When was TM/1 founded?
The answer depends on which event you choose to call its beginning.
Some sources place the origins of TM/1 in 1980, others point to a mainframe prototype in 1981, the formation of Sinper in 1983, the product announcement at PC Expo the same year, or the commercial release that followed shortly thereafter.
Rather than searching for a single founding date, this article argues that TM/1 emerged through a sequence of developments stretching across several years. By comparing contemporary trade press, internal histories, vendor narratives, and later recollections, it explores how different sources tell different versions of the same story—and what that reveals about the challenges of writing software history.
The result is not a definitive date, but a more interesting question: how does a technology actually come into existence?