Centurion Computer Corporation
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Centurion Computer Corporation, or simply Centurion, was a manufacturer of small business computers that was founded in 1971 and eventually acquired by
Electronic Data Systems Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corporation was an American multinational corporation, multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas, which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a s ...
(EDS).


History

Centurion was incorporated in
Richardson, Texas Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas. It is home to the Universit ...
, in 1972, under the name Warrex Corporation. It was the successor to Warrex Computer Services, a company founded in 1971 by John Warren. Initially, it provided consulting and programming services. In 1972, Centurion entered the business of selling and supporting magnetic tape cassette systems. It sold these computer systems through another company, Warrex Computer Corporation, also based in Richardson. By August 1974, Centurion had designed and manufactured its first minicomputer, combined it with peripherals and software, and delivered it as the initial member of the Centurion family of small business computers. Unlike larger computer systems companies, Warrex sold its systems through independent dealers across the United States exclusively. In winter 1976, Warrex Computer Corporation expanded into a second branch office in
Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
. After Warren died suddenly in June 1976, he was replaced as president and CEO by Brendan Morgan. The company formally changed its name from Warrex to Centurion Computer Corporation in March 1980. In March 1981,
Electronic Data Systems Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corporation was an American multinational corporation, multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas, which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a s ...
(EDS) purchased Centurion for $7 million. Shortly after the acquisition, Centurion opened up its first international division in
Scarborough, Ontario Scarborough (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 Census 629,941) is a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in the eastern part of the City of Toronto. Its borders are Victoria Park Avenue to the west, Steeles Avenue (Toronto), Steele ...
, in Canada, headed by David Snell. Centurion of Ontario was one of the few Canadian minicomputer manufacturers active at the time, competing with Geac Computer and MLPI Business Systems (both also of
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
). After roughly three years under ownership of EDS, a group of 12 investors who previously worked for Centurion (including some co-founders) bought back the company from EDS. This group of investors was headed by James H. Smith, who was named president of the new Centurion following the buyback. The terms of the buyback were undisclosed. The company immediately announced plans to release updated minicomputers and to increase the number of its authorized resellers. A year after becoming independent again, Centurion Computer Corporation filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...
in the United States. In November 1985, it submitted its reorganization plans to the bankruptcy courts of Texas and was allowed to exit bankruptcy. By February 1986, it was down to ten employees.


Business computers

Over its lifetime, Centurion produced an entire series of small business computers. The following is a partial list with the capabilities of each series and prices taken from February 1982. By default, all Centurion systems (except the MicroPlus) were equipped with at least one four-port multiplexer (MUX) which provides four channels of asynchronous control for the keyboard, printer, CRTs, or remote units (via
Modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...
cards). Each device was on its own independent channel and operated independently of all other devices. Data transfer was either in low-speed mode under software control or high-speed mode with
Direct Memory Access Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems that allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system computer memory, memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU). Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed i ...
at a rate up to 1.2 MiB/second. All Centurion systems used customized video display units to interface with the computer. Available types were R-40, R-100 or CT-520. They all communicated via RS-232 or modem at a speed of 1920 to 9600 baud with the main computer. Printers were supported via teletype or specialized controller cards supporting off-the-shelf printers like the TI-810, TI-840 or DP-B-600 printers capable of speeds from 75 chars/sec up to 600 lines/minute (~800-1300 chars/sec).


Compatible storage systems

Centurion did not create custom storage media. Instead they manufactured storage controllers for existing off-the-shelf systems, mostly created by the
Control Data Corporation Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer company that in the 1960s was one of the nine major U.S. computer companies, which group included IBM, the Burroughs Corporation, and the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the N ...
(CDC). Prices were taken from 1982, unless otherwise indicated. The disk sizes is the usable storage space, since all Centurion computers used 400 byte data blocks with the rest of the native block size being used for control structures like checksums.


IBM compatible PC clone

As a division of EDS, Centurion also created an
IBM PC–compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central pro ...
clone as part of a negotiation strategy of EDS with
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
. EDS intended to acquire PCs from IBM, but didn't like IBM's pricing. To persuade IBM that their initial cost-per-unit offer was too high, EDS tasked Centurion to build a fully compatible PC clone from off-the-shelf parts at a lower price, even though EDS had no intention of starting to compete with IBM. The effort succeeded and IBM reduced their price offer, rather than to contend with another competitor in the market.


Restoration efforts

As part of the
vintage computer A vintage computer is an older computer system that is largely regarded as obsolete. The personal computer has been around since around 1971, and in that time technological advancement means existing models get replaced every few years. Neverthel ...
movement, David Lovett of the
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel Usagi Electric is running a project to restore several Centurion microcomputers to working condition.


References

{{reflist 1971 establishments in Texas 1981 mergers and acquisitions 1981 disestablishments in Texas American companies established in 1971 American companies disestablished in 1981 Companies based in Richardson, Texas Computer companies established in 1971 Computer companies disestablished in 1981 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer systems companies