Burroughs Corporation records. System Development Corporation records.

System Development Corporation evolved out of the Systems Development Division of the RAND Corporation. The RAND Corporation was a non-profit group incorporated in 1948 by technical engineers and military people who worked together during World War II. The System Development Division was established in 1955 to prepare SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) system training programs. They also studied human and machine interactions, and how systems of people and machines worked together.

The Division was spun off in 1957, and became the non-profit company named SDC, or System Development Corporation. Its original purpose was "to work in the public interest on research, development, and application of information technology and the system sciences associated with computers." It essentially worked on the same types of problems as it did as a Division of RAND. It's main customer was the U.S. military, although it was sometimes a consultant of large, private businesses.

SDC became a for-profit operation in 1968, although it had normalized relations with the Air Force in 1966. This meant it would compete for Air Force business as any other private company would. Other companies already in this market complained that SDC had an unfair advantage, in that it was originally a government sponsored and supported company, and had extensive experience with U.S. military contracts.

SDC was acquired by Burroughs Corporation in 1980. Burroughs was interested in SDC's experience in systems engineering capability. Burroughs and SDC had worked together early in the SAGE program. In 1985, SDC had booked government contracts totaling more than $650 million with the Defense Department, NASA and other government agencies.