In the early 1970s, several forward-looking elected officials, including the sheriff and the district attorney, decided to merge their information onto one central mainframe database.

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NCs when it announced the Windows Terminal standard: this makes it easier to make cheap (and easy-to-maintain) desktop machines that simply display Windows software which is actually running on a central computer (much as mainframe terminals do).

ECONOMIST: The network computer

At the heart of its system, running on CSC Hogan mainframe technology, is a central customer file, he said.

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