Pacific Cyber/Metrix

Last updated
PCM Systems Corporation
Formerly
  • PCM, Inc. (1975)
  • Pacific Cyber/Metrix (1975–1996)
TypePrivate
IndustryComputers
Founded1975;47 years ago (1975)
Defunct2001;21 years ago (2001)
FateDissolved
Headquarters
Key people
  • Robert Nelson, president
Number of employees
15 (early 2000s)
Website pcmsystems.com (archived)

Pacific Cyber/Metrix, Inc. (PC/M; originally PCM, Inc., later PCM Systems) was an American computer company based in California. The company was founded in 1975 in San Ramon, California. [1]

Contents

A privately held company, PC/M was founded by Robert Nelson and several others, most of whom including Nelson came from the San Ramon facility of Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, a scientific research firm. Nelson was named president and general owner. For the next several years the company developed microcomputers based around the PDP-8–compatible Intersil 6100 as well as CMOS EPROM burners. The company earned profit from the cash flow generated by their products and received no outside venture capital. PC/M moved its headquarters in late 1979 to Dublin, California, [2] where the company spent the remainder of its existence in a 6,000-square-foot facility. [3] The company's workforce was relatively spartan throughout its lifespan, employing only "about 10" in 1979, [2] later increasing to 15 by the early 2000s. [3]

History

1970s

Front view of the PCM-12 PCM-12 Brochure crop.jpg
Front view of the PCM-12

The company's first announced product was the PCM-12, a 12-bit minicomputer based on the Intersil IM6100 microprocessor, allowing it to be mostly software compatible with Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-8/E. [4] The PCM-12 supported up to 32 kilowords of memory 12 bits wide, [5] and its 80-line bus accommodated 15 expansion cards. On release, the only expansion cards optioned were device-interfacing modules—including TTY and cassette—and memory boards; a direct memory access controller card and a hardware vectored interrupt handler card were provisional. Included with the stock PCM-12 was a 4-kiloword memory board. The minicomputer's front panel meanwhile provides virtually all of the PDP-8/E's switch-functions while also including binary bootstrap loader and decrement-address functions. [5] On release in early 1976, the PCM-12 was only available in kit form for between US$400 and $600, depending on options. [4] By mid-March that year, the price of the kit increased to $799. [6] The kit in minimal form required assembling the computer from five printed circuit boards (including the CPU and 4-kiloword memory boards), the cabinet, the front panel, and the power supply. The computer was later offered completely assembled and tested in May 1976, for $1224. [5] The PCM-12 was, by Byte magazine's estimation, the first mini- or microcomputer based on the IM6100. [7] According to Modern Data , the computer was also the first to have its backplane and cards built into a metal card cage. [8]

The PCM-12 received a facelift in the form of the PCM-12A in mid-1977. This revision "beefed-up" the original PCM-12's included literature and cabinetry, added a crystal oscillator to the CPU board to generate a timing signal for variable baud rates, an "absolute loader" that bootstraps binary from tape directly into any field of memory, and a floppy disk controller card—the latter allowing DEC's OS/8 operating system to be run on the PCM-12. The kit price remained $799, [9] later decreased to $679 (against the assembled version's $989). [10] The portfolio of expansion cards by this point included a parallel–serial I/O card and a DEC-compatible, [11] high-speed punched card reader–writer. [12] PC/M backported floppy disk functionality to the original PCM-12 with the 12440, [9] a dual-floppy controller card introduced in November 1977. This card sold for $259 assembled and $169 as an unsoldered kit. [13]

PC/M released myriad expansion cards in the turn of 1978, including three memory expansion cards, a power-fail module card, an improved TTY card, and a PDP-8 emulation card. [14] The three memory cards comprised the 12020A, the PCM-12's basic 12-bit 4-kiloword n-channel RAM board; the 12160, a ROM/RAM hybrid board constituting 1.5 kilowords of UV-erasable EPROMs in high pages and 512 words of n-channel RAM in low pages; and the 12210, a 12-bit 4-kiloword non-volatile CMOS RAM board. The 12210 stored memory after power-off for up to 30 days with the aid of its included battery. All three memory cards carry 59 integrated circuits, including logic chips for bus interfacing. The 12230 power-fail module was available around the time of release of these memory cards, which when paired with the 12210 made the PCM-12 impervious to AC power failures. [15] The improved TTY card, named the 12060, emulated DEC's 03 and 04 device selector designations and provides I/O with both RS-232 and 20-mA current loop interfaces. The 12060 supports both teleprinters and video terminals. [16] PC/M co-introduced the 12060 with the 12310, a digital I/O board which provides the PCM-12 with additional instruction sets based on DEC's DR8-EA Flip-Chip module, which aided in the fields of data acquisition and process control. [17] Aiming to attract third-party vendors for development of custom expansion cards for the PCM-12, the company released the 12090 prototype board, a double-plated through-hole circuit board with a grid of vias to facilitate wire-wrap or solder-tail connections. [18]

The company entered the CMOS EPROM programmer industry with the release of the Model 66 in February 1978. [19] Compatible only with Intersil's 6603 and 6604 EPROM chips, Model 66 can be used standalone or controlled via a computer, terminal, teletype, or IC test equipment for automated burning. Inside the Model 66 is a microprocessor and a 4-KiB RAM buffer. It offers a full suite of editing functions, including loading and monitoring the RAM buffer or the EPROM directly, with a button on the front panel allowing the user to verify quickly if the EPROM has been erased; while firmware in ROM provides dumping and verifying capabilities to external control. Operated standalone, EPROM data may be loaded by paper tape. [19] The Model 66 was later tweaked as the Model 660 in August 1978. [20]

In 1979, the company opened up Bubbl-Tec, a division dedicated to development and manufacturing of devices using bubble memory modules fabricated by Texas Instruments. The opening of this division, which PC/M anticipated would generate the bulk of the company's future growth overall, necessitated the company move headquarters from San Ramon to Dublin. Originally sold only via direct sales, PC/M signed up distributors in the United States and Europe and hired in-house company salespeople to sell Bubbl-Tec's products later in 1979. The company delivered its first bubble-memory-based device in July 1979; two more were added to Bubbl-Tec's roster in September. [2]

1980s

A physically larger follow-up to the PCM-12 was introduced in early 1980. Described by Computer Business News as a mainframe, the PCM-12 Omega offered 18 expansion slots on its bus and added a hinge to its card cage, allowing it to pivot up into view of the user from the front panel and stay into place through a special mechanism. Still based on the Intersil 6100, PC/M ensured software compatibility with the PDP-8/A (the last non-microprocessor-based incarnation of the PDP-8), the VT78 DECstation, and the WS78 and WD78 word–data processing systems. The expansion slots are variably spaced to allow for both narrow cards such as memory modules and wire-wrapped prototype boards which require far more clearance. The built-in power supply provides overvoltage protection and foldback current limiting. [21]

Shortly after the PCM-12, PC/M released a single-board computer, the Model PPS-1201, designed to be plugged into Intel's Multibus backplane. [22] Based again on the Intersil 6100, the PPS-1201 supports up to 4 kilowords of socketed memory chips configurable as any amount of RAM or EPROMs. An additional kiloword of memory on the board is reserved for loading and running a "control panel" suite, comprising a debugger and a machine code monitor, from an on-board ROM. The board also possesses a memory expansion controller, a serial port compatible with RS-232 and 20-mA current loop interfaces (through the use of an on-board optocoupler), and three 12-bit-wide parallel ports. [23] The PPS-1201 was followed up in 1981 by the simply titled Model PPS-12, which had essentially the same board layout but added support for other PC/M-manufactured serial–parallel and bubble memory expansion modules as well as added software for terminal control and external software development equipment interfacing. [24] The PPS-12 was designed for field applications where only battery or solar power is available; it requires only a 5 V hookup and consumes only half a watt of power. [25]

PC/M's Bubbl-Tec division continued releasing memory cards until at least 1987, [26] their efforts culminating in the PCH-3 Bubbl-Board, a bubble memory expansion card for IBM PC and compatibles. The card supported up to 1.5 MB worth of bubble memory modules, which were removable and could be loaded into Bubbl-Pacs enclosures for the Bubbl-Dek [27] —an external bubble memory module reader developed by Bubble-Tec that plugs into the disk drive bay of the PC. [28]

In 1988, the company introduced a $20,300 Unix-compatible multiprocessor computer system for Motorola's VMEbus, called Hyperflo. Each processor board carries four Motorola 68020 CPUs and two floating-point units standard. Apart from the processor boards, the package includes a resource management board, a memory controller board, and one or more flat memory boards. An optional ROM board allows software to be stored and loaded instantaneously. The system supports up to eighteen processor boards. [29]

1990s – 2001

Pacific Cyber/Metrix's domain in the 1990s was largely limited to VMEbus-based digital signal processors for imaging, signal analysis, and scientific instrumentation. [30] In 1996, the company renamed themselves to PCM Systems. [31] In November 2001, the company filed its certificate of dissolution to the California government. [32]

Citations

  1. ↑ Staff writer 1990, p. 187; Staff writer 1979b, p. 13.
  2. 1 2 3 Staff writer 1979b, p. 13.
  3. 1 2 Staff writer 2004, p. 851.
  4. 1 2 Staff writer 1976a, p. 137.
  5. 1 2 3 Staff writer 1976e, p. 210.
  6. ↑ Staff writer 1976c, p. 42.
  7. ↑ Staff writer 1976b.
  8. ↑ Staff writer 1976d.
  9. 1 2 Staff writer 1977d, p. 116.
  10. ↑ Staff writer 1977c, p. 15.
  11. ↑ Staff writer 1977a, p. 20.
  12. ↑ Staff writer 1977a, p. 20; Staff writer 1978d, p. 131.
  13. ↑ Staff writer 1977b, p. 53; Staff writer 1978e, p. 200.
  14. ↑ Staff writer 1977e, p. 33; Staff writer 1978b, p. 142.
  15. ↑ Staff writer 1978a, p. 144.
  16. ↑ Staff writer 1978g, p. 74.
  17. ↑ Staff writer 1978b, p. 142.
  18. ↑ Staff writer 1978e, p. 150.
  19. 1 2 Staff writer 1978c, p. 200.
  20. ↑ Staff writer 1978h, p. 200; Staff writer 1979a, p. 241.
  21. ↑ Staff writer 1980a, p. 26.
  22. ↑ Staff writer 1980b, p. 10.
  23. ↑ Staff writer 1980d, p. 97.
  24. ↑ Staff writer 1981a, p. 11.
  25. ↑ Staff writer 1981b, p. 196.
  26. ↑ Staff writer 1981b, p. 10; Staff writer 1982, p. 44; Staff writer 1986a, p. 89; Staff writer 1986b, p. 113.
  27. ↑ Matzkin 1987, p. 45.
  28. ↑ Stafford 1986, p. 44.
  29. ↑ Staff writer 1988, p. 74.
  30. ↑ Staff writer 1991, p. 130; Staff writer 1993a, p. 95; Staff writer 1993b, p. 119.
  31. ↑ PCM Systems 1996.
  32. ↑ OpenCorporates n.d.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motherboard</span> Main printed circuit board (PCB) for a computing device

A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals. Unlike a backplane, a motherboard usually contains significant sub-systems, such as the central processor, the chipset's input/output and memory controllers, interface connectors, and other components integrated for general use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDP-11</span> Series of 16-bit minicomputers

The PDP-11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of all models were sold, making it one of DEC's most successful product lines. The PDP-11 is considered by some experts to be the most popular minicomputer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ad Lib, Inc.</span> Canadian manufacturer

Ad Lib, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval. The company's best known product, the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card (ALMSC), or simply the AdLib as it was called, was the first add-on sound card for IBM compatibles to achieve widespread acceptance, becoming the first de facto standard for audio reproduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expansion card</span> Circuit board for connecting to a computer system to add functionality

In computing, an expansion card is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot on a computer's motherboard to add functionality to a computer system. Sometimes the design of the computer's case and motherboard involves placing most of these slots onto a separate, removable card. Typically such cards are referred to as a riser card in part because they project upward from the board and allow expansion cards to be placed above and parallel to the motherboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micro Channel architecture</span>

Micro Channel architecture, or the Micro Channel bus, is a proprietary 16- or 32-bit parallel computer bus introduced by IBM in 1987 which was used on PS/2 and other computers until the mid-1990s. Its name is commonly abbreviated as "MCA", although not by IBM. In IBM products, it superseded the ISA bus and was itself subsequently superseded by the PCI bus architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDP-6</span> 36-bit mainframe computer (1964–1966)

The PDP-6, short for Programmed Data Processor model 6, is a computer developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) during 1963 and first delivered in the summer of 1964. It was an expansion of DEC's existing 18-bit systems to use a 36-bit data word, which was at that time a common word size for large machines like IBM mainframes. The system was constructed using the same germanium transistor-based System Module layout as DEC's earlier machines, like the PDP-1 and PDP-4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AST Research</span> American computer manufacturer (1980–1999)

AST Research, Inc., later doing business as AST Computer, was a personal computer manufacturer. It was founded in 1980 in Irvine, California by Albert Wong, Safi Qureshey, and Thomas Yuen, as an initialism of their first names. In the 1980s, AST designed add-on expansion cards, and evolved toward the 1990s into a major personal computer manufacturer. AST was acquired by Samsung Electronics in 1997 but was forced to close in 1999 due to a series of losses.

Intersil is an American semiconductor company headquartered in Milpitas, California. As of February 24, 2017, Intersil is a subsidiary of Renesas. The previous Intersil was formed in August 1999 through the acquisition of the semiconductor business of Harris Corporation. Intersil is a power management IC business, with specialized capability in power management and precision analog technology for applications in industrial, infrastructure, mobile, automotive and aerospace.

During the late 1980s, Intel sold two ISA expansion cards named Intel Inboard 386/AT and Intel Inboard 386/PC, which allowed users to upgrade an IBM AT or an IBM PC respectively. The boards allowed users to upgrade their machines' CPU to a 16 MHz 80386 processor. Both variants utilized a ribbon cable which plugged into the computer's original CPU socket on one end and into a socket on the Inboard card on the other end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DECmate</span>

DECmate was the name of a series of PDP-8-compatible computers produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All of the models used an Intersil 6100 or Harris 6120 microprocessor which emulated the 12-bit DEC PDP-8 CPU. They were text-only and used the OS/78 or OS/278 operating systems, which were extensions of OS/8 for the PDP-8. Aimed at the word processing market, they typically ran the WPS-8 word-processing program. Later models optionally had Intel 8080 or Z80 microprocessors which allowed them to run CP/M. The range was a development of the VT78 which was introduced in July 1977.

In computing, the motherboard form factor is the specification of a motherboard – the dimensions, power supply type, location of mounting holes, number of ports on the back panel, etc. Specifically, in the IBM PC compatible industry, standard form factors ensure that parts are interchangeable across competing vendors and generations of technology, while in enterprise computing, form factors ensure that server modules fit into existing rackmount systems. Traditionally, the most significant specification is for that of the motherboard, which generally dictates the overall size of the case. Small form factors have been developed and implemented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersil 6100</span> 12-bit microprocessor

The Intersil 6100 is a single-chip microprocessor implementation of the 12-bit PDP-8 instruction set, along with a range of peripheral support and memory ICs developed by Intersil in the mid-1970s. It was sometimes referred to as the CMOS-PDP8. Since it was also produced by Harris Corporation, it was also known as the Harris HM-6100. The Intersil 6100 was introduced in the second quarter of 1975, and the Harris version in 1976.

The Eazy PC is an all-in-one IBM PC compatible computer manufactured by Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) starting in 1987. This small-form-factor XT-compatible system has some unique features, such as using a non-Intel CPU. The Eazy PC was designed to be a simple, cost-effective computer for the home. This was a departure for ZDS, who had historically avoided the retail consumer market to focus on customers such as businesses, universities, and government agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Computer and Peripheral</span> American computer company

American Computer & Peripheral, Inc. (AC&P), also written as American Computer and Peripheral, was an American computer company based in Santa Ana, California. The company was founded in 1985 by Alan Lue and released several expansion boards for the IBM PC as well as a few PC clones before going bankrupt in December 1989. Obscure in its own time, the company's 386 Translator was the first plug-in board for Intel's newly released 80386 processor and the first mass-market computing device to offer consumers a means of using the 386 in July 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharp PC-4500</span> 1987 laptop computer by Sharp Electronics

The Sharp PC-4500 is a line of laptop computers released by Sharp Corporation in 1987. The line comprises the PC-4501, the PC-4502, and the PC-4521. The PC-4501 is a bare-bones unit with only 256 KB of RAM stock, only one floppy drive, no backlighting, and no built-in numeric keypad; the PC-4502 and PC-4521 bumps the stock RAM to 640 KB and includes the latter two features while providing either two floppy drive (PC-4502) or one floppy drive and a 20 MB hard drive (PC-4521). Prices on the line initially ranged from $1,295 to just under $3,000; the PC-4501 was later sold for $995, becoming one of the first sub-$1,000 laptops available on the market. The PC-4500 line received mixed, mostly positive, reviews on its release in September 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aox Inc.</span> American technology corporation

Aox Inc. was a privately run American technology corporation founded by Michael and Linda Aronson in 1978. Over the course of its 22-year lifespan, the company chiefly developed software and hardware for IBM's PC and compatibles, for the Personal System/2, and for the Macintosh. In its twilight years, the company designed multimedia and teleconferencing devices and chip designs. Aox was founded after Michael Aronson graduated from Harvard University with a doctorate in physics; he stayed with the company until 2000, when he incorporated EndPoints Inc. and switched to full-time fabless semiconductor design.

Intelligent Systems Corporation (ISC) was an American technology company that sold portable computers, video terminals, expansion cards, and other peripherals through a variety of manufacturing subsidiaries. Founded in 1973, the company restructured as a master limited partnership in 1987, becoming Intelligent Systems Master Limited Partnership.

Parasitic Engineering, Inc., was an American computer company founded by Howard Fullmer in 1976. Named as a tongue-in-cheek reference to a comment by MITS co-founder Ed Roberts, Parasitic's first products were hardware upgrade kits to MITS' Altair 8800 microcomputer kit, improving the latter's power supply rating and susceptibility to noise. The company later released their own microcomputer based on the same bus as the Altair, the S-100, but it was less popular than the company's hardware-improvement kits. By 1979, the company had pivoted to providing upgrades to Tandy's TRS-80. Parasitic went defunct in 1983.

Quasar Data Products Inc. (QDP), later QDP Computer Systems Inc., was an American computer company based in 1979 in North Olmsted, Ohio. 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.

References

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.