Computer Usage Company (CUC) (1955–1986), sometimes called Computer Usage Corporation, was the first independent company to market

computer software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

History

CUC is generally considered the first company to develop software independently and to have pioneered the field of programming services. Before this time, software was developed either by the users of the computers, or by the few commercial computer vendors. Computer Usage Company (CUC) was founded in March 1955 by Elmer C. Kubie (1926–2004) and John W. Sheldon. They had formerly worked together at

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 ...

, and planned to offer services to help develop computer programs. The initial investment of US$40,000 supported the founders and a staff of five. The first offices were located in

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. CUC's first project was a program written for California Research Corporation to simulate the flow of oil. On October 3, 1955, Computer Usage Company, Inc., was incorporated in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. George R. Trimble Jr. became Corporate Technical Director in February 1956 after work on the

IBM 650 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass-produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the firs ...

. Trimble headed a project to computerize the

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system of the

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. This work was done at the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center in

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. In 1959 an office in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

was opened, since CUC had business with the

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. In April 1960 the company had an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

of stock shares, and grew to three managers, 37 mathematicians, 6 physicists, and 3 engineers. Later in 1960 CUC established a division to sell computer time and in Spring 1961 opened an office in

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. Cuthbert Hurd joined the company as

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in 1962, a former division director from IBM. The FAA was planning to use the IBM 9020 model of the new

IBM System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applicati ...

, so contracted with CUC to develop a compiler for the JOVIAL computer language. The compiler was first developed on a simulator using the

IBM 7030 The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. It was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 until the first CDC 6600 became operational in 1964."Designed by Seymour Cray, the CDC 6600 was almost three t ...

before actual hardware was available. In early 1964, CUC developed software used by

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to track the election results. Sheldon left later in 1964. Another major contract was to implement part of IBM's first

time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...

system, TSS/360. CUC was asked to manage the TSS project, as it was seen as losing ground to competitors in time-sharing. Realizing that performance would never meet expectations, CUC declined. In 1965 the Computer Usage Education subsidiary was formed, headed by Ascher Opler, which published software books and offered courses. One of its best sellers was on Programming the IBM system/360. Carl H. Reynolds joined as President of the new Computer Usage Development Company subsidiary in 1966. Reynolds had been director of programming for the Data Systems Division of IBM during the development of the System/360. By 1967 CUC had a staff of over 700 people in 12 offices and revenues over $13 million. An office in

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was established to work on a contract with

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

to develop software including an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

and a FORTRAN compiler for the TI Advanced Scientific Computer. During that time, the company's vice president was

H. Dean Brown Harold Dean Brown (August 13, 1927 – June 24, 2003) was an American scientist. His fields ranged from physics and mathematics to computer software and philosophy. Early life and education Harold Dean Brown (generally known as Dean Brown) was bo ...

. Kubie and Reynolds left in July 1968 and the company changed direction under new president Charles Benton, Jr. from IBM's Federal Systems Division. Benton hired sales people instead of technical people, and contracts did not keep up with overhead. CUC declared its first loss as a public company in 1969. Other competitors such as

Computer Sciences Corporation Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...

were now larger.

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announced they were in discussions for an acquisition, but talks fell through. By early 1970 Benton resigned and Hurd stepped in as president, although he lived in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Other potential mergers were discussed, including

Ross Perot Henry Ross Perot ( ; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an Independent politician ...

who by now had founded his own service business

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 ...

. CUC negotiated a contract to manage computer facilities at the Firemans Fund Insurance Company, which restored profitability for a time. Hurd left in 1974. Victor Bartoletti became president, but died in 1984 and George C. Strohl from

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became president. However, losses continued to mount as the computer business was now very different from the field dominated by IBM 30 years earlier. By 1985, CUC lost $2.4 million on revenues of only $1.5 million. In 1986 CUC declared

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and was liquidated in what is known as

Chapter 7 Chapter Seven refers to a seventh Chapter (books), chapter in a book. Chapter Seven, Chapter 7, or Chapter VII may also refer to: Albums * Chapter Seven (album), ''Chapter Seven'' (album), a 2013 album by Damien Leith. * Chapter VII (album), ''Ch ...

History

See also

References

Further reading