In May 1952, CEC pre-announced the "CEC 30-201" computer, a vacuum tube computer with a magnetic-drum memory. That same year CEC reorganized computer development into a separate Computer Division. In 1954 the division was spun off into a separate public company named ElectroData. In 1954 the first model of the computer, now named the Datatron 203 shipped to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The purchase price was $125,000. The company shipped seven more 203 systems in 1954 and thirteen in 1955.
By 1956 ElectroData was the third-largest computer manufacturer in the world, but was unable to generate enough revenue to meet the demands of growing the business. That year Burroughs Corporation, at that time a manufacturer of electro-mechanical office equipment, made a deal to acquire ElectroData in a stock swap, and renamed it the ElectroData Division of Burroughs Corporation. The Datatron was renamed the Burroughs 205.