BUNCH
Encyclopedia
The group of mainframe computer
competitors to IBM
in the 1970s became known as the BUNCH: Burroughs, UNIVAC
, NCR
, Control Data Corporation
, and Honeywell
. These companies were grouped together because the market share
of IBM was much higher than all of its competitors put together.
During the 1960s, IBM and these five computer manufacturers, along with RCA
and General Electric
, had been known as "IBM and the Seven Dwarfs." The description of IBM's competitors changed after GE's 1970 sale of its computer business to Honeywell and RCA's 1971 sale of its computer business to Sperry, leaving only five "dwarfs". Fortunately, their initials lent themselves to a new acronym, BUNCH.
(the parent company of UNIVAC), the name of the company was changed to Unisys
.
NCR: In 1982, NCR became involved in open systems architecture
, starting with the UNIX
-powered TOWER 16/32, and placed more emphasis on computers smaller than mainframes. NCR was acquired by AT&T
in 1991. A restructuring of AT&T, in 1996, led to its re-establishment on 1 January 1997, as a separate company. In 1998, NCR sold its computer hardware manufacturing assets to Solectron
and ceased to produce general-purpose computer systems.
Control Data Corporation: Control Data Corporation is now Syntegra (USA), a subsidiary of British
company BT Group
's BT Global Services.
Honeywell: In 1991 Honeywell
's computer division was sold to the French computer company Groupe Bull
.
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
competitors to IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
in the 1970s became known as the BUNCH: Burroughs, UNIVAC
UNIVAC
UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
, NCR
NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
, Control Data Corporation
Control Data Corporation
Control Data Corporation was a supercomputer firm. For most of the 1960s, it built the fastest computers in the world by far, only losing that crown in the 1970s after Seymour Cray left the company to found Cray Research, Inc....
, and Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
. These companies were grouped together because the market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
of IBM was much higher than all of its competitors put together.
During the 1960s, IBM and these five computer manufacturers, along with RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
and General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, had been known as "IBM and the Seven Dwarfs." The description of IBM's competitors changed after GE's 1970 sale of its computer business to Honeywell and RCA's 1971 sale of its computer business to Sperry, leaving only five "dwarfs". Fortunately, their initials lent themselves to a new acronym, BUNCH.
Where are they now?
Burroughs & UNIVAC: In September 1986, after Burroughs purchased SperrySperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
(the parent company of UNIVAC), the name of the company was changed to Unisys
Unisys
Unisys Corporation , headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware, is a long established business whose core products now involves computing and networking.-History:...
.
NCR: In 1982, NCR became involved in open systems architecture
Open systems architecture
Open systems architecture, in telecommunication, is a standard that describes the layered hierarchical structure, configuration, or model of a communications or distributed data processing system that:...
, starting with the UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
-powered TOWER 16/32, and placed more emphasis on computers smaller than mainframes. NCR was acquired by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
in 1991. A restructuring of AT&T, in 1996, led to its re-establishment on 1 January 1997, as a separate company. In 1998, NCR sold its computer hardware manufacturing assets to Solectron
Solectron
Solectron Corporation was a global electronics manufacturing company for original equipment manufacturers . It pioneered the electronics manufacturing services industry in 1977 and was a leader in the field...
and ceased to produce general-purpose computer systems.
Control Data Corporation: Control Data Corporation is now Syntegra (USA), a subsidiary of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
company BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
's BT Global Services.
Honeywell: In 1991 Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
's computer division was sold to the French computer company Groupe Bull
Groupe Bull
-External links:* * — Friends, co-workers and former employees of Bull and Honeywell* *...
.
Other mainframe manufacturers during the 1960s and 1970s
- Scientific Data SystemsScientific Data SystemsScientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
(later known as Xerox Data Systems after its purchase by XeroxXeroxXerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
in 1969) also sold mainframe computers, but with around 1% marketshare, it was not a major factor in the marketplace. Xerox closed the division in 1975, with most rights sold to Honeywell. - In 1976, Cray Research (a company supported by Seymour CraySeymour CraySeymour Roger Cray was an American electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded Cray Research which would build many of these machines. Called "the father of supercomputing," Cray has been credited...
's former employer Control Data Corporation), released the Cray-1Cray-1The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured, and marketed by Cray Research. The first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, and it went on to become one of the best known and most successful supercomputers in history...
vector computerVector processorA vector processor, or array processor, is a central processing unit that implements an instruction set containing instructions that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors. This is in contrast to a scalar processor, whose instructions operate on single data items...
. - Digital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
(DEC) was founded in 1957 to manufacture computer components, and made many small computers, notably the PDPProgrammed Data ProcessorProgrammed Data Processor was the name of a series of minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. The name 'PDP' intentionally avoided the use of the term 'computer' because, at the time of the first PDPs, computers had a reputation of being large, complicated, and expensive machines, and...
series. These computers were classified as minicomputers rather than mainframes, but often competed for the same business. DEC later sold to Compaq, which was acquired by HP. - Hewlett-PackardHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
(HP) was founded in 1939 manufacturing advanced electronic equipment. In the mid-1960s HP started producing minicomputers, which competed with mainframe computers.