Computer Corporation of America
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software, Database technology |
| Founded | 1965 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Founder | Thomas Marill |
| Fate | Acquired by Crowntek in 1984; later acquired by Rocket Software in 2010 |
| Headquarters | Cambridge , United States |
| Products | Model 204 (M204) database system, CCA EMACS, System 1022, System 1032 |
| Parent | Rocket Software (from 2010) |
Computer Corporation of America (CCA), established in 1965 by Thomas Marill in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on developing computer software and database technologies. Its most prominent product was the Model 204 (M204) database system, introduced in 1972, which was tailored for IBM mainframe computers and distinguished itself by combining a programming language with an integrated application development environment.
CCA managed the ARPANET Datacomputer and broadened its offerings in 1992 by acquiring the System 1022 and System 1032 database products from Software House, which were designed for Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-10 and VAX platforms.
In 1984, Crowntek, a company based in Toronto, purchased CCA. Subsequently, Crowntek divested its Advanced Information Technology division to Xerox in 1988. The remaining operations were later acquired in April 2010 by Rocket Software, a Boston-based firm specializing in enterprise infrastructure solutions.
CCA EMACS
The initial advertisements for CCA EMACS (Computer Corporation of America), created by Steve Zimmerman, emerged in 1984. Originally derived from Warren Montgomery's EMACS, the product underwent a complete rewrite by its commercial release in 1983, removing all original source code. CCA EMACS was designed to closely replicate Richard Stallman’s original PDP-10 EMACS while introducing a wide array of additional commands. In 1984, it obtained a site license from MIT for Project Athena and demonstrated superior performance compared to other Emacs variants available at that time.