![]() | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Computer |
Founded | 1978Pasadena, California | in
Founders |
|
Defunct | 1990 |
Fate | Dissolution |
Products |
|
Number of employees | 50 (1984) |
Action Computer Enterprise, Inc. (ACE), was an American computer company that was active from 1978 to 1990. The company delivered one of the first multi-user-capable microcomputers, the Discovery 1600, in 1978. [1]
Action Computer Enterprise was co-founded by four friends, [1] including Herbert L. Siegel (February 27, 1938 – August 16, 2016), Kwok M. Ong, and Wing Chung. [2] Ong, Siegel and the fourth founder had met during their employment at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, while Chung and Ong had met at their alma mater of University of California, Berkeley. [3] Long before starting ACE, Siegel had served in the Peace Corps, teaching in Ethiopia with his wife for two years in the 1960s before returning to the United States to obtain an M.A. in mathematics at UC Berkeley. After graduation, he worked as a programmer for JPL, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, and the Los Angeles County General, developing navigation strategies for JPL and their contract for the Voyager program; voter tracking systems for the Registrar-Recorder; and patient identification systems for the County General. [4] Chung meanwhile was an immigrant who lived in Hong Kong post–World War II before moving to the United States to graduate from UC Berkeley and later Columbia University with degrees in mathematics, his master's degree at the latter university sponsored by the IBM Watson Fellowship. Chung moved to New Jersey to work for Roche before convincing his family to invest $50,000 in Action Computer Enterprise, his startup co-founded in 1978 with Siegel and company. [5]
ACE was founded in one of the founder's home garages in Pasadena, California. It soon occupied an office in the city, growing to a staff of 30 in the early 1980s. [4] Siegel was named chairman, [3] while Chung was named vice president of ACE. [6] The company's early days were spent developing what Chung later claimed to be the first multi-user microcomputer on the market. [6] The company branded this computer as the Discovery 1600 and first released it in April 1979. [7]
The Discovery 1600 was an SBC-based [8] microcomputer based on an IEEE-696-compliant S-100-bus backplane. The system could carry one service processor card and up to fifteen user processor cards on its bus, [9] with room to spare for S-100 peripheral cards (so long as they could support port-mapped I/O). The service processor acts as a controller for the S-100 bus and floppy and hard disk drives. User processor cards, on the other hand, provide the means of interaction and multi-user capability, through the use of video terminals plugged into each of their serial ports. [10] Depending on the type of user processor card (variants described below), either vanilla CP/M or CP/M-86 can be run as an independent operating system on each user processor. [9] The assignment of operating systems to each user card was facilitated by Discovery's custom DPOS (Distributed Processing Operating System). [10]
The Discovery 1600's main service processor card (dubbed the dpc-283 processor) features a Zilog Z80A microprocessor with 96 KB of RAM, a DMA controller, one parallel port, and two serial ports. [9] User processor cards came in three forms: the dpc-83U, the dpc-183, and the dpc-186. The dpc-83U runs off a Z80A and features between 64 and 96 KB (later 96 KB standard [11] ) of RAM (non-DMA) and two serial ports; each dcp-83U can only be used as a user processor. The dcp-183 and dpc-186 meanwhile may be repurposed as secondary service processor cards for multiprocessing through the use of a special secondary multiprocessing bus on their boards and through their DMA controllers. The dcp-183 runs off a Z80A processor and features 96 KB of RAM (32 KB bank-switchable) and two serial ports. The dpc-186 meanwhile incorporates an Intel 8086—with a socket for an optional Intel 8087 floating-point unit—between 128 KB and 1 MB of RAM, and two asynchronous serial ports. [9]
The first units of the Discovery 1600 were sold to a tobacco-growing business in the Ban Phai district in Thailand. [3] Further units were primarily sold to banks and government institutions in Thailand, with Chung using his father K. S. Chung's connections to secure these customers. By 1983, roughly 2,000 units of the Discovery 1600 had been sold. The Discovery 1600's success spurred the development of the Discovery 500, another multiuser micro released in January 1983. [7] Like the 1600 before it, the Discovery 500 was based on an SBC-on-a-backplane; however, it reduced the number of maximum processor cards to seven, in exchange for beefier optional floppy and hard drives. [9]
In selling the Discovery 500, Wing Chung turned his attention to the computer market in mainland China. By 1984, ACE generated $5 million worth of revenue, or one-third of the company's global revenue, from sales to Chinese business. Sales in China were facilitated by ACE's staff of 25 salespeople and service workers in Hong Kong [5] —half of ACE's total number of employees that year. [12]
To keep the Discovery 1600 competitive in the market, in 1983 [13] ACE introduced D/NET, a software and hardware system for the 1600 that facilitated a local area network comprising a star topology of Discovery 1600 computers. [14] Up to 10 Discovery 1600s can be connected, for a total of 150 networked user terminals. The included network operating system is run on the service processor. [13]
In the mid-1980s, Chung left ACE to found another computer startup in La Mirada, California, called Universal Digital Computer Corporation (UDC). [15] ACE went defunct in 1990. [16]
The IBM Personal Computer is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of engineers and designers at International Business Machines (IBM), directed by William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida.
The Xerox 820 Information Processor is an 8-bit desktop computer sold by Xerox in the early 1980s. The computer runs under the CP/M operating system and uses floppy disk drives for mass storage. The microprocessor board is a licensed variant of the Big Board computer.
Ohio Scientific, Inc., was a privately owned American computer company based in Ohio that built and marketed computer systems, expansions, and software from 1975 to 1986. Their best-known products were the Challenger series of microcomputers and Superboard single-board computers. The company was the first to market microcomputers with hard disk drives in 1977.
Each time Intel launched a new microprocessor, they simultaneously provided a system development kit (SDK) allowing engineers, university students, and others to familiarise themselves with the new processor's concepts and features. The SDK single-board computers allowed the user to enter object code from a keyboard or upload it through a communication port, and then test run the code. The SDK boards provided a system monitor ROM to operate the keyboard and other interfaces. Kits varied in their specific features but generally offered optional memory and interface configurations, a serial terminal link, audio cassette storage, and EPROM program memory. Intel's Intellec development system could download code to the SDK boards.
Altos Computer Systems was founded in 1977 by David G. Jackson and Roger William Vass Sr. It focused on small multi-user computers, starting with multi-user derivatives of CP/M, and later including Unix and Xenix-based machines. In its 1982 initial public offering on NASDAQ, the company raised $59M. Thereafter the company's stock was traded under the symbol ALTO.
North Star Computers Inc. was an American computer company based in Berkeley, California existing between June 1976 and 1989. Originally a mail order business for IMSAI computers, it soon developed into a major player in the early microcomputer market, becoming first known for their low-cost floppy disk system for S-100 bus machines, and later for their own S-100 bus computers running either the CP/M operating system or North Star's own proprietary operating system, NSDOS. North Star BASIC was a common dialect of the popular BASIC programming language. They later expanded their lineup with dual-CPU machines able to run MS-DOS, and a server version running either DOS or Novell NetWare.
The NDR Klein Computer, abbreviated NKC, was a do-it-yourself computer project from the early 1980s developed by Rolf-Dieter Klein (RDK) and Joachim Arendt. In 1984, the computer was featured in the educational television series NDR-Klein-Computer for NDR-Schulfernsehen. It was also broadcast on the computer television show ComputerTreff on the Bavarian TV network Bayerisches Fernsehen (BFS).
The P8000 is a microcomputer system developed in 1987 by the VEB Elektro-Apparate-Werke Berlin-Treptow „Friedrich Ebert“ (EAW) in the German Democratic Republic. It consisted of an 8-bit and a 16-bit microprocessor and a Winchester disk controller. It was intended as a universal programming and development system for multi-user/multi-task applications. The initial list price of the P8000 was 172,125 East German marks.
Smoke Signal Broadcasting, Inc. (SSB), later known as Smoke Signal, was an American computer company founded in 1976 by Frederic Jerome "Ric" Hammond of Hollywood, California. The company earned its reputation by offering expansions for the Southwest Technical Products (SWTPC) 6800 microcomputer. It later manufactured its own line of computers, called the Chieftain. Though it remains little-known, Smoke Signal was an early and important manufacturer of multi-user computer systems.
Pacific Cyber/Metrix, Inc. was an American computer company based in California. The company was founded in 1975 in San Ramon, California.
The RoadRunner was an early laptop designed by MicroOffice Systems Technology and introduced in 1983. Weighing roughly 5 pounds (2.3 kg) and featuring a battery able to power it for up to eight hours, the RoadRunner was one of the first clamshell notebook computers ever released.
The Dimension 68000 is a microcomputer introduced by the Micro Craft Corporation in 1983 that sought to emulate the Apple II, the IBM PC, and various CP/M-centric computers through a family of coprocessor expansion cards and emulation software. The Dimension 68000 can also run as a standalone computer based on the Motorola 68000 from which it gets its namesake. The computer is mostly the brainchild of Mike Carpenter, a former executive of a scientific instrument manufacturer who incorporated Micro Craft in Dallas, Texas, to develop the Dimension 68000. It had a market lifespan of three years and received mixed, mostly positive, reception from the technology press. Criticism was leveled at the $6,250 price tag for the computer with the full deck of coprocessor cards, as well as the extent of the emulation power of those cards.
Quasar Data Products Inc. (QDP), later QDP Computer Systems Inc., was an American computer company based in 1979 in North Olmsted, Ohio, United States. The company was founded by Brian A. Catalucci and Dave L. Kelley, the former a trained engineer who had previously worked as an airline pilot.
The Stratos was a Z80-based microcomputer introduced by Symbiotic Systems, Inc., in 1981.
Gnat Computers, Inc. was an American computer company based in San Diego, California, founded in 1976. The company was an early developer of microcomputers and one of the first—if not the first—to license the CP/M operating system from Digital Research. They released various computer hardware, including two microcomputer systems, before they were acquired by business partner Data Technology Industries, Inc., in 1983.
Pronto Computers, Inc., was an American computer company based in Torrance, California, active from 1983 to 1987. During its brief existence, the company released a duo of IBM PC compatible computer systems and a family of high-spec graphics cards. Pronto's first product, the System 16, was widely lauded for its graphical prowess and industrial design; in 1983, I.D. magazine named it the best-designed product in the field of instrumentation and equipment. The System 16 was followed up with the Pronto Transportable Solution, a portable computer. Both it and the Pronto 16 ran the Intel 80186, a microprocessor seldom used in IBM PC compatibles. Pronto Computers went bankrupt shortly after the Black Monday financial crisis of 1987.
The ACFA-8 was a microcomputer based on the Motorola 6808. It was released in 1979 by Andrew M. Veronis, a doctorate of computer science more well-known for his books on computer engineering.
Athena Computer & Electronic Systems was an American computer company active from 1982 to 1987 and based in San Juan Capistrano, California. It released an early laptop, the Athena 1, in 1983. The laptop was one of the first to make use of solid-state technology as its primary storage medium.
The E'Lite is a small-form-factor microcomputer based on the Zilog Z80B microprocessor released by Barrington International Corporation in 1982. It served as the market introduction of Irwin Magnetic Systems' long-awaited 510 Winchester tape drives.
The Micro Expander Model 1 is an S-100-based microcomputer introduced by Micro-Expander, Inc., in 1981. The computer was the brainchild of Lee Felsenstein, designer of the Sol-20, the first home computer. After his primary client and marketers of the Sol-20, Processor Technology, went out of business in 1979, Felsenstein founded a new company, Micro-Expander, Inc., in 1980. He gained the capital to sell his prototype of a successor to the Sol-20 as the Micro Expander Model 1 with help from some Swedish investors, primarily Mats Ingemanson, who was hired to market the computer.