Mouse Systems Corporation

Mouse Systems Corporation, formerly Rodent Associates, was founded in 1982 by Steve Kirsch, inventor of the optical mouse. In addition to being a vehicle for Kirsch's invention, the company was responsible for bringing the mouse to the IBM PC for the first time.

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, LED feedback was processed by an on-board microchip, which in turn supplied the PC with machine-readable tracking data via an RS-232 serial port. An external power supply was required. Some mice would derivate their power supply from the keyboard connector on the motherboard and came with a pass-thru connector to be inserted before the keyboard cable.

Early Sun workstations used MSC optical mice exclusively. Initial models came with large mousepads with well-spaced lines, while later models were smaller and used a much tighter grid. Although optical mice did not need cleaning, paradoxically they would start behaving erratically after a few years of use, without apparent remedy.

In 1984 MSC released PC Paint , the first mouse-driven image manipulation program for the IBM PC. PC Paint was developed for the company by John Bridges . Millions of copies were shipped, primarily bundled with all their mice until the early 1990s. PC Paint saw limited commercial success as a standalone product.

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

External links

• PC Paint screenshot
• KYE Systems milestones listing Mouse Systems acquisition