A Brief History of Feedback Data Ltd

The evolution of Feedback Data began in Dartford at ICT (Subsequently part of ICL). The May Fair Hotel wanted what we would now call point-of-sale data collection terminals, so that bar and restaurant sales booked to guests' room numbers could be recorded immediately in the central billing office. This would ensure that a guest who had "one for the road" just before calling for his bill was presented with a complete up-to the minute account.

It was 1959, and ICT had started "Special Projects" to solve just this sort of problem for its major customers. A design team with a telecoms background prepared a design proposal for a terminal based solution. The customer liked the system and placed an order.

The system (subsequently known as ICT Datasend) was a radically new concept. Terminals were linked to a central controller by 10-wire telephone cable and data was transmitted in a serial-by-character parallel-by-bit asynchronous mode which was cheap to install, impervious to interference and which ran automatically at the highest rate permitted by the slowest link in the transmission path. The central controller provided queuing of terminal access at busy times and the whole thing worked very well. So, when a complete 9-man team was hired by Feedback in 1967 our first product, the 420-430 series, was ready for market in an amazingly short time.

432 Time and Attendance terminal

BEA Heathrow

The first installation of the 431 and 420 was at Jersey-Kapwood in Nottingham. After some initial problems it worked well, causing considerable interest with its ability to survive in a variety of extremely hostile environments. It wasn't all hostility though - one of our service technicians married the customer's computer operator!

436 Time and Attendance terminal

Feedback followed up the 431 with the 432 and 436 Time and Attendance terminals. These were true Feedback designs, using the original concepts but with up dated circuitry and mechanical design. Feedback began to be noticed in the computer business, and orders started to arrive.

We needed the big break, and in 1968 we got it. British European Airways (Subsequently part of British Airways) needed shop-floor data collection for its Engineering base at Heathrow. BEA, one of the largest and most sophisticated computer users in the World, ordered Feedback. The system grew rapidly to 70+ terminals, with on-line links to ICL 1900 series computers.

In 1973 Feedback Data had formed itself into a separate company and had moved to Uckfield. The 420-430 series was still having great success (like the large Flexible hours 436-420-424 magnetic tape system for the Civil Service in Cardiff) but it was obvious that the range was getting towards the end of its life and we started to think about a replacement.

Design proposals with some brilliant new concepts were put forward and our development engineers turned them into reality. A new punched badge ID card reader used fibre-optic technique and was exceptionally reliable. New membrane keyboards proved ideal for hostile environments and a gas-plasma display provided operator guidance. Programs were loaded from pre-punched cards; operation was controlled by a microcomputer and the whole thing fitted into a heavy-duty cast aluminium case. We showed a prototype and the market was impressed. However, what happened next was quite unexpected and changed the whole perception of Feedback Data.

Singer Prototype

In 1978 International Computers acquired the American computer manufacturer Singer, formerly Friden. Singer was strong in factory data collection and point-of-sale. In particular they had had great success with their System 10 mini computer which could act as a terminal controller without interrupting its routine data processing tasks. The Singer factory terminals were perceived as less attractive than the controller and ICL was planning to design and build replacement terminals in England. The project was already in progress, but then they became aware of Feedback Data's new offering, now called the 480-series. Their designers rushed back to Stevenage and reluctantly agreed that 480 was years ahead of the product they were planning.

480 Terminal

486 Terminal

ICL knew and respected Feedback Data and pretty soon they were asking if we could produce a version of the 480 which would emulate a Singer terminal. We could, we did, and demonstrated a working prototype within a few weeks. ICL had one serious reservation. The prototype 480 used Feedback's old card reader, which could not read a full 80-column punched card. In order to replace the Singer terminal an 80-column facility was essential. We needed a new card reader, and quickly.

By this time we had an excellent relationship with ICL. They really wanted the 480, and they mobilised their world-wide resources to locate a suitable card reader. A supplier was found, samples were rushed to Uckfield and our drawing office worked night and day to fit the new device into the space available. It was a struggle but the job was done in time, and a few months later ICL announced "Their" new 9600 with a full-blown press launch. The system still used the old Singer T&A terminal, of which they had considerable stocks, but we started work on the 486, a cut-down T&A version of the 480, which ICL added to the range later as the 9606.

The ICL contract was a considerable boost to Feedback Data, the City was impressed and soon afterwards the Company went public, Feedback plc. The whole operation moved into a higher gear; production volumes increased; quality control and purchasing were tightly disciplined and perhaps, just for a moment, the old team had a chance to catch its breath and take some satisfaction in the achievement of what was an undoubted engineering and marketing triumph.

In late 1976 bar codes started to appear on the supermarket shelves. Like everyone else in the IT business, We realised that the era of the punched card was coming to an end. But what was to replace the traditional punched card when no DP department had a card punch anymore? Some of our competitors were already moving to magnetic stripe and Feedback Data's expertise with magnetic tape encouraged us to follow this route, but it wasn't an ideal answer.

Time passed, and our interest in bar codes continued until an American article in a magazine appeared which offered the possibility of a solution. Apparently people were designing bar codes which didn't need high quality letterpress printing - in fact you could print the code bars with dot matrix printers. The implications of this concept was enormous. By exploiting the idea, we could gain a head start on everyone else.

ICL customers were finding that 480 series was over-engineered (and overpriced) for environments that were not too severe. They also recognised the imminent demise of the traditional punched card and there were people at ICL who appreciated the potential of using an inexpensive printer to produce cards or badges with machine readable bar code and eye-readable print. What clinched the acceptance of the idea was the concept of a single swipe reader able to read both job cards and ID badges. This meant that the two most expensive components of the 480 could be replaced by a single device which was cheaper than either! Our Development team devised the fibre-optic bar-code read head and for a bonus designed it so that cards could be swiped either way. They retained the 480's membrane keyboard and used one of the cheaper displays which had by then become available. The whole lot was housed in a tough but relatively inexpensive fibreglass case. We called it the 490.

490 Terminal

If 490 series had a fault it was that it was ahead of its time. Our earlier punched card based equipment used standard media which were familiar across the industry. With bar-coded shop-floor documents there was no equivalent user background and we frequently had to devise our own standards. This caused some difficulty in a world that lacked the inexpensive high quality printers which are so readily available today. However, the concept was so attractive that users soon overcame the problems, schooled by our Technical Department who rapidly turned themselves into a bar-code gurus.

ICL eagerly accepted the 490 along with the cut-down 493 and 496 and the very tough 495 T&A terminal. But we took a decision not to make the bar-code based terminal range exclusive to them. Once the range was established we were inundated with requests to attach it to just about every type of computer system around. Feedback Data terminals appeared in a variety of colours, and bearing an even wider range of company labels, including some very famous ones indeed. At one CIM show in the mid eighties, the 490 series was featured on the stands of at least 12 companies. We had become the undoubted UK industry leader.

There was one final satisfaction - a telephone enquiry from IBM. It seemed that some of their major users were insisting on Feedback Data terminals, and could they offer them? Graciously we agreed.