Inforex 1300 Systems

The Inforex Key to disk systems were sold by INFOREX INC in the 1970s and mid 1980s. The company was founded by Ex
IBM Engineers to replace card punches.

Background Information

Key to disk systems were systems that took data entered by users from keypunch like keyboards and held the information on a hard disks. The information was then transferred from disk to 3/4 inch tape for processing on the user's mainframe equipment.

At the time data gathering in large scale for processing on a mainframe computer was a labor intensive expensive endeavor. For example a typical sales order might go through the following steps:

1) Order written on contract, collected by the salesman.2) Order transferred to paper order sheet (unusually with multiple carbon copies) transcribed by the salesman or a secretary.3) Order sheet, after verification and approval passed to the Data Center for entry into the computer system for processing.4) Order sheet, transferred to by a keypunch operator to a card or multiple cards for processing.5) Order card(s), verified by a second keypunch operator (by essentially punching the card a second time) to verify accuracy.6) Order card read by computer. 7) Parts ordered, equipment purchased.

The same tied and practiced methods were used to bill the customer, record customer payments, and pay outgoing expenses.

The advantage the key to disk system hand over card punches was the ability to see the entire content of and 80 byte card on a monitor to edit and correct mistakes.

The 1301 Key to disk system

The original processor had 4 registers with one register being 8 bit (used for data) and the other three being 12 bit (used for data manipulation and addresses). The commands for the processor were 8 and 16 bits. The original disk was 800 kilobytes. The original system had 2k of on-volatile magnetic core memory. The final version of the 1301 had 12k of memory. The system supported 8 key stations.

The 1302 Key to disk system

This was an expansion of the 1301 system. The biggest difference was that the system had 16 key stations and 12k of memory.

The 1303 Key to disk system

The 1303 was a total redesign of the 1301 system with a new backplane. The disk drive was 2.4 megabytes. The processor address bus was now 16 byes and the instruction set consisted of 8, 16, and 24 bit instructions. Core memory was increased to 24k. Additional capabilities were added which included a communications card, which allows the system to send data using a 300/1200/2400/4800 baud modem.

The company also made model 3300 max-edit data entry and model 5000 for high volume data base management. These used 5 platter "washer machine" style hard drives.

The company developed one of the first distributed processing systems, the model 7000.

All components of the system, except for the printers and monitors, were made by the company since 3rd party OEMs were not yet available.

In 1978 Inforex filed bankruptcy, due to some incrediblely poor business decisions (IMHO) and the inability to market the 5000 and 7000 product lines profitably. They were eventually purchased by DataPoint which ran the company benevolently. However, DataPoint ran into financial hardships in 1985 and sold the company to Recognition Equipment in Dallas, who had a competitive product and converted Inforex's customers to that product. In 1988 the doors on Inforex's headquarters were closed.

Inforex's headquarters were in Burlington, MA just around the corner from DEC (Digital Equipment Corp). They had sales and service offices throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, UK, and Japan.