The Three Rivers Computer Corporation (3RCC) was a spinoff from the Research Engineering Laboratory of the Computer Science Department of

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, and was founded in May 1974 by Brian S. Rosen, James R. Teter, William H. Broadley, J. Stanley Kriz, D. Raj Reddy and Paul G. Newbury in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States to manufacture advanced technology computer displays, peripherals, and systems. Early products included: the GDP/2A Graphics Display processor with high speed vector generator capable of drawing in excess of 50,000 vectors at 60 Hz refresh rates; a CVD/2 Color Video Display System that displayed a full color raster scanned image with a unique data compression algorithm capable of full frame animation display; ADA-16 Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog converters for high fidelity music and speech research, and a UMB-11 Unibus Monitor that was a low-cost test instrument for

PDP-11 The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, ...

series minicomputers. In 1979, the company launched its principal products, a line of

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s called PERQ, which were single-user high performance workstations with the power of a medium-scale mainframe computer from that era coupled with a versatile graphics display. In the summer of 1980, the company divested itself of all activities other than those related to PERQ. From 1981 onwards, 3RCC developed and produced the PERQ jointly with ICL in the United Kingdom. 3RCC changed its name to PERQ Systems Corporation in 1984, but became insolvent in 1985.

External links

PERQ History
{{tech-company-stub 1974 establishments in Pennsylvania 1985 disestablishments in Pennsylvania American companies established in 1974 American companies disestablished in 1985 Carnegie Mellon University Computer companies established in 1974 Computer companies disestablished in 1985 Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Defunct computer companies of the United States Technology companies established in 1974 Technology companies disestablished in 1985