International Computers Ltd, or
ICL, was a large British
computer hardware,
computer software and
computer services company that operated
from 1968 until 2002 when it was renamed
Fujitsu Services Limited after its parent
company,
Fujitsu. The company's most
successful product line was the
ICL 2900
Series range of mainframe computers.
In later years, ICL attempted to diversify its product line but the
bulk of its profits always depended on the mainframe customer base.
New ventures included marketing a range of powerful IBM clones made
by Fujitsu, various minicomputer and personal computer ranges and
(more successfully) a range of retail point-of-sale equipment and
back-office software.
Despite significant sales in overseas markets, ICL was always
dependent on large contracts from the UK public sector. Significant
customers included
Post Office Ltd,
the
Inland Revenue, the
Department for Work and
Pensions and the
Ministry of Defence.
ICL also had a strong market share with UK local authorities and
(at that time) nationalizedutilities including the water,
electricity, and gas boards, and the Post Office. This presence
continued when the utilities were privatized by the
Thatcher government.
Vacant former ICL offices at
Amsinckstraße 45, Hamburg, Germany
Origins of ICL
International Computers Ltd was formed in 1968 as a part of the
Industrial Expansion Act of the
Wilson
Labour Government. ICL was an
initiative of
Tony Benn, the Minister of
Technology, to create a British computer industry that could
compete with major world manufacturers like
IBM.
ICL represented the last step in a series of mergers that had taken
place in the industry since the late 1950s.
The main portions of ICL were formed by merging
International Computers
and Tabulators (ICT) with
English Electric Computers, the
latter itself a recent merger of
Elliott Automation with English Electric
Leo Marconi computers. EELM was itself a merger of the computer
divisions of
English Electric,
LEO and
Marconi.
On its formation the company inherited two main product lines: from
ICT the
ICT 1900 Series of
mainframes, and from English Electric
Computers (EEC) the
System
4, a range of
IBM
System/360-compatible mainframe clones, based on the
RCA Spectra 70.
When the companies were first merged the EEC order books were full
to over-bursting, while ICT, who had twice as many employees were
struggling, probably because it was already obvious that the 1900
series was incompatible with the rest of the industry, being a 6
bit architecture. rather than the normal 8 (or 9 in the case of
Honeywell). The new board decided that the 1900 should be phased
out in favour of the System 4, but shortly afterwards reversed the
decision. It is probable that this was due to union and political
pressure from the Wilson government. In any event, most of the
original EEC board resigned over the interference as they believed
that the 1900 series was doomed from the outset, being incompatible
with the rest of the market place. ICL initially thrived, but
relied almost wholly on supplying the UK public sector with
computers. The 1900s were sold in several countries worldwide, but
the largest slice of the market was always in the UK, and the
largest part of that in government, local authorities, and
nationalised industries.
International Computers and Tabulators (ICT)
ICT was
itself the result of a merger of two UK
companies
that had competed with each other throughout the 1930s and 1940s
during the punch card era: British Tabulating Machine
Company (BTM) and Powers-Samas. ICT had thus emerged with
equipment that would process data encoded on punched cards - 40, 80
or 160 column cards in the case of ICT, compared to the 64 or 80
column cards used by IBM and its predecessors.
In 1962 ICT delivered the first ICT 1300 series computer which was
its first transistor machine and also the first to use core
memory.
In 1964 ICT purchased the computer division of
Ferranti in another government-forced merger.
Ferranti had been building a small number of scientific machines
based on various university designs since the 1950s. None of these
could be considered commercially successful, however, and Ferranti
always seemed to be slow bringing its designs to market.
In 1962 a small team from Ferranti's Canadian subsidiary,
Ferranti-Packard, visited the various
Ferranti computer labs and saw their work on a next-generation
machine. On their return home they produced the
Ferranti-Packard 6000 in an
astonishingly short period of time, developing the machine,
compilers and an
operating system (before these were common)
and putting it on the market by 1963. A feature of the Executive
operating system was its ability to multi task, using dynamic
memory allocation enabled with a magnetic drum as an intermediate
random access device. The machine went on to have some success and
sold in small numbers in Canada (Saskatchewan Power Corporation
retired serial number 0001 in the early 1980s) and the United
States.
Meanwhile ICT management in England was looking to rejuvenate their
lineup; their latest developments, the ones used to develop the FP
6000, were still not on the market. Management looked at the FP
6000 as well as licensing the
RCA Spectra
70, an
IBM System/360-clone. In
the end it was decided to go with the FP 6000 as the basis for a
small line of small-to-midrange machines. The result was the
ICT 1900 series, which would eventually go
on to sell into the thousands.
The 1900 Series, which derived from the Canadian
Ferranti-Packard 6000, competed
successfully in the UK with the
IBM System/360 range from the mid 1960s to the mid
1970s. The basic design was based on a 24 bit word, divided up into
6 bit characters. Lower case and control characters were provided
for by "shift" characters. The early machines (1904/1905 with
hardware floating point)) were only 15 bit addressing. Later
machines (1904E, 1905E, 1906A) had extended addressing modes up to
22 bits.The operating systems (Executives) were
- E4BM - the original for the FP 6000 (known internally as the
FP1)
- E4RM - a significantly rewritten version of E4BM, with parts of
the operating system overlaid to save space.
- E6BM - A rewritten version of E4BM for the later machines with
22 bit addressing.
- E6RM - A rewritten version of E4RM overlay software for the
later machines with 22 bit addressing.
A later development was
GEORGE3, remembered with great
affection by a generation of British programmers.
A series of smaller machines were developed by the ICL Stevenage
operation, consisting initially of the 1901 / 1902 / 1903 systems
running E3 series executives (e.g. E3RM) and versions of the GEORGE
operating system (initially GEORGE1). Later developments were the
1901A / 1902A / 1903A with their own Executives and GEORGE2.
At a time (in the 1960s and 1970s) when IBM/360 series programs had
to be recompiled to run in different machine and/or operating
system environments, one significant feature of the 1900 series was
that programs would function unaltered on any 1900 system, i.e.
without the need for recompilation. Unfortunately ICT, and later
ICL, was unable to capitalise on this major advantage to make
significant inroads into IBM's customer base.
English Electric LEO Marconi (EELM)
During the same period of time, LEO was struggling to produce its
own machines that would be able to compete with IBM. Its parent
company,
J. Lyons and Co., simply didn't have the
financial might to develop a new line of machines. Not wanting to
see its work go to waste, it sold its computer division to
English Electric.
English Electric had developed a series of machines over the years,
notably the famous
KDF9 and
the commercially-oriented
KDF8, but never had
much commercial success.
Now with serious financial backing at its disposal, the new company
nevertheless decided not to come up with its own design, and
instead licensed the
RCA Spectra 70 (the design
ICT rejected). The result was the
System 4 series. While there were a number
of models in the range, the smaller 4/10 and 4/30 were seen as
underpowered, and the more successful variants were the larger 4/50
and 4/70 models. A model 4/75 was also supplied to the EELM (later
Baric) Bureau subsidiary and installed at Winsford, Cheshire as the
hardware for a bureau-developed commercial system for interactive
use by bureau customers. Although several multi-user commercial
packages (e.g. sales and purchase ledger systems) were developed
and trialed with customers, this was not commercially successful,
and the service was soon withdrawn.
The System 4 series ran the J (for Job) operating system. This was
a batch operating system, although there was a variant that allowed
interactive access called MultiJob. Programming languages used were
assembler and
COBOL and
Fortran (an Algol 60 compiler was provided but not
used much, if at all). The system was controlled from a console
composed of a mechanical printer and keyboard – very like a
Teletype. The assembly language (known as Usercode) non-privileged
instruction set was identical to IBM System 360 Assembly Language;
in privileged mode there were a few extras.
System 4's
compatibility with the IBM 360 made it particularly attractive to
customers in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet
Union
, as the sale and installation of IBM computers (and
other American technologies) there was politically sensitive and
commercially restricted during the Cold
War.
Leo computers
Elliott computers
- Elliott 4100
- Elliott 503
- Elliott 803
- Elliott 901 / 920A
- Elliott 903 / 920B
- Elliott 905 / 920C
- Elliott 920ATC
The last four were 18 bit binary computers. The 900 series were
commercial machines and the 920 series were built to military
specification and were used in military aircraft and tanks.
ICL locations
ICL's
corporate headquarters were in Putney
,
London.
At the
time of the original merger, the company inherited extensive
engineering and manufacturing facilities in West Gorton
and Stevenage
from ICT, and from English Electric in Kidsgrove 
and Winsford
. The company had a large research, operating
system and superstructure development and support centre in
Bracknell
, application development in Reading
, and training centres at Moor Hall (Cookham
), Beaumont
College
(Old
Windsor
) (sales, support and software) and Letchworth 
(field engineering).
For some
years ICL maintained a training and presentation facility for
senior management at Hedsor
House, near
Taplow
, Berkshire.
ICL and its customers often referred to these locations by the Site
Code, especially where multiple sites may exist in a town, with for
instance with the Putney Headquarters being LON11 (London 11), the
training college at Beaumont being WSR01 (Windsor 01) and the
southern System Support Centre (SCC) at Bracknell being BRA05
(Bracknell 05).
New Range
Even before the merger that created ICL was complete, a working
party had recommended that the new company should develop a new
range of machines offering "acceptable compatibility with the
current ranges of both companies". This was also seen as a way to
help "achieve company unity" for the newly-formed organization. The
resulting 2900 Series was launched on 9 October 1974. Its design
drew on many sources, one being the Manchester University MU5, and
it is still available in the guise of the Fujitsu Trimetra.
It ran the
VME operating systems, and supported emulation
of both the earlier architectures (1900 Series and System 4),
either standalone (DME, Direct Machine Environment) or concurrently
with
native-mode operation (CME,
Concurrent Machine Environment). In the early 1980s ICL struck a
deal to acquire semiconductor technology from Fujitsu, on whom they
became increasingly dependent as the years progressed. Eventually
Fujitsu acquired ICL, and in 2002 the residue of the company was
rebranded as Fujitsu's
European services
arm.
The term "New Range" was used during development for the product
line that was eventually launched as the
2900 Series, the operating system being
known initially as VME/B and later simply as
VME.
The computer hardware included:
These ran the
VME and
DME (emulation) operating
systems, and were available in both single and multi-processor
configurations, the later being known as Duals and SuperDuals (2966
and 2988 only).
Series 39
Series 39 followed the same essential
architecture as 2900 series, but was a dramatic step forward in
hardware technology. It was the first commercial mainframe to
exploit optical fibres for central interconnect, and also
introduced a multi-CPU (multinode) architecture transparent to the
applications.
The series included:
- Level 30
- Level 50
- Level 60
- Level 80
The training video for the Series 39 featured the comedy duo
Hugh Laurie and
Stephen Fry.
ICL received the
Queen's
Award for Technological Achievement for the Series 39 in
1988.
Operating systems
At the inception of New Range development, two operating systems
were planned: System B for the large processors, and System D for
the mid-range. System B was subsequently renamed
VME/B. A third operating system, System T, was
subsequently targeted at small machines.
System D was dropped
in order to focus efforts on VME/B and System T, renamed to
VME/K (Confusingly, VME/B was developed in
Kidsgrove, VME/K in Bracknell.) The first large machines (the 2980 and 2970) were
launched with VME/B. VME/K first saw service on the
2960.
The chief
architect of VME/B was Brian Warboys,
who subsequently became professor of software engineering at the
University of
Manchester
.
VME/K development continued independently for several reasons.
Early VME/B customers suffered significant performance and
reliability problems, and the existence of an alternative product
provided a safety net. Perhaps more significantly, VME/K was the
brainchild of Ed Mack, who had been brought in by managing director
Geoff Cross as ICL's head of research and development. Despite his
wide responsibilities, Mack took a detailed personal interest in
every aspect of VME/K design. To quote historian Martin
Campbell-Kelly, "Mack had a good deal more autonomy than was good
for the company." Not only was too much resource going into VME/K
at the expense of the VME/B system that ICL's biggest customers
were actually using, but the development of mainframe systems was
also diverting expenditure from small business systems such as the
2903, whose sales were growing much more rapidly.
ICL's finances deteriorated during the late 1970s, leading to the
appointment of a new management team led by Robb Wilmot and Peter
Bonfield. One of their first actions was to end VME/K development.
This happened just at the time that VME/K had finally reached a
level of performance and reliability that made it saleable;
however, the customer base was very small, and by this time VME/B
(which was renamed VME 2900) had also matured sufficiently to give
confidence that it would meet the future requirements for the
entire mainframe range.
VME 2900 subsequently became simply VME and then Open VME, and
continued to evolve. In 1980 it was marketed as "Your system for
the 80s", and indeed that decade proved to be its heyday. It
continued (and continues) to give service to many loyal and
demanding users, but has attracted few new users since 1990 or
so.
Superstructure software
ICL used the term
superstructure to refer to the
compilers, data management tools, and transaction processing
software sitting above the operating system but below the user
application – a category now often labelled
middleware.
| IDMS(X) |
Integrated Data Management System - a Codasyl database, ported from the IDMS system developed by Cullinane (later Cullinet). |
| TPMS(X) |
Transaction Processing Management System - a transaction
processing monitor |
| DDS (X) |
Data Dictionary System |
| QuickBuild |
A package of tools for building applications for Series 39 mainframes built around the Data
Dictionary System (DDS). |
| Querymaster |
An interactive command-based query language for IDMS databases
and indexed-sequential files, offering a relational view of the
underlying data sources. Querymaster was based on a Ph.
D research
project undertaken by Andrew Hutt of ICL during a secondment to
Southampton
University in 1976. |
Languages
| S3 |
a system
programming language derived from ALGOL
68, but with data types and operators aligned to those offered
by the 2900 Primitive Level Interface (that is, the order code).
This was used to write the VME/B operating system and much of the
superstructure, such as compilers and utilities. S3 was not
generally used for application-level programming. |
| SCL |
System Control Language, VME's equivalent of a job control or
shell scripting language |
| COBOL |
for most business applications |
| Fortran |
|
| Pascal |
|
| SFL |
System Function Language - an assembly language. Used to write
VME/K, and 2900 IDMS. Assembly language programming was positively
discouraged and the assembler was not available to customers as a
standard product, though it could be obtained if there were good
reasons. |
| C |
C compilers only became available on VME in the mid 1980s,
being needed to port relational database products such as Ingres and Oracle. Portability of C applications
suffered from the assumptions made by many C programmers that
characters would be encoded in ASCII and that short integers would
always be 16 bits long (the 2900 architecture allows 32-bit,
64-bit, and 128-bit arithmetic, but 16-bit arithmetic has to be
implemented in software and is therefore inefficient). |
| Application Master (AM) |
Batch and TP application generation from the Data
Dictionary System |
|
2903 range
A rapid development to produce a small business computer from, as
far as possible, existing hardware and software. It was urgently
needed to generate a cash flow that would support continuing 2900
development. The hardware was the 2900 DFC (Disk File Controller)
installed in an L-shaped piece of furniture. This contained the
system, operator's console, integral printer and disk storage. The
2903 usedmicrocode to emulate 1900 hardware. The operating system
was George 1* (a modification of George 1S batch operating system)
running on top of the UDAS Executive. In consequence, all the
normal 1900 compilers and utilities ran on the 290x range without
any changes or recompilation.
One major new facility provided on this range was
Direct Data Entry, a system comprising up
to eight dedicated VDU data entry stations, with which card image
files could be created; these could be assigned to a program's card
reader and processed accordingly.
There were three models in the range:
- 2903
- 2904
- 2905 (limited and was replaced by the 2950)
290x computers would run in an office environment, still quite an
innovation for this class of machine, and were a runaway success.
Roughly 3000 systems were sold. This was ten times as many as ICL
had anticipated.
The smaller machines in the 290x family were replaced in about 1982
by the ME29 system.
Operating systems and software
Executive
The 290x operating system, known as 'Executive', allowed the
machines to be operated 'manually' via a video console. GEORGE1*
ran on top of Executive to control batch processes by means of JCL
(Job Control Language), which was based very closely upon the macro
language of the 1900 GEORGE1S operating system.
TME (Transaction Machine Environment)
TME was the operating system on the ME29 and required CL (Control
Language) to run jobs - 'manual' operation being discouraged.
Practically all the software packages available on the 1900 range
ran on the 290x and ME29 systems.
Departmental Systems
For many years ICL marketed departmental computers under the 'DRS'
brand, standing originally for Distributed Resource System. During
the mid 80s separate Office Systems business units had produced a
disparate range of products including IBM-compatible PCs such as
the PWS (an
AT Clone), small servers branded
DRS, and various larger Unix servers sold under the Clan range. A
re-branding in late 1988 pulled these together under the DRS brand,
with a consistent grey and green livery.
In the
mid 1980s ICL developed the DRS 300 in Kidsgrove, and ran down Utica
.
In 1994 the DRS range was superseded by the SuperServer and
TeamServer ranges of SPARC and Intel-based machines, running Unix
or Microsoft operating systems.
Subsidiaries
Dataskil
Dataskil Ltd or ICL Dataskil was a software house that developed
commercial programs and some utility software for the ICL
marketplace. Dataskil also provided consultants and project teams
to work on ICL's or direct clients' 1900 and 2900 projects. There
were several divisions within Dataskil, including Consultancy
Services, Transition Services, etc.
Dataskil software products included:
- {| class="wikitable" border="1"
1900 Filan
The ICL 1900 Filan manual (1st edition January 1973) describes
Filan as:
"a totally integrated system for the analysis of large
quantities of complex data such as that collected in censuses and
other surveys".
It was used to process the 1971 Indonesian Population Census . In
the UK, Filan was used during the 1970s by OPCS (Office of
Population Censuses and Surveys) to process the General Household
Survey data. As there was only a small user community, ICL decided
not to convert the software to run on its 2900 range of computers
in the 1980s.
BARIC
This was a joint venture of International Computer Services Ltd
(ICSL), a division of ICL, and
Barclays
Bank, that provided computer services. In the early days of
computing many organizations avoided the capital costs of
purchasing their own equipment and the recruitment of technical
specialists by putting their work out to service companies which
were then known as computer bureaux such as BARIC. This kind of
business diminished during the 1980s, only to reappear in the 1990s
under a new name –
outsourcing.
BARIC also ran special groups such as the Advanced
Videotextteam, which investigated how new
technologies such as
Prestelcould be
leveraged. This team was based in Feltham, Middlesex.
ICIM
ICL had established a presence in India in its earliest days,
through a partly-owned subsidiary International Computers India
Manufacturing (ICIM). As the name implies, ICIM took on some of the
manufacturing of ICL-designed equipment, generally for overseas
markets.
In later years ICIM, from its offices in
Pune
, started to establish a presence in the market for
offshore software development and eventually outsourcing of the operation of computer
services.ICIM subsequently became a joint operation with
Fujitsu, establishing links to Japan that were as strong as its
traditional links to the UK. Reflecting the shift in its business,
the company was renamed ICIL (International Computers India
Limited), and is now
Zensar.
DESC
DESC Ltd (subsequently ICL DESC Ltd.) was a subsidiary focused on
defence systems spun out from ICL at the time of the Fujitsu
takeover to avoid concerns about defence systems ownership by the
Japanese firm. These qualms were overcome and eventually it was
merged back into the parent company.
iBANK Systems
iBANK Systems was a joint venture with Xcelsoft, Inc. of Canada to
develop a UNIX-based integrated retail banking system capable of
distributed operation. Supported platforms included the DRS-6000
and DRS-3000 while the product was written in COBOL with some
'glue' written in C. The international team was based in Greenville
SC, US.
The venture lasted from 1992 through 1995 when the two companies
dissolved the relationship and each went forward independently,
thereby forking the project. The ICL branch was re-named
"Fujitsu-ICL International Banking Products". That branch continued
operations until 2000 when ICL withdrew completely from all
operations in North America. Customers of IBANK Systems included:
Moscow Savings Bank (Russia), Suprimex (Russia), Chelind Bank
(Russia), Mineral Bank (Bulgaria), Romanian Bank for Development
(Romania), PTC (Zimbabwe), People's Own Savings Bank (Zimbabwe),
Mutual Bank of the Caribbean (Barbados), National Commercial Bank
(Jamaica), and Caisse Populaire (Canada).
Corporate history
This section describes the various takeovers of and by ICL that
followed the formation ofICL in 1969.
Singer Business Machines
Early in 1976 ICL acquired the international (that is, non-US) part
of
SingerBusiness Machines.
Subsequently ICL also took on the development and manufacturing
plant at Utica, New York. The Singer group (best known for their
sewing machines) had diversified into computers and in 1970
launched the System Ten, a small business minicomputer. The
acquisition shifted the geographical balance of ICL's sales away
from the UK, and also gave a presence in industry markets such as
retail and manufacturing. ICL subsequently developed the System Ten
into the System 25, and used the product to spearhead the growth of
its Retail Systems business during the 1980s.
STC
On 26 July 1984 a takeover bid for ICL arrived from Sir Kenneth
Corfield, head of
Standard Telephones and
Cables. The stated rationale was the predicted convergence of
computers and telecommunications. To the bemusement of many ICL
staff, Corfield also announced that he thought ICL's marketing
skills would complement STC's technical strengths. The ICL board
recommended acceptance of the bid, and the takeover was completed
on 10 September 1984.
Sir Michael
Edwardes, who had been chairman for just six months, resigned,
and Christopher Laidlaw became Chairman. Robb Wilmot, who had
arrived as Managing Director in 1981 (at the age of only 36),
remained, along with
Peter Bonfieldas
Marketing director.
The merger was soon followed by a financial crisis in STC, leading
to Corfield's replacement by Lord Keith as chairman, with Arthur
Walsh as chief executive. Wilmot resigned, and Peter Bonfield was
appointed chairman and managing director of ICL. Within a few years
ICL was contributing 60% of the profits and turnover of the
combined group. Bonfield was created a
CBEfor his role in turning the
company around.
Datachecker
In 1988 STC acquired US retail systems specialist Datachecker
Systems from National Semiconductor Corporation. At the time this
was the second largest supplier in the US retail market, and
greatly expanded ICL's US presence.
Regnecentralen
In 1989, ICL acquired
Regnecentralenof Denmark, a company with a
distinguished history and reputation in that country, but which was
best known internationally for its front-end communications
handling equipment.
Computer Consoles Inc
Also in 1989 STC acquired
CCI, suppliers of ICL's Clan 5, 6 and
7 ranges (later DRS 500) and originator of OfficePower. By 1990
CCI's Computer Products Division in Irvine, California and Office
Products Centre in Reston, Virginia had been transferred to
ICL.
Nokia Data
In 1991 ICL acquired Nokia Data, part of the Finnish
Nokia Group. Nokia Data was itself the result of
Nokia's mid-1980s acquisition of Ericsson Information Systems,
whose origins lay in the purchase by
Ericssonof the computer business of
Saab, known as
Datasaab.
ICL's
acquisition (at a price of around £250m) added 9500 employees to
the company (7000 of them in Finland
and Sweden
), and
brought with it a PC manufacturing
capability, a suite of desktop software products, and more
importantly a strong presence in the Nordic market and an awareness of the
high-volume end of the IT market.
ICL KME-CS
In July,
1991 ICL acquired more than half of the Russian company KME-CS
(Kazan Manufacturing Enterprise of Computer Systems, Kazan
, Tatarstan, Russia
).The
agreement was signed between Peter Bonfield (President of ICL) and
Mintimer Shaimiev(President of the
Tatarstan Republic).
Fujitsu
ICL's relationship with Fujitsu started in 1981, when ICL needed a
cheaper source of technology to develop lower-end machines in the
2900 range to compete with the
IBM 4300
series. At this stage ICL was developing its own LSI technology
for use in the higher-end machines, designed as a successor to the
highly-successful 2966 processor (known internally as S3). ICL had
visited a number of companies during 1980 including Fujitsu and
Hitachito identify potential
suppliers.
In early 1981 ICL ran into a financial crisis, leading to a full
takeover bid from
Univac; but the British
Government stepped in with a loan guarantee, enabling the company
to stay independent. As part of this rescue agreement, Robb Wilmot
arrived as CEO in May 1981.
Wilmot cancelled ICL in-house
LSItechnology
development, and negotiated an agreement that gave access to
Fujitsu's LSI and packaging technologies, which, when combined with
ICL's in-house CAD capability, enabled ICL to design and
manufacture the DM1 and Estriel machines, later marketed very
profitably as Series 39 level 30 and 80.
Initially the collaboration with Fujitsu was presented as being an
arm's length one, to avoid diluting ICL's credentials as a European
and British company. However, Fujitsu's involvement with ICL at
both the financial and the technical level steadily increased over
the subsequent two decades, leading first to 100% ownership and
subsequently to the full integration of ICL into the Fujitsu
company and the dropping of the ICL brand.
In 1990 Fujitsu acquired 80% of ICL plc from the parent STC plc,
paying USD 1.29 billion.
Fujitsu Siemens
Following the acquisition of Nokia Data in 1990, personal computers
and servers were marketed under the ICL brand. This changed when
Fujitsu Siemens
Computerswas formed in 1999 as a joint venture between Fujitsu
and
Siemens. The joint venture absorbed all
ICL's hardware business with the exception of VME mainframes, and
all the business of
Siemens
Nixdorfwith the exception of its banking and retail systems.
Fujitsu Siemens in turn was merged back into Fujitsu in 2009.
See also
- Odra The Polish Odra 1300 series
computers used ICL software
- ICL: A Business and Technical History. Martin Campbell-Kelly,
Clarendon Press, 1989. ISBN 0-19-853918-5
- ICL and Europe. Virgilio Pasquali. In Resurrection,
the Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society, Summer 2005
References
- Oral history interview with Arthur L. C.
Humphreys, Charles Babbage Institute,
University of Minnesota
-
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=QuickBuild&i=50086,00.asp
- http://www.disc.wisc.edu/INDO/indo_report.html
- The Jim Austin Computer Collection
- Irvine signs on, STC Gazette February 1990, STC
PLC
-
http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acd/sus/perq_history/part_3/c15.htm
External links
|
| 1900 products |
| 2900 products |
| Other products |
|
1900 Datadrive
1900 Datafeed
1900 Dataview
1900 IDMS
1900 Filan
|
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