ORGANIZATION: System Development Corporation
ACTIVE DATES: 1956-
ADDRESS: Santa Monica, CA
E-MAIL:
PERSONS INVOLVED: Harold Borko; Carlos A. Cuadra; James L. Dolby; Lauren Doyle; Herbert M. Ohlman
MAJOR PROJECTS:
OTHER INFORMATION: SDC grew out of the Rand Corp.'s System Research Laboratory (a USAF think-tank) and an MIT Lincoln Labs project - SAGE(Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), an air defense system. SAGE was the "first computer-based, real-time, online, manmachine system;" and "it revolutionized the information industry by spanning the prehistoric computer era of serial batch processing and the modern world of interactive systems;" (The System Builders, p.20)

The "convergence of the two projects came when the Rand Corporation agreed to provide the software programming for SAGE in 1955; Starting with only five Rand programmers, the SAGE project and staff grew quickly and soon totaled more people than the RAND Corporation itself; 1955 - project became the independent System Development Division; 1956 - it's role, size and future prospects as a systems designer conflicted with Rand's charter as a researcher for the USAF; 1956 - new, non-profit corp. formed - SDC; 1981 - became an independent Burroughs Corporation subsidiary.

SOURCE:

PAPERS AT:
LOCATION
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Babbage Institute
PAPERS DATES: 1946 - 1982
SIZE: 23 cubic feet
INCLUDES: Contains the records of the SDC, including a history file with information about the RAND Corporation, the System Development Division, and the SDC; Also contains correspondence, meetings and minutes, symposiums and presentations, poduct literature, technical iterature, reports, and a subject file; unpublished inventory available from the repository; Forms part of the Burroughs Corporations Records.
SOURCE: RLIN



PAPERS AT:
LOCATION #2
Stanford University, Department of Special Collections.
PAPERS DATES: 1957 - 1993
SIZE: 170 linear feet
INCLUDES: Found in the System Development Foundation records; SDF was created in 1969 as a non-profit funding organization during the transition of the SDC to for-profit status; contains research files and project reports, which are arranged by grant number; there is an index at the end of the guide arranged by recipient, institution, and subject of project.
SOURCE: RLIN



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Page updated 14 January 1998