In 1963 when Numerical Controls (the NC in CNC) for machine tools were gaining popularity, Okuma recognized that optimizing machining performance required all of the component parts to seamlessly work together. That’s when the company decided to develop its own control, OSP (Okuma Sampling Path). What immediately differentiated it from the existing NC controls is that it did not require the machine to return to a fixed reference point when powering up. Instead, Okuma uses an absolute position feedback encoder that memorizes the last machine position.