Centurion Computer Corporation

Centurion Computer Corporation

Company type	Division
Industry	Information technology services
Founded	1971 as Warrex Computer Services
Founder	John Warren
Fate	Acquired by Electronic Data Systems
Successor	Electronic Data Systems (1981)
Headquarters	Richardson, Texas , USA
Area served	USA
Services	Computer Services
Number of employees	3,000
Parent	Electronic Data Systems (1981–2009) DXC Technology (2009–today)

Centurion Computer Corporation (Centurion) was a manufacturer of small business computers that was founded in 1971 and eventually acquired by Electronic Data Systems (EDS).

History

Centurion was incorporated in 1972 under the name Warrex Computer Corporation. It was the successor to Warrex Computer Services, a company founded in 1971 by John Warren. Initially, it provided consulting and programming services. In 1972, Centurion entered the business of selling and supporting magnetic tape cassette systems. By August 1974, Centurion had designed and manufactured its first minicomputer, combined it with peripherals and software, and delivered it as the initial member of the Centurion family of small business computers. The company formally changed its name from Warrex to Centurion Computer Corporation in March 1980. In 1981, EDS purchased Centurion.

Business Computers

Over its lifetime, Centurion produced an entire series of small business computers. The following is a partial list with the capabilities of each series and prices taken from February 1982.

Centurion Minicomputers

Name	CPU	Memory	Floppy	Hard Disks	CRTs	Minimum Price	First Delivery
MicroPlus	CPU-5	64 KiB	1-2	1x 8/24 MiB Winchester	2	$11,387	1982-01
Series 200	CPU-5	32 KiB	0-2	2x 10-20 MiB Hawk/Pertec	4	$27,668	1979-03
Series 6200	CPU-6	64-128 KiB	0-2	4x 10-20 MiB Hawk/Pertec	8	$34,742	1979-10
Series III	CPU-5	32-64 KiB	0	2x 10-20 MiB Hawk/Pertec	4	$35,342	1975
Series 6300	CPU-6	64-256 KiB	0-4	4x 10-20 MiB Hawk/Pertec	32	$37,628	1979-10
Series 6400	CPU-6	64-256 KiB	0-4	8x 26-96 MiB Finch/Phoenix	32	$41,465	1979-10
Series 6500	CPU-6	64-128 KiB	0-4	2x 26-96 MiB Finch/Phoenix	8	$45,545	1979-10

By default, all Centurion systems (except the MicroPlus) were equipped with at least one four-port multiplexer (MUX) which provides four channels of asynchronous control for the keyboard, printer, CRTs, or remote units (via Modem cards). Each device was on its own independent channel and operated independently of all other devices. Data transfer was either in low-speed mode under software control or high-speed mode with Direct Memory Access at a rate up to 1.2 MiB/second.

All Centurion systems used customized CRT tty-terminals. Available types were R-40, R-100 or CT-520. They all communicated via RS-232 or modem at a speed of 1920 to 9600 baud with the main computer. Printers were supported via teletype or specialized controller cards supporting off-the-shelf printers like the TI-810, TI-840 or DP-B-600 printers capable of speeds from 75 chars/sec up to 600 lines/minute (~800-1300 chars/sec).

Compatible storage systems

Centurion did not create custom storage media. Instead they manufactured storage controllers for existing off-the-shelf systems, mostly created by the Control Data Corporation (CDC).

Storage Media

Name	Type	Size	Price
CDC 9400 SSDD	8" floppy disk	0.6 MiB	$950
Qume DSDD	8" floppy disk	1.2 MiB	$1,683
CDC Hawk	hard disk	10.4 MiB	$12,215
CDC Finch	hard disk	8-24 MiB	N/A
Pertec D3000E	hard disk	20.8 MiB	$12,215
CDC Phoenix CMD-32 disk drive	hard disk	26.5 MiB	$7,600
CDC Phoenix CMD-64 disk drive	hard disk	52,9 MiB	$9,050
CDC Phoenix CMD-96 disk drive	hard disk	79.4 MiB	$9,960

Prices were taken from 1982, unless otherwise indicated. The disk sizes is the usable storage space, since all Centurion computers used 400 byte data blocks with the rest of the native block size being used for control structures like checksums.

IBM compatible PC clone

As a division of EDS, Centurion also created an IBM PC–compatible clone as part of a negotiation strategy of EDS with IBM. EDS intended to acquire PCs from IBM, but to show that the initial cost-per-unit offer of IBM was too high, Centurion was tasked to create a fully compatible PC clone from off-the-shelf parts. The effort succeeded and IBM reduced their price offer, rather than to contend with another competitor in the market.

Restoration Efforts

As part of the vintage computer movement, the YouTube channel Usagi Electric is running a project to restore several Centurion microcomputers to working condition.