Information Technology Pioneers

Retirees and former employees of UNISYS, Lockheed Martin, and Twin Cities heritage companies.
Home Pg 1     IT Legacy, Pg10     People, Pg30     Engineering, Pg40     Computers, Pg50     Systems, Pg60     Locations, Pg70     IT Research Links     Contact Us      
EMCC to UNISYS, Pg 11     Artifacts, Pg12     Committee, Pg13     Milestones, Pg14     Documents Pg15     Mementos, Pg16     Spinoffs, Pg17     WhoIsIt, Pg18      
ERA to LMCO
1. Introduction*
     A 66-year LEGACY of Defense Industry Information Technology (IT) developments and applications started in 1946 with Engineering Research Associates (ERA) at 1902 Minnehaha Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota.  This Information Age Legacy merged and diverged through the corporate ownerships of Remington Rand, UNIVAC, Sperry, UNISYS, PARAMAX, Loral, and Lockheed Martin. 
       Lockheed Martin MS2 in Eagan, Minnesota triggered the end of this defense industry Legacy with their November 2011 announcement of a pending 2013 Eagan facility closure. 
   The Twin Cities military and commercial operations were tightly coupled until the late 80s.  During our Legacy, a few management and engineering personnel left to form other companies, most notable was the 1957 creation of Control Data Corporation led by Bill Norris. With him was Seymour Cray who later left CDC to establish the the super computer company "Cray".  This site mentions these computer industry pioneers but does not follow their careers outside of the ERA IT Legacy.
     Foremost throughout this Legacy are the people - now contributing to this site and associated documents - most enjoying retiree camaraderie, others still working at UNISYS, LMCO, and elsewhere.  
*This web page is available in the Romanian Language, translated and posted by Alexander Ovsov with permission of the VIP Club Board:     
 http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/vipclubmn-imcolegacy-ro.                             
 

On this page, scroll to section: 

  1.  Introduction
  2.  Sub-Tab Pages overview
  3.  Level 1 Page Descriptions
  4.  Corporate Name History
  5.  Background - How our club got started on this 'history' project.

VIP Page 10 updated 18 January, 2012

Introduction Continued:

  Several threads weave their way through these corporate ownerships:
  • People Performing in Partnership (P3)with customers to solve complex system information and control problems!
  • A resilient cadre of management and engineering personnel with military training/experiences applied to understanding the problems facing government customers.
  • Systems for processing of real-time signals and data from radar, sonar, and other sensors to provide users with operational informatin and action options.
  • Computer Instruction Set Architectures (ISA) normalized over several product line generations
  • Availability of technology researchers and new graduates from the world-class Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota (U of MN) and other midwest colleges.

Thanks to the 300+ retirees, active employees, and customers who have contributed to our IT Legacy project documention.

Thanks to the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) staff for their guidance as we sorted through hundreds of archive boxes.  [LABenson]  

2. Sub-tab Page Overview

The sub-tab of EMCC to UNISYS has information about the corporate entities which have owned and influenced Twin Cities operations.  The Milestones subtab lists many of the corporate milestones accomplished by the Twin Cities Information Technology Pioneers. The Spinoff subtab lists many of the companies formed by departing employees.  The other subtabs - Committee, Documents, Artifacts, and Mementos reflect the work of the Legacy Project. The Who is It tab has a random set of photos from past events - a work in progress. 

3. Legacy Page Descriptions

Companies employed People who engineered computers and systems in locations locally and throughout the world thus the tab sequence.

People - Over 150 project experiences and career summaries from and about the people who have lived this Legacy.

Engineering - Our designs transition all electronic generations; vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits, micro-processors, application specific integrated circuits, etc. We've included Software, Field Service/Training, Antenna Couplers, Patents, Peripherals, and Interfacing subsections.

Computers - The world's first stored-program cryptography computer shipped to a customer in October 1950, Aerospace computers, Navy shipboard computers, airborne search computers, ..., drone control embedded processors.

Systems - Aerospace, Airborne, Naval Tactical Data Systems, Air Traffic Control, Marine Systems, Air Force, ASOC, Postal, and Others.
Locations - Not only the Twin Cities, but facilities throughout the U.S. and a few overseas sites. Marketing Offices, Technical Services Division (TSD), Canada, etc. 
Links - Many web sites provide related information about our heritage.  Links to a few other local sites are provided. 

4. Corporate Name History

    Engineering Research Associates (ERA) came out of the second world war.  Our six plus decade Legacy spans the world's Information Technology evolution since then, including many corporate ownership changes.  UNIVersal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) technologies became the heart of the information age as defense systems grew to counter the threat of communism. Our systems are at work today helping to combat terrorism and keep your airline flights safe. [lab]

 

 

 

Thanks to John Skonnord for this 'logo' time chart.

 Date

Ownership CorporationTwin Cities Company Name
January 1946Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates 
May 1952Remington Rand Engineering Research Associates  
July 1955 Sperry Rand Remington Rand, Engineering Research Associates Division  
October 1955Sperry Rand Remington Rand UNIVAC, Military Division 
January 1962Sperry Rand Remington Rand UNIVAC, Defense Systems Division 
January 1967Sperry Rand Sperry Rand UNIVAC, Federal Systems Division  
January 1973Sperry Rand Sperry UNIVAC, Defense Systems Division 
August 1979Sperry Sperry UNIVAC 
April 1983Sperry Sperry Computer Systems, Defense Systems Division 
November 1986 UNISYS UNISYS Defense Systems, Computer Systems Div. 
January 1990UNISYS UNISYS Defense Systems, Electronic & Information Systems Group 
November 1991*UNISYS PARAMAX Electronic & Information Systems Group  
December 1991PARAMAX PARAMAX Electronics Systems  
January 1994**UNISYS UNISYS GSG, Electronics Systems  
May 1995*** LORAL LORAL Defense Systems - Eagan 
April 1996****Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems  
June 1997Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Eagan  
January 2000Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems, Eagan  
June 2000Lockheed Martin  Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems, Tactical Systems
August 2003Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors (MS2), Tactical Systems, Eagan  
March 2013  Lockheed MartinThe Air Traffic Management Operations department will continue in the area.

* UNISYS separated its defense business and named it PARAMAX while contemplating doing a spinoff via an IPO.
** The spin off concept projections didn't meet the financial objective so the PARAMAX 'entity' was terminated.
*** The defense business portion of UNISYS was sold to LORAL.
**** LORAL sold most of the defense business section to Lockheed Martin

Thanks to Keith Behnke for this ownership date table.   

5. Background, how our Legacy Project got started and recent Project milestones -

March 2009 - The Cataloging team delivered over 40 cartons of documents to the Charles Babbage Institute.

January 2009 - The Sesquicentennial team placed a report, documents and other items into the State's bi-centennial time capsule. 

March 2008 - Transfer of information to this site from Lowell's personal site has been completed.  Ole retired from LMCO, John Westergren has taken his place as co-chair of the committee.

October, 2007 - The VIP Club Board of Directors authorized this web site to combine VIP Club outreach information with Legacy writings of both defense [LMCO] and commercial [UNISYS] operations history. [lab]
January, 2007 - The Legacy committee has coined the title "Information Technology Pioneering" as the lead in for the site and as potential title for the book that evolves from this Legacy initiative.  All who contribute their bits and bytes to the documentation of our LEGACY initiative are indeed Information Technology Pioneers as were so many of our compatriots who have passed away. [lab]
Late in 2005 - Eagan based Lockheed Martin MS2 requested CLUB assistance in gathering artifacts and information for use in documenting the history and legacy of the St. Paul based defense systems organization which they'd acquired from Loral in the 1990's.  When the VIP CLUB and LMCO Legacy committee members met at the Babbage Institute on January 12, 2006, Lowell Benson volunteered his personal web site as an initial place to gather and display information. [lab]