,

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...

. The main driver for the buyouts was a client/server ERP product developed by a dynamic young team at Mannesmann Kienzle Software, competing with

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

R/3. Ken Olson had planned to diversify the corporation, but was ousted by shareholders who did not share his vision of no longer relying on the more and more commoditized computer systems sale and rather jump on the ERP bandwagon early on. One of the reasons for naming DECs last line of CPUs (AlphaAXP) was that they were intended to be sold as the Alpha and the Omega (codename for the ERP system). As a result, Digital-Kienzle, including its PCS subsidiary, entered into a staff buy-out of the company, in part sponsored by some of the German states. The timing of this decision pulled the financial bottom out of the whole setup in terms of the ERP system that was just getting a decent foothold in the market. As a result, there is not much left to be said or heard about said ERP system. In the late 1980s, whenever Mannesmann-Kienzle's representatives were speaking at conferences prior to SAP's presenters, SAP during Q&A usually had to state that they were planning to be in their development of R/3 where the "Omega"-team already had arrived at. One of the more prominent figures of the former PCS might be

Jürgen Gulbins Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Notable people named Jürgen include: A *Jürgen Ahrend (1930–2024), German organ builder *Jürgen Alzen (born 1962), German race car drive ...

, who authored several books on Unix and related tools, as well as

Jordan Hubbard Jordan K. Hubbard (born April 8, 1963) is an open source software developer, authoring software such as the Ardent Window Manager and various other open source tools and libraries before co-founding the FreeBSD project with Nate Williams and Rod ...

, who spent several years at PCS (in the X11 group) before departing for Ireland, where he co-founded the

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

project.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=The History of PCS , publisher= PCS Systemtechnik GmbH , url=https://www.pcs.com/en/company/history/the-history-of-pcs/ , access-date=2016-08-17 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817071032/https://www.pcs.com/en/company/history/the-history-of-pcs/ , archive-date=2016-08-17 {{cite web , title=Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Färber - Wissenschaftliche Arbeit , publisher=

Technische Universität München The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

(TUM) , work=emeriti-of-excellence , url=http://www.emeriti-of-excellence.tum.de/tumemeritiofexcellencea-z/georg-faerber/ , language=de , access-date=2016-08-16 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816183709/http://www.emeriti-of-excellence.tum.de/tumemeritiofexcellencea-z/georg-faerber/ , archive-date=2016-08-16 {{cite web , author=PI , title=Source-Lizenz trägt Früchte: Munix ist Unix aus München , publisher=

computerwoche ''Computerwoche'' (''Computer Week'') is a German weekly newspaper for CIOs and IT managers. The German counterpart of the American magazine ''Computerworld'', it has been on the market since 1974 and is mainly sold by subscription. The newspap ...

, date=1983-01-14 , language=de , url=http://www.computerwoche.de/a/source-lizenz-traegt-fruechte-munix-ist-unix-aus-muenchen,1177403 , access-date=2016-08-17 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817071657/http://www.computerwoche.de/a/source-lizenz-traegt-fruechte-munix-ist-unix-aus-muenchen,1177403 , archive-date=2016-08-17 {{cite journal , title=The Newcastle Connection , author-last1=Brownbridge , author-first1=David R. , author-last2=Marshall , author-first2=Lindsay F. , author-last3=Randell , author-first3=Brian , author-link3=Brian Randell , journal=Software: Practice and Experience , volume=12 , date=1982 , doi=10.1002/spe.4380121206 , pages=1147–1162 , url=http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/articles/papers/399.pdf , access-date=2016-08-16 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816184205/http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/articles/papers/399.pdf , archive-date=2016-08-16 {{cite book , author-last=Callaghan , author-first=Brent , title=NFS Illustrated , publisher=

Addison Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...

, date=2000 , isbn=0-201-32570-5 {{cite journal , title=Cadmus jetzt mit Kulisch-Arithmetik - Uni Karlsruhe gibt Pascal-Compiler nach München , trans-title=Cadmus now comes with Kulisch arithmetic - University Karlsruhe delivers Pascal compiler to Munich , author=PI , date=1986-08-29 , journal=

Computerwoche ''Computerwoche'' (''Computer Week'') is a German weekly newspaper for CIOs and IT managers. The German counterpart of the American magazine ''Computerworld'', it has been on the market since 1974 and is mainly sold by subscription. The newspap ...

, publisher=

IDG Business Media GmbH International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is an American market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketin ...

, language=de , location=Munich / Karlsruhe, Germany , url=http://www.computerwoche.de/a/uni-karlsruhe-gibt-pascal-compiler-nach-muenchen-cadmus-jetzt-mit-kulisch-arithmetik,1165749 , access-date=2016-05-30 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530220339/http://www.computerwoche.de/a/uni-karlsruhe-gibt-pascal-compiler-nach-muenchen-cadmus-jetzt-mit-kulisch-arithmetik,1165749 , archive-date=2016-05-30 Defunct computer companies of Germany

See also

References