Editing Systems Concepts

{{Infobox company
| name=Systems Concepts, Inc.
| logo=Systems Concepts logo.svg
| founded=
| founder={{ubl|[[Stewart Nelson]]|[[Mike Levitt]]}}
| industry={{ubl|Computer|Technology}}
| products=Hardware
}}
'''Systems Concepts, Inc.''' (now the '''SC Group'''), was a company co-founded by [[Stewart Nelson]] and [[Mike Levitt]] focused on making [[computer hardware|hardware]] products related to the [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[PDP-10]] series of [[computer]]s.  One of its major products was the SA-10, an interface which allowed PDP-10s to be connected to [[disk storage|disk]] and [[tape drive|tape]] drives designed for use with the channel interfaces of [[IBM mainframe]]s.

Later, Systems Concepts attempted to produce a compatible replacement for the DEC PDP-10 computers.  "Mars" was the code name for a family of PDP-10-compatible computers built by Systems Concepts, including the initial SC-30M, the smaller SC-25, and the slower SC-20. These machines were marvels of engineering design; although not much slower than the unique [[Foonly]] F-1, they were physically smaller and consumed less power than the much slower DEC KS10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machines. They were also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10 binaries (including the [[operating system]]) with no modifications at about 2-3 times faster than a KL10.

When DEC cancelled the [[Jupiter project]] in 1983, Systems Concepts hoped to sell their machine to customers with a software investment in PDP-10s. Their spring 1984 announcement generated excitement in the PDP-10 world. [[TOPS-10]] was running on the Mars by the summer of 1984, and [[TOPS-20]] by early fall. However, people at Systems Concepts were better at designing machines than at mass-producing or selling them; the company continually improved the design, but lost credibility as delivery dates continued to slip. They also overpriced; believing they were competing with the KL10 and [[VAX 8000|VAX 8600]] and not startups such as [[Sun Microsystems]] building workstations with comparable power at a fraction of the price. By the time SC shipped the first SC-30M to [[Stanford University]] in late 1985, most customers had already abandoned the PDP-10, usually for [[OpenVMS|VMS]] or [[Unix]] systems. Nevertheless, a number were purchased by [[CompuServe]], which depended on PDP-10s to run its online service and was eager to move to newer but fully compatible systems. CompuServe's demand for the computers outpaced Systems Concepts' ability to produce them, so CompuServe licensed the design and built SC-designed computers itself.
Other companies that purchased the SC-30 machines included [[Telmar (company)|Telmar]], [[Reynolds and Reynolds]], [[DSB (railway company)|The Danish National Railway]].

[[Peter Samson]] was director of marketing and program development.<ref name="CHMbio">{{cite web
  | publisher= Computer History Museum
  | title = Peter Samson
  | year = 2004
  | url = http://pdp-1.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/index.php?f=theme&s=3&ss=10
  | access-date = August 6, 2014
}}</ref>

SC later designed the SC-40, released in 1993, a faster follow-on to the SC-30M and SC-25.  It can perform up to 8 times as fast as a DEC KL-10, and it also supports more [[random access memory|physical memory]], a larger [[virtual memory|virtual address space]], and more modern [[input/output]] devices. These systems were also used at CompuServe.

In 1985, the company contracted to engineer and produce a PC-based [[Cellular automaton|cellular automata]] system for [[Tommaso Toffoli]] of MIT, called the [[CAM-6]]. The CAM-6 was a 2-card "sandwich" that plugged into an [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] slot and ran cellular automata rules at a 60 Hz update rate. Toffoli provided [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]]-based software to operate the card. The production problems that plagued the company's computer products were demonstrated here as well, and only a few boards were produced.

Systems Concepts remained in business, having changed its name to the SC Group when it moved from [[California]] to [[Nevada]].

==See also==
Other companies that produced PDP-10 compatible computers:
* [[Foonly]]
* [[XKL]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616090028/http://www.scgroup.com/sc40.html |date=June 16, 2013 |title=Description of SC-40 at SC Group website }}

{{JargonFile}}

[[Category:Defunct computer companies based in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]