Definition: ICL

(International Computers Ltd., London) The former name of Fujitsu Services, the European-centered arm of the global Fujitsu Group and one of the leading IT services companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. ICL was rebranded under its parent's umbrella in mid-2002 and continues its customer focus in the financial services, telecom, retail, utility and government markets.

ICL was originally formed in 1968, following a decade of frantic mergers by major British electronics firms, largely in response to increasing U.S. dominance of global IT markets (primarily IBM) and by the lack of funding at home for competitive R&D. The dominant survivor of the 10-year scramble was International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), which later merged with Elliott-Automation, English Electric (EE), Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) and Marconi, to become ICL.

In 1998, the company formed an alliance with Microsoft to develop models for community-based learning, part of the UK National Grid for Learning Project. Under the alliance, ICL developed and marketed new systems running on Windows NT. For more information, visit http://services.fujitsu.com.

Early Mainframe

This was a typical ICL mainframe installation in the mid-1960s. The 1904 mainframe cabinets are on the extreme left. (Image courtesy of Chris P. Burton.)

On the Test Floor

In late 1975, these 2980 machines were being tested prior to shipping. The screens show that TOSD, the Test Operating System, was running. (Image courtesy of Chris P. Burton.)