 Logo used from 1964 to the late 1970s | |
 Original headquarters in Herkimer, New York | |
| Industry | Computer |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1964 in Herkimer, New York |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 1988 |
| Fate | Renamed Qantel Corporation in 1988; acquired by Decision Data Computer Corporation in 1992 |
| Successor | Qantel Corporation (1988–1992) |
Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation (MDS) was an early computer hardware company, started by former Univac engineers in 1964;[1] by 1985 they were struggling to sell off part of their company.[2]
The company was founded in Herkimer, New York, by George Cogar, Lauren King, and Ted Robinson, former Univac employees.[citation needed]
Their success in selling their first product, a Key-to-Tape Data Entry device that allowed doing away with Keypunch devices, brought them enough cash to also grow via acquisition.
Among their acquisitions was Atron Corporation, developer of a minicomputer, the Atron 501 and 502. From the know-how acquired and absorbed, Mohawk expanded into the areas of controlling line printers and also Remote Job Entry (RJE). This was the basis of their MDS 2400 RJE product,[3] which supported 2780[4] and HASP.
Another major acquisition was Anelex Corporation of Boston, at the time the second-largest manufacturer of printers behind IBM and an early entrant in the hard disk drive market. Mohawk finalized their acquisition of Anelex in October 1967.[5][6]
Financial difficulties a decade-and-a-half[1] after the company opened led to the company's restructuring, renaming and eventual takeover. By that time, headquarters had been in Parsippany, New Jersey, with manufacturing in Herkimer.[2]
Mohawk acquired Qantel Corporation[9] in 1980, later called "its strongest asset".[2] Having sold around 10,000 systems worldwide, in the sports world it was known as the supplier for the computer hardware and software for "12 of the 28 teams in the National Football League".[10]
Mohawk renamed itself Qantel in 1988,[11] and in 1992 the remains of the latter, after bankruptcy, was acquired by Decision Data Computer Corporation.[12]
The MDS Series 21 (21/20, 21/40, 21/50) was configured as a CRT (which Mohawk called an "Operator Station") and a system unit (called a "Controller Console").[4]: Intro_p.3 Up to four floppy disk drives could be housed in the latter.
Mohawk's MOBOL—Mohawk Business Oriented Language—was described as "look[ing] nothing like COBOL".[13][14]
The language's source code was compiled, rather than being run interpretively.[4]
After a MOBOL program was compiled, a utility named MOBOLIST was used to display applicable messages (if any) for errors detected during compilation.[4]: Intro_p.1
The syntax (5,1) 'Hello, World' would output Hello, World to the screen at the beginning of the fifth line.