Open Computing History Project

We have added a scanned rate card from a regional timesharing bureau, listing connect-time, CPU and storage charges for 1979. The card was found tucked inside a programming manual donated earlier this year.

Rate cards like this one are a small but useful source for anyone researching what computing actually cost before personal computers. This one lists separate prime-time and evening rates for connect time, charges per CPU second, monthly rates for disk storage by the track, and a surcharge for printing at the bureau's own site.

The scan and a transcription are now in the archive. If anyone has rate cards from other bureaus of the same period, we would be glad to compare them.