Interdata
[Image:Former manufacturing facility of Interdata Incorporated.jpg|thumb|Interdata's offices and manufacturing facility in Oceanport, New Jersey (here seen in 2022), consisted of four interconnected buildings that were constructed from the 1960s through 1983. ]
Interdata, Inc., was a computer company, founded in 1966 by a former Electronic Associates engineer, Daniel Sinnott, and was based in Oceanport, New Jersey. The company produced a line of 16- and 32-bit minicomputers that were loosely based on the IBM 360 instruction set architecture but at a cheaper price. In 1974, it produced one of the first 32-bit minicomputers, the Interdata 7/32. The company then used the parallel processing approach, which uses more than one computer processor simultaneously to perform work on a problem. This helped in making real-time computing a reality.
Some real-time applications Interdata computers were used for included: Core Protection Calculator, used in some later Combustion Engineering designed nuclear power plants; lottery systems manufactured by GTech; the NexRad weather radar system. Many companies used them for internal high speed laboratory data capture, such as United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, Connecticut wind tunnel, General Electric R&D in Schenectady, New York, and Perkin-Elmer in Connecticut.
The 16-bit computers had several operating systems, such as the Basic Operating System, Disk Operating System, Real Time Operating System, and OS/16. The 32-bit computers had OS/32. The assembly language could generate series independent object code. Later, as with Gould, SEL, Modcomp and other real time competitors, they offered a 32-bit time sharing system called MTM.
Acquisitions
In 1973, Interdata was purchased by Perkin-Elmer Corporation, a Connecticut-based producer of scientific instruments for $63.6 million. Interdata was already making $19 million in annual sales but this merger made Perkin-Elmer's annual sales rise to over $200 million. Interdata then became the basis for Perkin-Elmer's Data Systems Group. In 1985, the computing division of Perkin-Elmer was spun off as Concurrent Computer Corporation.List of products
- Interdata Model 1 – 1970
- Interdata Model 3 – 1967
- Interdata 4
- Interdata 5
- Interdata 70, 74, 80, 85
- Interdata 50, 55
- Interdata 5/16, 6/16, 7/16
- Interdata 8/16, 8/16e
- Interdata RD-800 and RD-850 – 1975
- Interdata 7/32 – 1974
- Interdata 8/32 – 1975
- Perkin-Elmer 3205, 3210, 3220, 3230, 3240, 3250, 3280