CONCLUSIONS - Inventing the PC - page 179

ing, and retail endeavours and formed the infrastructure for
the emerging personal microcomputer software and hardware
industries. The corporate histories of some of the world's lar-
gest microcomputer software and hardware companies, such as
Apple Computer, Microsoft, RCA , and Montreal-based Matrox
were affected by the hobbyists' movement.
MCM was never interested in the hobby computer market, al-
though in 1976 it presented its computers to the Toronto Region
Association of Computer Enthusiasts ( TRACE ) - one of the ear-
liest computer hobby groups in Canada. TRACE was brought to
life in January 1976 by a group of engineers from the Canadian
Development Division of Control Data Corporation, located
in Mississauga, Ontario. Three months later, several TRACE
members formed the TRACE APL special interest group to look
for ways to use microcomputers to execute APL programs from
the extensive libraries created for mainframe computers. 30 They
invited MCM to learn about the company's APL accomplish-
ments. It is likely that MCM accepted TRACE is invitation, no
doubt looking for possible sales to some of the corporations
that employed the club's members. However, no attempt was
made to use TRACE as a gateway to a larger North American
market, even after TRACE joined the Midwest Association of
Computer Clubs and began a regular exchange of its newsletter
with the many member clubs.
From 1976 on, MCM was shifting down its operations from
trailblazing innovation to survival mode. It was morphing into
a company that was no longer able to anticipate or respond to
market and technological trends, a company with deep financial
problems and inadequate marketing. Out of synch with the APL
movement and unable to profit from either the computer hobby
movement or the rapid growth in home and desktop microcom-
puter markets, MCM was finally relegated to the periphery of
computing where the technological collective memory is neither