The Corona Daily Independent, Friday, September 1, 1961

A short article announcing the acquisition by Wyle Laboratories, Inc., of Ransom Research, Inc., a manufacturer of standardized transistor-based logic modules and related equipment, and Ransom Systems, a division of Ransom Research that designed and manufactured custom digital data acquisition and control systems based on the logic modules created by Ransom Research. Ransom Systems had a small team of people working on developing an electronic calculator based on the logic circuitry used in Ransom Research's logic modules. When Wyle Labs purchased Ransom Research and Ransom Systems, the calculator project came along with it, along with the people involved. One of these people was a very skilled electronics engineer and logic designer named Norman Grannis. Wyle Laboratories' President and CEO, Frank Wyle, took an interest in the calculator project, and also became close friends with Mr. Grannis over time. Immediately, Frank Wyle provided additional funding to the calculator project to help accelerate its development, which eventually resulted in the Wyle Laboratories WS-01 calculator. The Wyle Labs calculator proved not to be very successful in the marketplace, suffering from some original design flaws and difficulties with sales and service networks, and it was decided that Wyle Labs would get out of the calcualtor business. The folks, including Norman Grannis, who were part fo the calculator project felt that they could make a calculator that would be successful, and convinced Frank Wyle to let them spin off their own company, with some funding from Wyle Labs. Elmer Easton, who had worked at Wyle Labs for some time, was a skilled manager and had a firm grasp of the financial concepts of getting a business going. Easton had also become friends with Grannis during the development of the Wyle Labs calculator, and when it came time to spin off the calculator business from Wyle Labs, Easton and Grannis became the co-founders of a new company, Computer Design Corporation. Click the link to learn more about the evolution of Computer Design Corporation, and its connection to the development of the first commercial multi-chip microprocessor, and also how Intel ended up developing the first commercial single-chip microprocessor as a result of a secret competition with Computer Design Corporation to design a complex calculator chipset for Japanese calculator manufacturer Nippon Calculating Machine Co., a.k.a. Busicom.