Talk:William Norris (CEO)

message: **William Norris: Computer Pioneer, Maverick Social Activist
=== CBI Oral History Archives ===
Abstract: Norris was a founding vice president of Engineering Research Associates (ERA). He later became head of the Univac Division of the Remington Rand before founding and becoming president and chief executive officer of Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957. 
Norris begins by describing his employment before World War II, his civilian career with the Navy, and his commission in the Naval Reserve. He then discusses his work with Communications Supplementary Activities-Washington. Norris' description of the formation and operations of ERA comprise over half of the interview. 
Topics include: the roles of Howard Engstrom, John E. Parker, C. B. Tompkins, and Northwestern Aeronautical in the formation of ERA; the influence of the Whirlwind project; government contracts held by ERA; magnetic drums; and contract negotiations with James Birkenstock of International Business Machines. 
In the second half of the interview Norris discusses the ERA 1101, ERA 1102, and ERA 1103 computers, the acquisition of ERA by Remington Rand, the Univac File computer, his work as head of the Univac Division, and the formation of CDC. 
RJBurkhart 17:16, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Digital Century InOp URL (Deleted) 

message: Abstract: Norris was a founding vice president of Engineering Research Associates (ERA). He later became head of the Univac Division of the Remington Rand before founding and becoming president and chief executive officer of Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957. 
Norris begins by describing his employment before World War II, his civilian career with the Navy, and his commission in the Naval Reserve. He then discusses his work with Communications Supplementary Activities-Washington. Norris' description of the formation and operations of ERA comprise over half of the interview. 
Topics include: the roles of Howard Engstrom, John E. Parker, C. B. Tompkins, and Northwestern Aeronautical in the formation of ERA; the influence of the Whirlwind project; government contracts held by ERA; magnetic drums; and contract negotiations with James Birkenstock of International Business Machines. 
In the second half of the interview Norris discusses the ERA 1101, ERA 1102, and ERA 1103 computers, the acquisition of ERA by Remington Rand, the Univac File computer, his work as head of the Univac Division, and the formation of CDC. 
RJBurkhart 17:16, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Charles Babbage Institute|CBI]] Oral History Archives 

message: "In the 1980s CDC was left primarily as a hard disk manufacturer, and their series of SCSI drives were particularly successful. But at this point the rest of the company crashed, and the board started pressing for Norris to step down."
Perhaps it should say "at the end of the 1980s".
During the 1980s, Control Data rolled out the 800 (825, 835, 855, 830 as I recall) and 900 (930 released about 1987 March**...) series computers and NOS/VE under which a variant of UNIX was added about 1986, referred to as VE/UX .  One of the 800 series machines, and the 900 series were manufactured in Canada, as I recall, to cut costs.
From my personal knowledge, through the 1980s we were also involved in data-base management systems (Data Management Technology Center, where Paul Thompson was actively evangelizing for NIAM -- Nijssen's Information Analysis Methodology, now called ORM), CAD/CAM/CAE (CIM division; the 910 work-station was out by 1985, ICEM Surf was close to release in mid-1987, together with a major feature, bug fix and portability release of ICEM/DDN), utility management systems (the Cyber 2000 for electricity and telephone systems management; this was yet another division with its own senior VP*).  The joint project between MPI (Magnetic Peripherals Inc.) and Seagate bore fruit in 1986, with the Wren disk drive.
In the late 1980s, the TCE (transparent computing environment) was released, allowing a GUI interface amongst CDC, DEC, Apple, and PeeeCeee boxes, letting you use the native mode on the box before which you were sitting to use apps and files on any of them, or to transfer and translate app files merely by dragging and dropping.
The death knell started to toll in 1985 when Commercial Credit spun off... which later became CitiGroup.  That undermined the conglomerate's flexibility.
Of course, the basic point is correct, that the hardware business was suffering.  The shift to NOS/VE (which made the IBM mistake of trying to be all things to all people) and attendant shift to integrated CPU chip and micro-code-based systems ran into he competition from low-price AT&T, Sun, SGI, and MIPS work-stations, and the micro-computers.  The massive hardware and software development and support organizations were high quality and extremely expensive, and couldn't be maintained with the smaller profit margins.
By 1991, the only new systems I saw coming out of CDC were lottery management systems running on MIPS hardware (3400 series, as I recall).  In 1998 or so I had to sell my few shares of stock (and, miracle of miracles, made a small but significant gain on it), and within a few months after that the last piece of the company with anything remotely resembling the name went private.
* Each major division or subsidiary was headed by a senior VP, but there were many lesser VPs.  As Norris explained it, there were many current and prospective customers and government people who insisted on having access to at least a VP, so, at one point we had some 200 VPs.  Yet the organizational structure was fairly flat and used an operational matrix.  At one point I simultaneously worked directly with multiple managers: senior VP Jim Murdakes maybe 3-4 times a year, another VP under him maybe once a year, a general manager (maybe 3 times a year, though I raced past his office a dozen times a day), 2 managers (on a weekly basis), a team leader (every day or two), and then had direct daily contact with at least 3 managers of other software development groups, and the software release manager, and met every 2 weeks to 3 months with the system performance task-force... and yet it worked rather smoothly; people just did what had to be done.
** I've got the "Cyber 930 in concert" booklet and envelope with the printed signatures of most of the people involved "all of the players and participants" in the release.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.44.18.253 (talk) 16:22, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: This is supposed to be a biography. I'd like to learn about the man, not details surrounding the company. -- œ™ 09:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  inaccuracy in 1980s