The Twin Cities: The
Silicon Valley that Wasn't?
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Key Themes
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The history of the computer industry
in Minneapolis-St. Paul
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The particular character of that
computer industry relative to others
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1945: No digital, electronic computer
industry in existence
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Automated office machine companies:
punch-card tabulators, adding machines
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American military initiatives around
advanced, high-speed computing
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Eckart and Mauchly at the University
of Pennsylvania--Army, artillery tables
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NCR program--Navy, signal code
management
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Dayton, OH Group
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Bill
Norris and Ralph Nieder (associated with NCR/Dayton Group) in Washington
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Others at MIT, elsewhere: all East
of the Mississippi
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Post-War birth of the Computer
Industry
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Engineering
Research Associates (1945)
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Bill Norris and Ralph Nieder supported
by Navy contract
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Need to find company to receive
contract
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Try IBM, NCR, American Airlines
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Larry Parker and Northwest Aeronautics
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Wooden gliders
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Military contracts gone after 1945
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Northwest Aeronautics, St. Paul,
MN becomes Engineering Research Associates (ERA)
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Parker sells $200,ooo interest
in Toro Company to finance the initiative
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Military orientation: makes and
sells computers for Navy
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ERA culture
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Absorbed entire NCR/Dayton computer
program
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Links to University of Minnesota
graduates
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Links to
John Von Neumann and Vannevar
Bush
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Oriented toward high-speed computing
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Textbook High-Speed Computing
Devices an early industry standard
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Links with 3M
Company led to the development of magnetic storage tape
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Parallel to history of Ampex
in Silicon Valley
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Eckart-Mauchly
Computer Company (1946)
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Philadelphia base
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Commercial orientation
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Venture finance: John Pinkerton,
gambling odds-making machines
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Outside America
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1950: Remington Rand acquires ERA
and Eckart-Mauchly Computer Company: Univac
born
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Remington Rand not sure what to
do with Univac
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Division within Univac itself
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Both Eckart-Mauchly group and ERA
remain autonomous divisions within Univac
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Negative rivalries between them
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Eckart-Mauchly oriented toward
commercial/business applications and markets
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ERA oriented toward military/scientific
applications and markets
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1956: New era in computer industry
begins
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New players in the game
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IBM's first computer appears in
1954
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Burroughs, Honeywell
enter computer business
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Sperry Systems buys Remington Rand,
creates Sperry Univac.
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1957: Control Data Corporation
founded in Minneapolis, MN
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Goal to be the leading designer
of top of the line Supercomputers
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Military/science orientation of
ERA remains
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Seymour
Cray recruited from Sperry Univac
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University of Minnesota graduate
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Leading computer designer of his
generation
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Embodies the spirit of ERA in drive
toward better, faster Supercomputers
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Not the "Silicon Valley" model
of computing
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Cray computers only reluctantly
adopted solid state
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Microprocessor revolution missed
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Tension between "high end" computers
and market needs of company
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Norris pushing toward smaller,
bigger market machines
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Cray insisting upon high-end technology
despite small market
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CDC and Cray divorce
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Cray moves CDC research team to
Chippewa Falls, WI
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Cray
Research founded as independent company in 1972
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Early success for both parties
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Long term: neither company adjusts
to new market realities of computing in the 1980s and 1990s
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Cray acquired by Silicon Valley
based Silicon Graphics in 1996, then sold to Tera
Computer in 2000
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CDC survives as subsidiary of Syntegra
Corporation (acquired in 1999)
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Lessons
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Minnesota did not lose its computer
industry
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Still here: Software companies
for example
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CDC spin offs are numerous
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But orientation toward high-end
Supercomputers for military/scientific applications not the right one for
future
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Minnesota's Other Silicon Connection:
Medical Technology
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