Computer Usage Company
Encyclopedia
Computer Usage Company sometimes called Computer Usage Corporation, was the first independent company to market computer software
.
, and planned to offer services to help develop computer programs. The initial investment of US$40,000 supported the founders and a staff of five.
Although the term software had been coined earlier as a prank, it did not appear in print until later. Before this time, software was developed either by the users of the computers, or the few commercial computer vendors of the time. CUC is generally considered the first company to develop software independently.
CUC's first project was a program written for California Research Corporation to simulate the flow of oil.
The first offices were located in New York
city. On October 3, 1955 Computer Usage Company, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware
. George R. Trimble, Jr. became Corporate Technical Director in February 1956 after work on the IBM 650
. Trimble headed a project to computerize the air traffic control
system of the Federal Aviation Administration
. This work was done at the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center
in New Jersey
.
In 1959 an office in Washington, DC was opened, since CUC had business with the US Navy.
In April 1960 the company had an Initial Public Offering
of stock shares, and grew to three managers, 37 mathematicians, 6 physicists, and 3 engineers.
Later in 1960 CUC established a division to sell computer time and in Spring 1961 opened an office in Los Angeles
.
Cuthbert Hurd
joined the company as chairman in 1962, a former division director from IBM.
The FAA was planning to use the IBM 9020
model of the new IBM System/360, so contracted with CUC to develop a compiler for the JOVIAL
computer language. The compiler was first developed on a simulator using the IBM 7030
before actual hardware was available.
In early 1964, CUC developed software used by CBS
Television to track the election results. Sheldon left later in 1964.
Another major contract was to implement part of IBM's first time-sharing
system, TSS/360
. CUC was asked to manage the TSS project, as it was seen as losing ground to competitors in time-sharing. Realizing that performance would never meet expectations, CUC declined.
In 1965 the Computer Usage Education subsidiary was formed, headed by Ascher Opler, which published software books and offered courses. One of its best sellers was on Programming the IBM system/360.
Carl H. Reynolds joined as President of the new Computer Usage Development Company subsidiary in 1966. Reynolds had been director of programming for the Data Systems Division of IBM during the development of the System/360.
By 1967 CUC had a staff of over 700 people in 12 offices and revenues over $13 million. An office in Dallas, Texas
was established to work on a contract with Texas Instruments
to develop software including an operating system
and a FORTRAN
compiler for the TI Advanced Scientific Computer. During that time, the company's vice president was H. Dean Brown
.
Kubie and Reynolds left in July 1968 and the company changed direction under new president Charles Benton, Jr. from IBM's Federal Systems Division.
Benton hired sales people instead of technical people, and contracts did not keep up with overhead.
CUC declared its first loss as a public company in 1969. Other competitors such as Computer Sciences Corporation
were now larger. Sears announced they were in discussions for an acquisition, but talks fell through.
By early 1970 Benton resigned and Hurd stepped in as president, although he lived in California
. Other potential mergers were discussed, including Ross Perot
who by now had founded his own service business Electronic Data Systems
.
CUC negotiated a contract to manage computer facilities at the Firemans Fund Insurance Company, which restored profitability for a time.
Hurd left in 1974. Victor Bartoletti became president, but died in 1984 and George C. Strohl from Bank of America
became president. However, losses continued to mount as the computer business was now very different from the field dominated by IBM 30 years earlier. By 1985, CUC lost $2.4 million on revenues of only $1.5 million.
In 1986 CUC declared bankruptcy
and was liquidated in what is known as Chapter 7
.
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
.
History
Computer Usage Company (CUC) was founded in March 1955 by Elmer C. Kubie (1926–2004) and John W. Sheldon. They had formerly worked together at IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, and planned to offer services to help develop computer programs. The initial investment of US$40,000 supported the founders and a staff of five.
Although the term software had been coined earlier as a prank, it did not appear in print until later. Before this time, software was developed either by the users of the computers, or the few commercial computer vendors of the time. CUC is generally considered the first company to develop software independently.
CUC's first project was a program written for California Research Corporation to simulate the flow of oil.
The first offices were located in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
city. On October 3, 1955 Computer Usage Company, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
. George R. Trimble, Jr. became Corporate Technical Director in February 1956 after work on the IBM 650
IBM 650
The IBM 650 was one of IBM’s early computers, and the world’s first mass-produced computer. It was announced in 1953, and over 2000 systems were produced between the first shipment in 1954 and its final manufacture in 1962...
. Trimble headed a project to computerize the air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
system of the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
. This work was done at the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center
National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center
The National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center was founded July 1,1958 by the Airways Modernization Board near Atlantic City, New Jersey. On November 1, 1959, after passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, it came under the newly created US Federal Aviation Agency...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
In 1959 an office in Washington, DC was opened, since CUC had business with the US Navy.
In April 1960 the company had an Initial Public Offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
of stock shares, and grew to three managers, 37 mathematicians, 6 physicists, and 3 engineers.
Later in 1960 CUC established a division to sell computer time and in Spring 1961 opened an office in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Cuthbert Hurd
Cuthbert Hurd
Cuthbert Corwin Hurd was an American computer scientist and entrepreneur, who was instrumental in helping the International Business Machines Corporation develop its first general-purpose computers.-Life:...
joined the company as chairman in 1962, a former division director from IBM.
The FAA was planning to use the IBM 9020
IBM 9020
The IBM 9020 refers to IBM System/360-family computers adapted into a multiprocessor system for use by the U.S. FAA for en route Air Traffic Control in its 20 Air Route Traffic Control Centers beginning in the late 1960s...
model of the new IBM System/360, so contracted with CUC to develop a compiler for the JOVIAL
JOVIAL
JOVIAL is a high-order computer programming language similar to ALGOL, but specialized for the development of embedded systems .JOVIAL is an acronym for "Jules Own Version of the International...
computer language. The compiler was first developed on a simulator using the IBM 7030
IBM 7030
The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. The first one was delivered to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1961....
before actual hardware was available.
In early 1964, CUC developed software used by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Television to track the election results. Sheldon left later in 1964.
Another major contract was to implement part of IBM's first time-sharing
Time-sharing
Time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major technological shift in the history of computing.By allowing a large...
system, TSS/360
TSS/360
The IBM Time Sharing System TSS/360 was an early time-sharing operating system designed exclusively for a special model of the System/360 line of mainframes, the Model 67. Made available on a trial basis to a limited set of customers in 1967, it was never officially released as a supported product...
. CUC was asked to manage the TSS project, as it was seen as losing ground to competitors in time-sharing. Realizing that performance would never meet expectations, CUC declined.
In 1965 the Computer Usage Education subsidiary was formed, headed by Ascher Opler, which published software books and offered courses. One of its best sellers was on Programming the IBM system/360.
Carl H. Reynolds joined as President of the new Computer Usage Development Company subsidiary in 1966. Reynolds had been director of programming for the Data Systems Division of IBM during the development of the System/360.
By 1967 CUC had a staff of over 700 people in 12 offices and revenues over $13 million. An office in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
was established to work on a contract with Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
to develop software including an operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and a FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
compiler for the TI Advanced Scientific Computer. During that time, the company's vice president was H. Dean Brown
H. Dean Brown
Harold Dean Brown was a scientist in the United States. His fields ranged from physics and mathematics to computer software and philosophy.-Biography:Harold Dean Brown was born in North Dakota on August 13, 1927....
.
Kubie and Reynolds left in July 1968 and the company changed direction under new president Charles Benton, Jr. from IBM's Federal Systems Division.
Benton hired sales people instead of technical people, and contracts did not keep up with overhead.
CUC declared its first loss as a public company in 1969. Other competitors such as Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation is an American information technology and business services company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, USA...
were now larger. Sears announced they were in discussions for an acquisition, but talks fell through.
By early 1970 Benton resigned and Hurd stepped in as president, although he lived in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Other potential mergers were discussed, including Ross Perot
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot is a U.S. businessman best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988...
who by now had founded his own service business Electronic Data Systems
Electronic Data Systems
HP Enterprise Services is the global business and technology services division of Hewlett Packard's HP Enterprise Business strategic business unit. It was formed by the combination of HP's legacy services consulting and outsourcing business and the integration of acquired Electronic Data Systems,...
.
CUC negotiated a contract to manage computer facilities at the Firemans Fund Insurance Company, which restored profitability for a time.
Hurd left in 1974. Victor Bartoletti became president, but died in 1984 and George C. Strohl from Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
became president. However, losses continued to mount as the computer business was now very different from the field dominated by IBM 30 years earlier. By 1985, CUC lost $2.4 million on revenues of only $1.5 million.
In 1986 CUC declared bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
and was liquidated in what is known as Chapter 7
Chapter 7, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 7 of the Title 11 of the United States Code governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States...
.