The COED Project

The COED Project, or the COmmunications and EDiting Project, was an innovative software project created by the Computer Division of NOAA, US Department of Commerce in Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s. This project was designed, purchased and implemented by the in-house computing staff rather than any official organization.

Intent

The computer division previously had a history of frequently replacing its mainframe computers. Starting with a CDC 1604, then a CDC 3600, a couple of CDC 3800s, and finally a CDC 6600. The department also had an XDS 940 timesharing system which would support up to 32 users on dial-up modems. Due to rapidly changing requirements for computer resources, it was expected that new systems would be installed on a regular basis, and the resultant strain on the users to adapt to each new system was perceived to be excessive. The COED project was the result of a study group convened to solve this problem.

The project was implemented by the computer specialists who were also responsible for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of all the computers in the division. COED was designed and implemented in long hours of overtime. The data communications aspect of the system was fully implemented and resulted in greatly improved access to the XDS 940 and CDC 6600 systems. It was also used as the front end of the - Free University of Amsterdam's SARA system for many years.