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Guide to the G. Edward Bryan collection on the CP-6 system
X2901.2005
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Title: G. Edward Bryan collection on the CP-6 system
Identifier/Call Number: X2901.2005
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
60.84 Linear feet,
45 record cartons, 4 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1965-1992
Date (inclusive): 1955-2002
Abstract: The G. Edward Bryan collection on the CP-6 system contains material on the Honeywell CP-6 operating system and the team that
built it at the Los Angeles Development Center (LADC). In an effort to attract Xerox CP-V users to Honeywell machines, the
LADC was established in 1976 to develop CP-V’s backward-compatible successor, CP-6. The LADC team was a hybrid of Xerox programmers
and Honeywell management, with Bryan as its director. The collection holds LADC’s administrative records, publications, presentation
materials, and records relating to the development and releases of CP-6. The collection spans 1955 to 2002. The LADC and CP-6
parts of the collection span 1973 through 2002, but are primarily from 1976 when the project began until 1992 when support
for CP-6 was transferred to ACTC Technologies.
Languages: The collection is almost entirely in English. There is a small amount of material in Swedish, Japanese, German, and French.
creator:
Bryan, George Edward, d. 2014
Collection processed by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden, 2015.
Materials in boxes 1 and 8 contain social security numbers. Researchers must use redacted photocopies of this restricted material
for research. Otherwise, the collection is open for research.
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying
any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the
Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer
History Museum.
[Identification of Item], [Date], G. Edward Bryan collection on the CP-6 system, Lot X2901.2005, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog
[#], Computer History Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of G. Edward Bryan, 2004.
G. Edward Bryan received his BS in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1954 and an MS-level certificate in communications
from Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1957. He worked in system design and engineering at Bell from 1954 to 1960, then worked
at the RAND Corporation’s Computer Sciences Department (also known as the RAND Computation Center) until 1967, where he was
on the design team that developed the JOSS-II time-sharing programming language.
After RAND, Bryan worked at Scientific Data Systems (SDS) as the manager of operating systems development. SDS was acquired
by Xerox and renamed Xerox Data Systems (XDS) in 1969; Bryan continued to work there as a computer scientist on the programming
development team that worked on the CP-V operating system for Xerox’s Sigma system of computers. CP-V was released in 1973,
but by 1975, Xerox decided to leave the computer business and Honeywell Inc. acquired XDS and around 60 programmers from the
CP-V development team, including Bryan, in 1976.
Honeywell also acquired Xerox’s Sigma user base and pledged to continue supporting the Sigma line as they developed an updated
and improved version of CP-V that would be nearly identical to the Sigma operating system but operational only on Honeywell
machines. They called this operating system CP-6, and it would allow Xerox customers to migrate from their Sigma computers
to Honeywell’s own computers with relative ease. CP-6 could be used with Honeywell’s Level 66, DPS 8, DPS 8000, and DPS 90.
Honeywell opened the Los Angeles Development Center (LADC) in 1976 as the center of operations for CP-6 development. As an
LADC director, Bryan oversaw the programmers who would create CP-6 in just three years, a development rate that Bryan noted
was twice as fast with half the errors as comparable software projects. CP-6 was designed using the programming language PL-6,
which was developed by LADC specifically for the project. The first Sigma customer to implement CP-6 was Carleton University
in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1979, and eventually they gained more than 70 CP-6 customers.
In 1987, Honeywell, NEC (Nippon Electric Company), and Groupe Bull merged to create Honeywell Bull. The new company decided
to refocus its efforts and phase out the development of CP-6. Honeywell Bull was consolidated into Groupe Bull in 1988 and
the name was changed to Bull HN in 1989.
That same year, it was announced that LADC would be closing and support for CP-6 would move to the Canadian company ACTC Technologies
Inc., which was partially owned by Bull. Before the shutdown, Bryan considered and proposed several alternatives that would
save LADC, such as transforming it into a business independent of Bull and proposing the acquisition of LADC and its staff
to several companies. Ultimately, Bull decided to keep LADC open during the transition of CP-6 support to ACTC, retaining
essential staff and laying off others. Ten to 12 programmers, including Bryan, stayed on under a two-year contract to train
the ACTC staff in the support and maintenance of CP-6 from 1990 to 1992.
Before the LADC contracts ended, Bryan sent letters and resumes to other companies in an attempt to keep his CP-6 team together,
or at the very least employed. In December of 1992, LADC closed for good and the staff that did not continue to contract with
ACTC were laid off. Bryan took an early retirement from Bull. CP-6 remained in operation and supported by ACTC until 2005,
when the last system was shut down at Carleton University, the first site to implement it. Bryan died July 9, 2014.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The G. Edward Bryan collection on the CP-6 system contains material on the Honeywell CP-6 operating system and the team that
built it at the Los Angeles Development Center (LADC). The LADC was established in 1976 to develop a CP-V backward compatible
successor, the CP-6, to attract Xerox CP-V users to Honeywell machines. The LADC team was a hybrid of Xerox programmers and
Honeywell management, with Bryan as its director. The “Honeywell CP-6 project” series is primarily made up of records created
at the LADC starting in 1976 when the project began until 1992 when support for CP-6 was transferred to ACTC Technologies
in Canada. LADC administrative records and materials relating to the development and releases of CP-6 make up the bulk of
this series, which also includes publications, and presentation materials. Collection highlights in the LADC administrative
records include Bryan’s notebooks, calendars, and dayplanners and various forms of original artwork from LADC employees that
document the frustration that many LADC members felt over the Honeywell-Bull merger and the end of CP-6. Also included in
the “Honeywell CP-6 project” series are promotional material, press, manuals, and conference and presentation materials. The
non-CP-6 series in the collection contain Honeywell administrative records and publications related to other projects and
products. A significant portion of the collection includes materials created at Scientific Data Systems (SDS) and Xerox Data
Systems (XDS) documenting the Universal Time-Sharing System (UTS) and CP-V – both of which were the main predecessors to Honeywell’s
CP-6 system in terms of architecture and user base. One other company where Bryan worked that is prevalent in the collection
is the RAND Corporation. The materials from RAND are primarily from the 1960s and focus on the JOHNNIAC computer and JOSS
programming language. Other companies and publications represented in the non-CP-6 series include IBM, and to a lesser extent,
the Control Data Corporation (CDC), Philco, General Electric (GE), Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and several volumes
of the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Series 1, Honeywell CP-6 project, 1973-2002, bulk 1976-1992
Series 2, Non-CP-6 Honeywell, 1974-1992
Series 3, SDS and XDS records, 1964-1983
Series 4, RAND Corporation records, 1955-2001, bulk 1960-1969
Series 5, IBM records, 1956-1965
Series 6, Other companies and publications, 1956-1993
Non-text items were separated from the main collection. These include packaged software, circuit boards, audiotapes, videotapes,
slides, photographs, framed images, plaques, posters, buttons, mugs and a mug warmer, paperweights, a Honeywell post-it holder,
a T-shirt, a tie and tie clip, lapel pins, a keychain, a matchbox, a scarf, a pennant with buttons attached, and an LADC pewter
tankard. To view catalog records for separated items go to the CHM website at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/ .
Keith G. Calkins collection on Sigma systems, Lot X4287.2008.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
CP-6
CP-V
Honeywell Inc.
International Business Machines.
JOHNNIAC computer
Operating systems (Computers)
Rand Corporation
Scientific Data Systems
Xerox Corporation