Microdata Corporation

Microdata Corporation
Company type	Private (before acquisition)
Industry	Computer hardware, software
Founded	December 1969; 56 years ago
Defunct	March 1983
Fate	Acquired by McDonnell Douglas Corporation
Headquarters	Irvine, California, United States
Products	Microdata 800, Microdata 1600, Microdata 3200, Reality operating system

Microdata Corporation was a United States-based minicomputer manufacturer recognized for its Reality product series that operated on the Pick operating system.

Significant events in Microdata’s corporate timeline include:

Purchase by the global distributor CMC Leasings in December 1969
Acquisition by McDonnell Douglas Corporation in March 1983
Separation as McDonnell Douglas Information Systems in 1993
Merger into Northgate Information Solutions in April 2000
Purchase by NEC in 2018, followed by rebranding to NEC Software Solutions UK in 2021

Originally concentrating on hardware development, Microdata’s Reality system integrated its physical components with software derived from the publicly available Generalized Information Retrieval Language System (GIRLS), which was created by TRW Inc. under a contract from the U.S. government. Richard Pick transformed GIRLS into what became known as the Pick operating system, initially deployed on Microdata hardware in 1974.

Legal rulings regarding software ownership determined that rights to the operating system were shared between Microdata and Pick. After McDonnell Douglas divested, Pick improved the software’s adaptability, resulting in its broad implementation across multiple platforms, including the Prime INFORMATION system introduced by Prime Computer in 1979.

Media appearances

The Microdata corporate offices made a brief appearance in Godfrey Reggio's 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi.

ENGLISH (programming language)

One approach to data retrieval within some Pick system versions was called ENGLISH, a reporting language designed to generate outputs resembling natural English sentences. Alternative names used by Pick and related systems included:

RECALL (Ultimate)
ACCESS (Pick Systems)
INFO/ACCESS (PRIME Information)

Microdata hardware

Microdata’s product line featured three main computer models:

Microdata 800
Microdata 1600
Microdata 3200

Launched in 1969, the Microdata 800 was an 8-bit microprogrammed machine. It was licensed to the French firm Intertechnique, which marketed it across Europe as Multi-8. This model found applications in nuclear energy, scientific research areas such as crystallography and biology, and industrial process control.

The Microdata 1600 represented an upgraded version of the 800’s processor and was sold by Intertechnique under the name Multi-4. The initial development of the Reality operating system took place on the Microdata 800, while the first commercial Reality system based on the 1600 debuted in 1973. A distinctive feature of early Microdata processors was their user-accessible microcode, allowing programmers to create custom assembler instructions—a capability heavily utilized during Reality’s design.

Introduced in 1974, the Microdata 3200 was a 16-bit microprogrammed computer engineered to support a high-level programming language akin to IBM’s PL/I. It combined specialized design elements with adaptable firmware to facilitate complex microprogrammed architectures.

External links

Microdata Alumni Network

Documentation

Photographs

References