347:(MCI) negotiated what they called the "Deal of the Century", where MCI would take ownership of the U.S.-based portions of Tymnet and they would create a joint venture called "Concert". (The joint venture was called "NewCo" for more than a year while they decided on a name). Concert was also aligned with another acquisition of BT, called Synchordia which was headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Tymnet was then referred to as The Packet network, the BT/MCI network and Concert Packet-switching Services (CPS). At first, MCI only wanted to use the points of presence (POPs) that Tymnet had, because there were locations in over 150 cities in the United States, giving MCI more locations from which to provide local service. As MCI cut away at Tymnet, expecting it to die, it became a cash cow that just wouldn't go away.
186:. It extended to Brussels in 1973. An operation in the United Kingdom started in 1974. In 1976, a joint venture with Taylorix Organisation, called Taylorix-Tymshare GmbH, was founded in Stuttgart, Germany. Taylorix-Tymshare offered applications, e.g., the eMail system "OnTyme" based on Tymnet, the multi-dimensional database system "Express" . Marketing departments of some large companies (like Johnson&Johnson or BAT) used Express (available via type-writer in time-sharing mode, later on also available on PC) for the analysis of Nielsen or GfK sales data. Taylorix-Tymshare ceased operation in 1986.
419:
alliance. At times, things came to a standstill, or decisions made were reversed, and some reversed again at a later time. Parts of the project were to migrate customers from X.25 to IP based networks, while others created a duplicate set of services so that both
Concert and MCI could separately continue to run and manage their own portions of the network. Accounting data for network usage was also shared by the two companies and had to be separated before clients could be billed properly.
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supervisor was written in assembly code by Tymes for the SDS 940, with architectural design contributions from Hardy in late 1969. The network became fully operational in 1970, and by 1972 the resulting Tymnet system connected 40 cities in the United States. Tymnet was a centralized network, unlike ARPANET; it featured centralized password storage, statistical multiplexing, flow management, and great attention to security issues.
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acquisition of Tymnet which was already a worldwide data network helped to achieve that goal. On
November 17, 1989 MDNSC officially became BT Tymnet with its headquarters in San Jose, California. BT brought with it the idea of continuous development with teams in America, Europe, and Asia-pacific all working together on the same projects. BT renamed the Tymnet services, Global Network Services (GNS).
247:"common carrier" which allowed it greater latitude as a communications service but placed its rate-setting under regulatory review. In this model, Tymnet allowed users to connect their host computers and terminals to the network, and use the computers from remote sites or sell time on their computers to other users of the network, with Tymnet charging them for the use of the network.
25:
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second pair of servers for catastrophic failover was also installed in
Malvern, Pennsylvania and later moved to Norristown, Pennsylvania as part of later site consolidation efforts. After the migration, these servers managed source code and binary images for more than 6600 nodes and 38,000 customer interfaces worldwide.
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nodes and their portion of the network on March 31, 2003. BT continued to run the network using their own supervisor and other utility nodes until
February 2004 when their last customer was able to move all of its customers to other access services. BT and AT&T dissolved their Concert alliance on
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alliance between BT and AT&T, moving the headquarters to
Atlanta, Georgia. This alliance did not help the negotiations between BT and MCI WorldCom as their partners from MCI and AT&T were corporate enemies. For Tymnet, the data network portion of the split, and the "CPS Leonardo" project, the
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Another project begun a few months before the BT purchase was to migrate the Tymnet code repository from the PDP-10s to Sun systems. The new servers were dubbed the Code
Generation Systems or CGS. They were initially six Sun-3/280 servers upgraded eventually to two Sun-4/690 servers for redundancy. A
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On July 30, 1989, it was announced that
British Telecom was purchasing McDonnell Douglas Network Systems Company, and McDonnell Douglas Field Service Company was being spun off as a start-up called NovaDyne. McDonnell Douglas was later acquired by Boeing. British Telecom (BT) wanted to expand and the
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WorldCom executives were involved in a financial scandal resulting in the CEO, Bernie Ebbers, to be ousted and later charged with violations of federal statutes. This scandal sent the stock price down to 10 cents per share, and WorldCom filed for bankruptcy. It emerged from bankruptcy renamed as MCI
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network. Telematics
International developed a subset of the Tymnet protocols to run on their ACP/PCP nodes. The Telematics nodes were connected in a mesh network (every node logically connected to every other node) via frame-relay and appeared to Tymnet as super-nodes that were directly connected to
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British
Telecom brought new life to the company with development of hardware and software for the Tymnet data network using contacts BT already had with telecommunication hardware vendors. There was also a trial of "next-generation" nodes scattered throughout the network, called "TURBO engine nodes"
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as part of the acquisition of
Tymshare. The company was renamed McDonnell Douglas Tymshare, and began a major reorganization. A year later, McDonnell Douglas (MD) split Tymshare into several separate operating companies: MD Network Systems Company, MD Field Service Company, MD RCS, MD "xxx" and many
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using a non-standard x.25 interface and a high speed bi-synch modem used by the EDI customers. Prior to shutting down the MCI/WorldCom portion of Tymnet, they adapted the Tymnet Engine node code to permit internal connections between the x.25 interface and the high-speed modem interface without the
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after they made a better offer for the company. Actually, the WorldCom offer was nearly identical to the BT offer, but where BT planned to buy out MCI shares of stock, WorldCom offered a stock-swap, which was more attractive to the stockholders. WorldCom took control in September 1998 and dissolved
100:
In 1984, Tymshare was acquired by McDonnell Douglas, to which Tymshare had sold its hospital accounting service in 1982. Tymshare was restructured, split up and portions were resold, spun off, and merged with other companies from 1984 through 2004 when most of its legacy network was eventually shut
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for its PDP-10s, began independent work on the OS for their systems, called it TYMCOM-X, and implemented a file system that supported random access, paging with working sets, and spawnable processes. The OS work was done by a group of eleven people: Bill Weiher, Vance Socci, Allen Ginzburg, Karen
171:
Tymshare acquired a variety of companies during its 20 years of operation. One of the first, in 1968, was Dial Data, a time-sharing service bureau in Newton, Massachusetts, that had an additional five SDS 940 computers. Additional acquisitions included United Data Centers, Alan-Babcock Computing,
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and created McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Group (MDISC), expecting to turn Microdata's desktop and server systems along with Tymshare's servers and Tymnet data network into a major player in the Information Services market. Microdata's systems were integrated into many parts of McDonnell
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and soon became a more capable 16-bit Varian 620i—would serve as the network's nodes, running a program called a "supervisor" which routed data, performed diagnostics, and kept network statistics; a local program at each node, dubbed a "leprechaun," handled log-in, security, and diagnostics. The
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Concert created Project Leonardo to separate the BT and MCI WorldCom voice and data networks. At times over the next five years, advancements were made or stalled due to BT and MCI management negotiating and renegotiating the terms of their contractual obligations to each other made during the
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were becoming a practical and even important part of corporate and personal life. Tymnet technology needed improvements to keep pace with TCP/IP and other Internet protocols. Both BT and MCI decided not to compete with the Internet, but to convert their customer base to IP-based networks and
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September 30, 2003 and the remaining BT assets were combined with BTNA assets into BT Americas, Inc. Sometime in early March 2004, without ceremony, BT Americas disconnected the last two remaining Tymnet supervisors from the network, effectively shutting it down.
235:. Tymnet II ran in parallel with the original network, which continued to run on the Varian machines until it was phased out over a period of several years. Tymnet II's different method of constructing virtual circuits allowed for much better scalability.
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In May 1994, there were still three DEC KL-10s under TYMCOM-X. At this time, the network had approximately 5000 nodes in 30 foreign countries. A variety of protocols can be run over a single packet-switching-network, and Tymnet's most-used protocols were
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aid of the Tymnet Supervisor. Once this was tested and deployed, they were able to shut down the rest of the MCI/WorldCom portion of Tymnet and continue to support their EDI customers. These "islands" of Tymnet were still running 5 years later in 2008.
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Douglas, but Tymnet never was. MDC really did not seem to understand the telecommunications market. After five years, peace was breaking out in many places in the world and McDonnell Douglas sold off MDNSC and MDFSC at a profit for much needed cash.
311:, though the majority of PDP-10s were still around in the early 1990s for legacy code, as well as documentation storage. Eventually, all of the code development sources were on the Sun-4s, and the development tools (NAD, etc.) had been ported to
137:'s Computer Department. The company was entering the new market of time-sharing, which at that time was expected to grow rapidly. GE would itself soon enter this market as well, after collaborating with
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BT and Concert also continued to develop the network, and after the failure of the "Turbo nodes" to take off, decided to have an outside company add Tymnet protocols to existing hardware used in their
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In 1968, LaRoy Tymes and Norm Hardy developed the idea of creating a network with minicomputers to communicate with the mainframes. The minicomputers started off as an inexpensive 12-bit computer from
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Tymnet was still growing, and at several times reached its peak capacity when some of its customers held network intensive events. One of these of note was a live, on-line presentation and chat on
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technologies. However, the Tymnet network was still bringing in considerable cash — in some cases more than current IP based services—so both BT and MCI needed to keep their customers happy.
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It soon became apparent that the SDS 940 could not keep up with the rapid growth of the network. In 1972, Joseph Rinde joined the Tymnet group and began porting the Supervisor code to the 32-bit
179:, as the 8/32 was not yet ready. In 1973, the 8/32 became available, but the performance was disappointing, and a crash-effort was made to develop a machine that could run Rinde's Supervisor.
998:
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220:), Todd Corenson, Murray Bowles, Randy Gobbel, Bill Soley, and Darren Price. Most Tymnet development was then done on TYMCOM-X. Also in the 1970s, Tymshare acquired the
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In 1974, a second version of the Supervisor software became operational. The new Tymnet "Engine" software was used on both the Supervisor machines and on the nodes.
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split was never fully realized. Instead, MCI WorldCom completed their migration of services from Tymnet to IP based services in March 2003 and disconnected their
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for more than $ 16 billion. Shortly thereafter, the SBC name was changed to AT&T Inc. to distinguish itself from the original AT&T Corp.
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more. (This is sometimes referred to the Alphabet Soup phase of the company). By then, Tymnet had outlived its parent company, Tymshare.
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rewrote the time-sharing system to service 32 simultaneous users. By 1969 the company had three locations, 100 staff, and five SDS 940s.
97:(EDI), credit card and payment processing, and database technology. It was headquartered in Cupertino in California, from 1964 to 1984.
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MCI WorldCom still had a profitable segment of its business based on EDI technology. This technology used Tymnet to interface between
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platform, initially running at University of California Berkeley. They received their own leased 940 in mid-1966, running the
374:. Funding for this project was at a minimum but the Tymnet engineers believed it was a superior method and proceeded anyway.
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330:. Tymnet usage statistics showed AOL's call capacity was greater than its maximum volume for the duration of the event.
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In 1997 talks were underway for BT to acquire MCI. The deal fell through, and in September, 1998 MCI was acquired by
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as many as 44 other super-nodes interconnecting most of Europe, Asia and the Americas as a high speed data network.
497:. Prior to its transformation into Verizon, Bell Atlantic had merged with another Regional Bell Operating Company,
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In the beginning of the 1970s Tymshare became available in Europe through CEGOS-Tymshare, a joint venture with
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851:"Historical Background to CSCW and Groupware: Engelbart's Vision of IT-Driven Organizational Integration"
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began the process of unraveling and separating their extensive voice and data communications systems.
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MCI took a different direction and sought to migrate the network protocols to run over TCP/IP and use
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technology. The supervisor technology was rewritten in C to run as standard UNIX applications under
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family. In the mid to late 1980s, serious node-code development was migrated from the PDP-10s to
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The Foonly F4 was remarketed as the System 26KL (another name for the Tymshare System XXVI).
108:. Consequently, rights to use technology developed by Tymshare are currently held by Boeing,
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Tymshare was founded in 1964 by Thomas O’Rourke and David Schmidt, two former employees of
482:, formerly WorldCom, after SBC agreed to acquire AT&T Corp. just a few weeks earlier.
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Tymshare's MAGNUM is one of the oldest commercial .. another old relational database ...
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service and third-party hardware maintenance company. Competing with companies such as
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down. Islands of its network technology continued as part of EDI, into 2008.
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In the 1970s, Tymshare, which had used Digital Equipment's operating system
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815:.. large private networks (BOFANET and TRWNET) built on Tymnet technology
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After the migration to Interdata, they started developing Tymnet on the
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In 2000 BT then went searching for another alliance, and created a new
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In 1976, Tymnet Inc. was spun off from Tymshare Inc. and became an
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Tymshare's founder and president, Thomas O'Rourke, expects ...
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753:"Taylorix sucht AnschluĂź an internationales Timesharing-Netz"
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Tymshare attempted marketing a line of computer developed by
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due to the acquisitions and mergers from 1984 through 2005.
697:
Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry
307:(SPARC based) workstations and servers were purchased from
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Concert and BT+AT&T's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia
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computer system, commercialized by Tymshare around 1968.
196:. Tymshare sold a copy of the Tymnet network software to
355:, asynchronous terminal and host (ATI/AHI), and SNA.
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MDC Network Systems Company sold to British Telecom
827:"TYMCOM-x" "Free Online Dictionary of Computing"
478:On February 14, 2005, Verizon agreed to acquire
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999:Defunct computer companies of the United States
152:, which had limited time-sharing capability.
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399:the BT/MCI alliance as of October 15, 1998.
974:Technology companies disestablished in 1984
699:. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
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390:MCI, MCI WorldCom, WorldCom vs. BT, Concert
838:"Tymshare software" "Software", 2 Dec 2001
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403:Concert's headquarters in Reston, Virginia
648:"Tymshare Inc - Company Profile and News"
548:Tymshare System XXVI" was the main focus.
334:BTNA sold/split into MCI, Concert, and BT
200:, which created its own private network,
62:Learn how and when to remove this message
964:Technology companies established in 1964
625:"Tymshare tries to weather profit pinch"
303:(based on the Motorola 68000) and later
172:Bancard of Rhode Island, and TeleCheck.
559:
466:(SBC) announced that it would purchase
873:The Tymshare XX Series Computer Family
570:Computer Fundamentals and Applications
216:(founder of the company that produced
969:Defunct companies based in California
600:Thomas J. Lueck (February 28, 1984).
16:Defunct computer time-sharing service
7:
989:1984 disestablishments in California
534:Tymshare PDP-10 compatible computers
1004:Defunct computer hardware companies
519:implementation of a variant of the
144:Tymshare initially focussed on the
544:Tymshare XX Series Computer Family
251:Tymshare sold to McDonnell Douglas
104:McDonnell Douglas was acquired by
34:tone or style may not reflect the
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984:1964 establishments in California
491:Regional Bell Operating Companies
282:BT Tymnet, BT North America, BTNA
260:In 1984 Tymnet was bought by the
523:for the Scientific Data Systems
485:Verizon was formed in 2000 when
44:guide to writing better articles
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905:"Dave Poole may be lost at sea"
729:"An Interview with LaRoy Tymes"
231:Tymes and Rinde then developed
672:"O'Rourke, Tom - Oral History"
1:
994:1984 mergers and acquisitions
938:. Tymshare, Inc. October 1983
262:McDonnell Douglas Corporation
377:Times were changing and the
222:Augmentation Research Center
767:"Email Innovation Timeline"
602:"McDonnell to buy Tymshare"
268:McDonnell Douglas acquired
150:Berkeley Timesharing System
95:electronic data interchange
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521:BASIC programming language
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256:McDonnell Douglas Tymshare
87:Service Bureau Corporation
695:Yost, Jeffrey R. (2017).
929:"Tymshare's System 26KL"
407:With the alliance gone,
797:Nathan Gregory (2018).
212:Kolling, Art Atkinson,
38:used on Knowledge (XXG)
979:Time-sharing companies
887:Tymshare's System XXVI
454:several months later.
326:(AOL) with pop singer
114:Verizon Communications
42:See Knowledge (XXG)'s
733:computer-history.info
462:On January 31, 2005,
239:Tymnet, Inc. spun off
903:(November 8, 1999).
567:Ashok Arora (2015).
511:Tymshare SUPER BASIC
505:Tymshare SUPER BASIC
458:AT&T sold to SBC
849:Whitaker, Randall.
474:MCI sold to Verizon
449:WorldCom bankruptcy
339:MCI, NewCo, Concert
633:. April 15, 1982.
630:The New York Times
607:The New York Times
515:SUPER BASIC was a
464:SBC Communications
345:MCI Communications
165:General Automation
871:Tymshare (1981).
706:978-0-262-03672-6
542:, using the name
226:SRI International
214:Gary Morgenthaler
139:Dartmouth College
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738:2023-08-31
657:2022-05-15
554:References
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