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Data General

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Data General Corporation
Company typePublic
IndustryComputer hardware, software
Founded1 January 1968; 58 years ago (1968-01-01) in Hudson, Massachusetts, United States
FounderEdson de Castro, Henry Burkhardt III, Richard Sogge, Herbert Richman
Headquarters
Hudson
,
United States
ProductsMinicomputers (Nova, Eclipse, Eclipse MV/8000), AViiON series, CLARiiON storage devices, DG/UX operating system, programming languages and software (Data General Business Basic, DG/SQL)
ParentEMC Corporation (after acquisition)

Data General Corporation emerged as a pioneering minicomputer company in 1968, established by former engineers from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Their inaugural product, the 1969 Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer engineered to surpass DEC’s 12-bit PDP-8 in both performance and affordability. The Nova delivered enhanced speed, greater scalability, reduced physical footprint, and improved reliability, all while costing approximately two-thirds of comparable systems. Combined with Data General RDOS and programming languages such as Data General Business Basic, the Nova stood out as a premier multi-user platform throughout the early 1970s.

The Nova line was eventually succeeded by the Eclipse family, which offered expanded memory capacity yet preserved compatibility with existing Nova software. Although production faced initial hurdles, the Eclipse series ultimately replaced a significant number of Novas in the marketplace. As the computing industry transitioned toward 32-bit systems, Data General introduced the Data General Eclipse MV/8000, a development famously documented in The Soul of a New Machine. Nevertheless, the debut of the IBM PC in 1981 marked the beginning of minicomputers’ decline, leading to a substantial loss of market share for Data General by the decade’s close. The 1984 launch of the Data General/One laptop was unable to reverse this downward trend.

In response, Data General shifted strategy with the 1989 introduction of the AViiON series—scalable Unix-based systems that ranged from workstations to servers. Incorporating NUMA architecture, AViiON allowed multiple standard processors to function together efficiently. This advancement laid the groundwork for the successful CLARiiON range of network-attached storage devices during the late 1990s. Data General’s emphasis on storage technology eventually led to its acquisition by EMC, which discontinued all product lines except CLARiiON, maintaining its availability until 2012.

Founding and Early Development: Nova and SuperNova

Founded in 1968 in Hudson, Massachusetts, Data General (DG) was created by former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation dissatisfied with DEC’s management approach. Key founders included Edson de Castro, Henry Burkhardt III, Richard Sogge, and Herbert Richman from Fairchild Semiconductor. Harvey Newquist II was brought on board to manage manufacturing operations.

Edson de Castro, previously chief engineer for DEC’s PDP-8 minicomputer series, recognized potential cost savings through more efficient manufacturing processes. With DEC concentrating on higher-end markets, there was an opportunity to develop an affordable 16-bit machine. This led to the 1969 release of the Data General Nova, a compact 16-bit minicomputer featuring an accumulator-based design aimed at scientific and educational sectors. The Nova rapidly gained market acceptance, generating substantial revenue that allowed Data General to go public later that year.

Building on this success, DG introduced the faster SuperNova, equipped with a 16-bit arithmetic logic unit capable of quadrupling processing speeds. Subsequent models culminated in the Nova 4 launched in 1978. The Nova family fueled annual growth rates around 20%, reaching $100 million in sales by 1975. In 1977, DG rolled out the microNOVA, a 16-bit microcomputer that failed to achieve commercial success.

The architectural design of the Nova influenced early personal computing innovations and notably inspired Charles P. Thacker and his team at Xerox PARC during development of the Xerox Alto.

Late 1970s to late 1980s: challenges and interim measures

In 1974, Data General introduced the Eclipse, a sophisticated 16-bit system designed to succeed the Nova by incorporating virtual memory and multitasking capabilities intended to better serve small office environments.

Nevertheless, the Eclipse encountered significant manufacturing difficulties that resulted in numerous lawsuits during the late 1970s. Clients who had placed advance orders for updated models that never materialized pursued breach of contract claims or withdrew their orders. Although the Eclipse was meant to replace the Nova line, these setbacks sustained demand for the Nova series, prompting Data General to release the Nova 4 despite earlier plans to discontinue it.

Fountainhead

During Data General’s struggles with the Eclipse, rival Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) launched its inaugural 32-bit minicomputer series, the VAX, in 1977, aiming at an expanding market for 32-bit systems.

In response, Data General initiated the covert Fountainhead Project (FHP) in 1976, with the objective of creating a cutting-edge 32-bit machine featuring a writable instruction set architecture (ISA). This design allowed software to modify the ISA through microcode updates tailored to specific applications such as COBOL.

Despite this innovative approach, FHP encountered management difficulties and failed to reach completion before DEC released the VAX-11/780 in early 1978. Consequently, numerous Data General customers transitioned to DEC’s VAX platform.

Eagle

By spring 1978, while Fountainhead was still delayed, Data General launched a secretive skunkworks initiative named "Eagle," led by Tom West. Eagle extended the Nova-based Eclipse into a 32-bit architecture that maintained backward compatibility with 16-bit software but provided enhanced 32-bit performance compared to the VAX 11/780, using fewer hardware components.

By late 1979, Eagle was poised for release ahead of Fountainhead, causing internal disputes over funding priorities. Meanwhile, customer defections increased due to Eclipse’s delivery problems and quality concerns alongside competition from Digital’s VAX series. Ultimately, Fountainhead was abandoned; Eagle evolved into the MV series, which debuted with the Data General Eclipse MV/8000 in April 1980.

The Eagle project gained widespread recognition through Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Soul of a New Machine, making the MV line one of the most thoroughly chronicled computer developments ever.

MV series

The MV series represented a significant recovery for Data General’s business fortunes. By 1984, annual revenues surpassed one billion dollars as market acceptance expanded.

A notable example of adoption was by the United States Forest Service during the mid-1980s, which deployed DG systems extensively from central offices to remote field stations. These implementations demanded dependable and rugged machines operable by personnel without technical expertise, facilitating functional integration within an agency traditionally characterized by decentralization. RAND Corporation studies highlighted improvements in organizational productivity resulting from these deployments.

The MV line progressed through several iterations: MV/2000 (subsequently MV/2500), MV/4000, MV/10000, culminating in the high-availability MV/60000HA model. The latter incorporated redundant components designed to reduce downtime but encountered quality assurance challenges related to manufacturing and refurbishment processes in Mexico.

Although delivering robust performance, the MV series arrived at a time when Data General was heavily invested in a shrinking minicomputer industry while microcomputers and workstations rapidly captured lower-end markets—areas previously dominated by DG. Additionally, a strategic shift toward direct sales focused on Fortune 100 clients alienated resellers, restricting market penetration and impeding business expansion.

Software

Data General created essential operating systems tailored for its hardware lineup, including DOS and RDOS designed for the Nova series, RDOS and AOS utilized by the 16-bit Eclipse C, M, and S models, as well as AOS/VS and AOS/VS II developed for the Eclipse MV series. For the Eclipse MV and AViiON platforms, they introduced DG/UX, a variant derived from UNIX System V. Among these, the AOS/VS system stood out as the most extensively adopted product, featuring a Command Line Interpreter (CLI) that allowed advanced scripting capabilities and customization options.

The firm also provided support for networking standards such as X.25 and TCP/IP. Their programming language offerings encompassed Fortran, COBOL, RPG, PL/I, C, and Data General Business Basic. On the database front, products like INFOS II, DG/DBMS, and one of the early relational database systems named DG/SQL were part of their portfolio.

Data General’s office automation solution, known as Comprehensive Electronic Office (CEO), combined functionalities like email, calendar management, document storage, word processing through CEOWrite, and spreadsheet applications—tools that were considered innovative during their era. Notably, CEOWrite was also accessible on the DG One Portable device.

In the 1970s, significant software advancements included PLN—a host language developed by Robert Nichols—which simplified product development compared to traditional macro assembler techniques. The RPG system incorporated a runtime environment structured as a virtual machine that executed pre-compiled PLN code with microcode enhancements to manage complex data types efficiently. Although never commercially released, the DG Easy platform (1975–79) was based on this RPG virtual machine architecture.

Several commercial software products gained popularity among business users due to their intuitive screen design capabilities:

  • IDEA (Interactive Data Entry/Access) integrated a screen design utility (IFMT), a transaction processing controller (IMON), and a development language (IFPL). Initially operating on RDOS with support for up to 24 users per partition, it later expanded compatibility across Data General hardware ranging from MicroNova to the MV series under AOS/VS.
  • The CS40 line employed COBOL enhanced with an improved screen layout section alongside a proprietary ISAM-based data manager. It allowed multiple terminal users to run distinct COBOL applications concurrently.
  • Introduced in 1980, TPMS (Transaction Processing Monitoring System) efficiently managed extensive numbers of COBOL or PL/I users while utilizing fewer processors on AOS/AOS/VS platforms. Sharing IDEA’s screen design tool but requiring subroutine integration from COBOL or PL/I code, TPMS targeted professional IS developers competing against IBM’s CICS and DEC’s TRAX systems. It leveraged INFOS for information management and DG/DBMS for database services.

These software solutions reflected Data General’s strategic focus on delivering cohesive hardware-software packages that catered to enterprise demands in transaction processing and application development, thereby strengthening their position in the market.

Xodiac

In 1979, Data General introduced Xodiac, a networking system founded on the X.25 protocol standard augmented with proprietary application layer protocols. This system enabled connectivity between remote locations via commercial X.25 networks such as Telenet in the United States and Datapac in Canada. Support for Xodiac was provided through software suites including Comprehensive Electronic Office (CEO).

By June 1987, Data General announced intentions to phase out Xodiac in favor of adopting the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite. This transition aligned with industry trends aimed at improving network interoperability through standardized protocols.

Dasher terminals

Data General produced a variety of peripherals, including the well-regarded Dasher terminals, which featured high-quality CRT displays and hard-copy capabilities. These terminals were distinguished by their numerous function keys and versatile control-shift key combinations—elements that influenced the design of WordPerfect. The lineup included the model 6053 Dasher 2, notable for its adjustable screen and multiple embedded circuits. Subsequent versions such as the D100, D200, and D210 introduced more lightweight and compact user terminals, while advanced graphics models like the D460 offered support for ANSI X3.64 standards.

The majority of Data General’s software was fine-tuned to operate optimally with their own terminals or integrated emulators found in systems like the Desktop Generation DG10. Business BASIC applications enhanced terminal management by automatically detecting terminal types during user login, allowing for greater flexibility.

Data General/One

In 1984, Data General launched the Data General/One (DG-1), an early MS-DOS laptop designed for business professionals. Weighing approximately nine pounds and powered by batteries, it featured dual 3½-inch floppy disk drives, a full-stroke 79-key keyboard, memory ranging from 128 KB to 512 KB RAM, and a monochrome LCD display capable of rendering standard 80×25 text or CGA graphics at 640×200 resolution. The DG-1 marked a notable progression beyond contemporaneous portable computers such as Osborne and Kaypro models and represented Data General’s strategic entry into the nascent portable computing sector.

Desktop Generation

The "Desktop Generation" series was introduced by Data General starting with the DG10 model, which employed a patented architecture combining Data General and Intel processors. This design enabled simultaneous execution of MS-DOS or CP/M-86 alongside DG/RDOS by utilizing hardware acceleration where each CPU functioned as a co-processor for tasks including graphics rendering and disk management. Later iterations like the DG20 and DG30 targeted commercial applications such as multi-user COBOL environments, aiming to replace bulky minicomputers with modular microcomputers based on microECLIPSE CPUs and technology derived from the microNOVA-based "Micro Products" line (MP/100 and MP/200), which achieved only modest market penetration. The entry-level DG10SP was a single-processor variant without Intel software compatibility. Despite competitive specifications and less direct rivalry from PC compatibles at the time, the Desktop Generation series faced challenges because it primarily supported legacy software during a period when customers preferred either cost-effective personal computers or more powerful "super minicomputers" like MV and VAX.

Lock-in or no lock-in?

By the mid-1980s, advances in software development methodologies and the widespread adoption of SQL databases shifted enterprise computing away from bespoke applications toward integrated third-party software solutions. This evolution changed hardware purchasing decisions from focusing on price-performance metrics to prioritizing compatibility with preferred software packages.

Traditionally, vendors employed "vendor lock-in" strategies by creating proprietary systems that encouraged customers to remain within their ecosystems for upgrades. However, as commodity processors began delivering performance comparable to low-end minicomputers, this lock-in approach lost effectiveness. Increasingly, customers chose to replace entire systems with microcomputer-based alternatives.

A 1988 report authored by two company directors underscored that Data General needed substantial investment in software development to compete effectively against IBM and DEC or consider exiting proprietary hardware markets altogether. Thomas West's analysis highlighted that customers valued software availability more than allegiance to hardware brands. The report advocated for concentrating efforts on the Unix market segment where essential software was already established, enabling Data General to provide attractive Unix-based offerings. This approach sought to maintain customer loyalty through superior system performance rather than enforced lock-in, aligning with early 1990s industry trends that emphasized Unix compatibility as a critical factor.

AViiON

De Castro concurred with the evaluation, resulting in the discontinuation of future MV series developments. Instead, Data General introduced the advanced AViiON Unix server line, whose name cleverly reversed their initial product, Nova, suggesting "Nova II". To manage expenses, the first AViiON systems utilized the Motorola 88000 RISC processor. These servers supported multiprocessing capabilities and later transitioned to NUMA-based designs, allowing enhanced scalability by adding more processors.

CLARiiON

Enterprise systems demanded rapid storage solutions. At AViiON’s debut, standard hard drives failed to meet data center performance requirements. Data General tackled this challenge by operating numerous drives simultaneously, creating the High Availability Disk Array (HADA), which was subsequently renamed CLARiiON. CLARiiON arrays provided SCSI RAID configurations, delivering competitive price-to-performance ratios and broad platform compatibility relative to rivals.

The CLARiiON line targeted not only AViiON and MV users but also clients of Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphics servers. Data General invested in recruiting specialized storage sales personnel to compete against EMC Symmetrix’s market leadership.

Joint venture with Soviet company

On December 12, 1989, Data General partnered with Soviet software firm NPO Parma to establish Perekat (Перекат, meaning “Rolling Thunder”), marking the first US-Soviet collaboration in computing. DG contributed hardware while NPO Parma supplied software; Austrian companies Voest Alpine Industrieanlagenbau and Voest Alpine Vertriebe handled facility construction and marketing efforts.

Final downturn

Although DG concentrated on the AViiON series powered by Motorola’s 88000 processor, Motorola ceased production of this CPU due to disappointing sales and shifting priorities toward Apple-IBM’s PowerPC chips. DG was Motorola’s primary customer for the 88000.

In response, DG rapidly launched AViiON variants based on Intel x86 processors amid intensifying competition from firms such as Sequent Computer Systems. The commodification of Unix servers diminished DG’s market share and profit margins. Attempting to pivot, DG expanded into IT services by training technicians to support x86 servers running Microsoft Windows NT; however, this strategy failed to offset hardware revenue declines.

Amid the late 1990s internet surge, DG created the THiiN Line division under Tom West to produce "internet appliances." This initiative yielded the SiteStak web server appliance—an economical hosting solution aimed at small businesses and emerging online markets.

EMC takeover

Throughout the late 1990s, CLARiiON remained DG’s sole consistently successful product line, securing a solid position in Unix storage and enhancing Data General’s attractiveness as an acquisition candidate. In August 1999, EMC Corporation—an established leader in storage—announced its $1.1 billion purchase of Data General at $19.58 per share. The transaction concluded on October 12, 1999.

Following the acquisition, EMC halted all Data General hardware development and manufacturing activities, effectively ending DG’s hardware operations. Remaining maintenance services and hardware inventories were divested to third parties for spare parts. The CLARiiON series continued as a significant player under its original name until January 2012 and was extensively sold by Dell through a global OEM partnership with EMC. Eventually, CLARiiON and Celerra products merged into EMC’s unified VNX storage platform.

Data General became one of several New England technology firms—including Digital Equipment Corporation—that either dissolved or were absorbed after the 1980s. Even its original dg.com domain was sold in 2009 to discount retailer Dollar General.

Marketing

Data General implemented daring promotional tactics that significantly boosted its brand recognition. In the early 1980s, during the Desktop Generation phase, the company produced T-shirts featuring the slogan "We did it on a desktop," highlighting its groundbreaking technology. Its AViiON line of servers was promoted as compact yet highly capable computing systems.

Between 1985 and 1987, Data General sponsored the Tyrrell Formula 1 team, with its branding prominently displayed on the Tyrrell 014, 015, and DG016 race cars—the last of which was named as a tribute to Data General.

Alumni

References


External links

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