graphic plotter. Calma software supports both on and off-line pen and photo plotting devices. Calma's computer-aided design systems are used in a wide variety of applications. To date systems have been sold principally to electronics firms for use in the design of integrated circuits, printed circuit boards and electrical schematics; to governmental agencies and public utilities for use in cartographic applications; and to manufacturing companies for use in the design of mechanical parts and systems. Calmagraphics/CGI GDS GDS II For an overview of the GDS II system as it was 1981, see. Some scanned product documents can be found at and. The original GDS system used Data General mini-computers to digitize and assemble chip designs. The UI consisted of simple one or two letter commands, and a set of colored lights as a response. The operator typed a command, and if the green light came on, it was successful. GDSII introduced an actual Command Line Interface (CLI), where the user typed commands that were echoed back to the screen. GDS systems had no text screen at all, just a "green-screen" oscilloscope type display. GDSII introduced a text display, using a regular text terminal in addition to the 'scope screen, and also introduced the first color screens. This ushered in the new method of "online design", where the drafting employees actually sat at the screen and drew the chips. In the older GDS systems, an operator took the mylar drawings and digitized them in. A typical GDSII system in 1980 would have a 300mb disk, 1/2 mb of memory, using a 16bit DG minicomputer and up to 4 screens. This cost over $500,000 in 1980 dollars. DDM DDM (short for "Design, Drafting, Manufacturing") was a 3-dimensional wireframe computer-aided design application. In the mid-1980s, it was one of the top ten selling CAD packages on the market. By 2006, DDM continued to be supported by Parametric Technology Corporation as "Dimension III". The General Motors Central Foundry Division (GM-CFD) had applied DDM to the design of castings and tooling for automotive components such as engine blocks, cylinder heads and steering knuckles. DDM was run on Calma's proprietary dual monitor workstation hardware connected to Data General Nova and later Digital VAX 11/780-series computers. GM-CFD had DDM installations in Saginaw, MI, Pontiac, MI, Defiance, OH, Bedford, IN, Danville, IL and Massena, NY. References Sources American companies established in 1965 American companies disestablished in 1988 Companies