Mouse Systems

Mouse Systems' optical mouse, wired to a Sun workstation and an Atari 400 running Missile Command, attracted many observers at the October, 1982 Mini/Micro '82 conference in Anaheim, California, attended by over {{val|10000}} people—and won a "best new product" award.

In 1984, MSC acquired rights to Mouse Draw from Microtex Industries, written by Doug Wolfgram. Mouse Systems wanted the software re-developed to look more like Apple's MacPaint so Wolfgram brought in co-developer John Bridges and together they re-wrote the program in C with an updated user interface and called it PCPaint. Millions of copies were shipped, primarily bundled with all their mice until 1987.

KYE Systems, producer of the Genius brand of mice, acquired Mouse Systems in 1990.

{{multiple image

| image1=Sun optical mouse.jpg

| caption1=Mouse from a Sun workstation manufactured by Mouse Systems on its mousepad

| image2=Mouse-Systems-Mousepad-Detail.jpg

| caption2=Grid detail of mousepad

}}

Like all early optical mice, their debut product relied on a special metallic and reflective mousepad printed with a square grid of grey and blue tracking lines: as the device moved over the pad, light emitted by an LED was reflected by the pad onto an array of sensors whose output was processed by an on-board controller, which in turn supplied the host computer with machine-readable tracking data via an RS-232 serial port. When connected to a regular RS-232 port, an external power supply was required. Some mice would derive their power supply from the keyboard connector on the motherboard and came with a pass-through connector to be inserted before the keyboard cable.

Early Sun workstations used MSC optical mice exclusively. The mouse was connected via a dedicated connector with power, obviating the need for a separate power supply for the mouse. Initial models came with large mousepads with well-spaced lines, while later models were smaller and used a much tighter grid.

• Mouse Systems ProAgio
• Optical mouse

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite news |title=Computer mice are scurrying out of R&D labs |newspaper=InfoWorld |volume=4 |issue=18 |publisher=Popular Computing, Inc. |date=1982-05-10 |author-last=Markoff |author-first=John Gregory |author-link=John Gregory Markoff |location=Berkeley, CA, USA |issn=0199-6649 |pages=10–11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10 |access-date=2015-08-26 }}

{{cite news |title=Rodent Associates make computer mice |newspaper=InfoWorld |volume=4 |issue=19 |publisher=Popular Computing, Inc. |date=1982-05-17 |author-last=Markoff |author-first=John Gregory |author-link=John Gregory Markoff |location=Sunnyvale, CA, USA |issn=0199-6649 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12 |access-date=2015-08-26 }}

{{cite news |title=Speech tech, mice draw crowds at Mini/Micro 82 |author-first=Scott |author-last=Mace |location=Anaheim, CA, USA |newspaper=InfoWorld |volume=4 |issue=40 |publisher=Popular Computing, Inc. |date=1982-10-11 |issn=0199-6649 |pages=1, 6–7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CzAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1 |access-date=2020-02-07 }}

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• {{cite web |title=Re: [fd-dev] ANNOUNCE: CuteMouse 2.0 alpha 1 |author-first=Matthias R. |author-last=Paul |work=freedos-dev |date=2002-04-06 |url=https://marc.info/?l=freedos-dev&m=101807226917577 |access-date=2020-02-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207130948/https://marc.info/?l=freedos-dev&m=101807226917577&w=2 |archive-date=2020-02-07 |quote=[…] The original Mouse Systems Bus Mouse is a normal serial 8250 compatible mouse using the normal Mouse Systems serial protocol, however the base address of this 8250 type chip is not one of the usual COM port addresses 3F8h, 2F8h, 3E8h, or 2E8h, but either 238h or 338h. Besides others these addresses are also supported as alternative addresses for serial ports on the German c't UniRAM add-on ISA card. […] Bus mice from other vendors use completely different interfaces, partially residing at the same I/O addresses […]}}

{{commons category|Mouse Systems}}

• {{cite web |publisher=KYE Systems |title=Milestones |url=http://www.geniusnet.com.tw/about/milestones.htm |access-date=2006-05-16 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516034049/http://www.geniusnet.com.tw/about/milestones.htm |archive-date=2006-05-16 |quote=1990 Acquired Mouse Systems Corp. (MSC)}}

Category:1990 mergers and acquisitions

Category:American companies established in 1982

Category:American companies disestablished in 1990

Category:Computer companies established in 1982

Category:Computer companies disestablished in 1990

Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States

Category:Defunct computer hardware companies

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