Scientific Data Systems was a computer company started in 1961 by Max Palevsky , a veteran of Packard-Bell and Bendix . SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon transistors. The company concentrated on larger scientific workload focused machines and sold many machines to NASA during the Space Race. Most machines were both fast and relatively low priced. The company was sold to Xerox in 1969, but mismanagement and dwindling sales (in part due to the end of the Space Race) caused Xerox to close the division in 1975 at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Scientific Data Systems was one of the eight major computer companies (with IBM - the largest, Burroughs, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC) through most of the 1960s.
Some successful SDS machines:
- 910 and 920 - early 24 bit scientific machines
- 940 - 24 bit timesharing machine, similar in application to the PDP-10. Used by Tymshare.
- Sigma 7 - 32 bit high-end scientific machine. Used by NASA for Apollo.
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