Wikipedia
Tymshare, Inc. was a time-sharing service and third-party hardware maintenance company competing with companies such as Four-Phase Systems, CompuServe, and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC, Digital). Tymshare developed or acquired innovative technologies, including data networking ( Tymnet), electronic data interchange (EDI), credit card and payment processing (Transaction Tracking System, Western29), telecommunications provisioning ( COEES), office automation (August, Augment) and database technology ( Magnum). It was headquartered in Cupertino, California from 1964 to 1984.
The computing platforms included the SDS 940, XDS 940 (Tymcom-IX), XDS Sigma 7, DEC PDP-10 models KA, KI, KL and KS (Tymcom-X/XX, Tenex, August, Tops-20), XKL Toad-1, IBM 360 & 370 (VM, MVS, GNOSIS) servers.
Divisions:
- INSD — Information Services Division
- STD — Systems Technology Division
- DND — Data Networks Division
In 1984 Tymshare was acquired by McDonnell Douglas, 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 finally shut down. Islands of its network technology continued as part of EDI, at least into 2008.
McDonnell Douglas was acquired by Boeing. Consequently, rights to use technology developed by Tymshare are currently held by Boeing, British Telecom (BT), Verizon Communications, and AT&T Inc. due to the acquisitions and mergers from 1984 through 2005.