[2] Billings Energy was a hydrogen fuel company that served as a springboard for Roger Billings and his associates' research; in the 1960s, the former earned a scholarship to Brigham Young University after winning an international high school science fair in 1965, with his project—a conversion of his father's Ford Model A into running on hydrogen.

[4][5] In March 1980, Billings designed a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered forklift for the USDOS before moving the parent company to Independence, Missouri.

The base system was sold with the central processing unit and front panel, the terminal, dual 8-inch floppy disk drives, and a bidirectional line printer.

[19] In preparation of growing demand, Billings Computer in August 1979 announced the raising of a 50,000-square-foot factory in Trenton, Utah in which to house new assembly lines for their products.

[22] Even with their success, the larger Billings Energy Corporation had yet to turn a profit by mid-1980,[23] and in October 1980, Billings laid off a large percent of Caldisk amid constricting cash flow in the company, as well as failure to receive necessary parts for disk drives from other companies in the sluggish early 1980s economy.

[24] In 1981 the company released the BC-12 and BC-12FD, all-in-one microcomputers like its predecessor the Microsystem based on the Z80A; they ran OASIS, a single-user operating system.

[28][29] Billings simultaneously released the 500 series, an upgraded version of the BC-12 line with an improved, non-glare CRT display, an internal power supply, and a detachable keyboard.

[27][30] The next year in March, they opened a training center for the company's customers in Salt Lake City, Utah.