Was the IDIIOM the First Stand-Alone CAD Platform?

This article recounts the development of a stand-alone CAD platform, the IDIIOM. The IDIIOM was developed during the mid-1960s at Information Displays, Inc. (IDI), then in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. According to its creators, the IDIIOM was the first general-purpose design workstation, the first commercial CADD platform, and the first software drafting package to operate on its own computer without communication links to a mainframe computer. The article follows IDI’s startup, the company’s evolution into the fledgling computer graphics field, IDI’s development of stand-alone CADD hardware and software, and IDI’s unwillingness to accept the emerging technology of the Direct View Storage Tube.