Mouse Systems Corporation (MSC), formerly Rodent Associates, was founded in 1982 by
Steve Kirsch.
The company was responsible for bringing the
mouse
A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
to the
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...
for the first time.
History
Mouse Systems' optical mouse, wired to a
Sun workstation and an
Atari 400 running ''
Missile Command'', attracted many observers at the October, 1982 Mini/Micro '82 conference in
Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...
, attended by over people—and won a "best new product" award.
In 1984, MSC acquired rights to Mouse Draw from Microtex Industries, written by Doug Wolfgram. Mouse Systems wanted the software re-developed to look more like
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's
MacPaint so Wolfgram brought in co-developer
John Bridges and together they re-wrote the program in C with an updated user interface and called it
PCPaint. Millions of copies were shipped, primarily bundled with all their mice until 1987.
KYE Systems, producer of the
Genius brand of mice, acquired Mouse Systems in 1990.
Technical details
Like all early optical mice, their debut product relied on a special metallic and reflective
mousepad printed with a square grid of grey and blue tracking lines: as the device moved over the pad, light emitted by an
LED was reflected by the pad onto an array of sensors whose output was processed by an on-board
controller, which in turn supplied the host computer with machine-readable tracking data via an
RS-232 serial port. When connected to a regular RS-232 port, an external
power supply
A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, electric current, current, and frequency to power ...
was required. Some mice would derive their power supply from the keyboard connector on the motherboard and came with a pass-through connector to be inserted before the keyboard cable.
Early Sun workstations used MSC optical mice exclusively. The mouse was connected via a dedicated connector with power, obviating the need for a separate power supply for the mouse. Initial models came with large mousepads with well-spaced lines, while later models were smaller and used a much tighter grid.
See also
*
Mouse Systems ProAgio
*
Optical mouse
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
1990 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1982
American companies disestablished in 1990
Computer companies established in 1982
Computer companies disestablished in 1990
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
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