Applied Logic Corporation (AL/COM) was a

time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...

company in the 1960s and 70s. Headquartered in

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, AL/COM started in 1962 working on "mathematical techniques and their applications to problem-solving." Seeing the need for in-house time sharing the company bought a

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 ...

(DEC)

PDP-6 The PDP-6, short for Programmed Data Processor model 6, is a computer developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) during 1963 and first delivered in the summer of 1964. It was an expansion of DEC's existing 18-bit systems to use a 36-bit da ...

and developed its time sharing service, which came on-line in 1966. In 1968 the company began development of "Mathematics Park" in

Montgomery Township, New Jersey Montgomery Township is a township in southern Somerset County, in the central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located in the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,690, an ...

, "designed to provide tenants with a computer-serviced and mathematically-oriented environment," adjacent to the Princeton Airport. Also in 1968 the company registered ''AL/COM'' as a trademark for its service. The system involved both custom software and custom hardware, and the service was marketed nationally by a network of associates. In the late 1960s, the company developed a system called SAM (Semi-Automated Mathematics) for proving mathematical theories without human intervention. A theorem proved by the system, "SAM's lemma", was "widely hailed as the first contribution of automated reasoning systems to mathematics." The SAM series was one of the first interactive theorem provers and had an influence on subsequent theorem provers. In 1965 Applied logic acquired a DEC

computer system, which became operation in January 1966. By 1969 the company had four DEC

PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...

dual systems with plans for a fifth, and had expanded nationwide with offices in San Jose,

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The company also planned to market its time sharing systems in addition to providing services. The company reported sales of $1,200,995, with an operational loss of $63,456. By 1972 AL/COM had local dial-up facilities in ten cities: Boston, Massachusetts, Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Montclair, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Princeton, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Wilmington, Delaware. The computer center was located in ''Mathematics Park'' in Princeton. By late 1969 AL/COM had definite plans for CIT Leasing to

leaseback Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done fo ...

$2.73 million USD of their equipment at Mathematics Park and was considering an additional $7.5 million more. By 1970 the company was in financial difficulty and negotiated an agreement to defer $1,300,000 of debt. Applied Logic filed for Chapter XI

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

in 1975.

References

External links

A woman adjusting an Applied Logic Corporation (AL/COM) time sharing AL-10 computer system
(photo at Getty Images)
CRT-AIDED SEMI-AUTOMATED MATHEMATICS
SAM Final Report
Applied Logic Publications at Bitsavers

Photos of computer room and staff
American companies established in 1962 American companies disestablished in 1975 Companies based in Princeton, New Jersey Computer companies established in 1962 Computer companies disestablished in 1975 Defunct companies based in New Jersey Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Time-sharing companies {{Compu-company-stub