The Star was developed at Xerox's Systems Development Department (SDD) in El Segundo, California, which had been established in 1977 [citation needed] under the direction of Don Massaro. A section of SDD, SDD North, was located in Palo Alto, California, and included some people borrowed from PARC. SDD's mission was to design the "Office of the future", a new system that would incorporate the best features of the Alto, was easy to use, and could automate many office tasks.