Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To correctly assess
MCM
's contributions to computing, one
has to scrutinize fairly the company's activities in the 1970s.
Why did
MCM
fail to become the leader in the nascent personal
computer industry, and why was the
MCM
/70 forgotten? With-
out answers to these questions, the
MCM
/70 narrative can never
be complete.
With the announcement of the
MCM
/70, the Canadian high
technology start-up
MCM
was challenging the established com-
puter industry and services with its radically different model
of deploying computing technology to benefit society. New
semiconductor devices made it possible to design small and
affordable computers which,
MCM
claimed, were destined to
democratize computing by expanding resources enjoyed by the
largest enterprises to individual users as well as to small and
medium-sized businesses. It was this unique vision of a modern
society universally and freely accepting the benefits of distrib-
uted computing, a vision clearly defined and widely dissemin-
ated by
MCM
, that attracted considerable international atten-
tion in 1973 and swiftly elevated
MCM
to the position of one of
the most innovative high technology companies. “There seems
little doubt that Canada has stolen an early world lead in the
new era of 'distributed processing' which will bring the dream
of a computer in every home and office closer to reality,” wrote
Electronics Communicator
following the
MCM
/70's announce-
ment in Toronto.
3
One of the earliest documents that explicitly presented
MCM
's
position on future developments in computing and the impact
of the new computer technologies on society was the company's
Media/Press Release
, dated 28 September 1973 and prepared
on the occasion of the
MCM
/70's unveiling in Boston. The
