Pronto Computers

Last updated

Pronto Computers, Inc.
Company typePublic
IndustryComputer
Founded1983;41 years ago (1983) in Torrance, California
Founders
  • Henry Gasbarro
  • Skip Hansen
  • Doris V. Kaplan
  • Judy Anthony
Defunct1987;37 years ago (1987)
FateBankruptcy
Products
  • Pronto System 16
  • Pronto Transportable Solution

Pronto Computers, Inc., was an American computer company based in Torrance, California, active from 1983 to 1987. [1] 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. [2] 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.

Contents

History

Pronto Computers was incorporated in Torrance, California, in March 1983. [3] Its founding members were Henry Gasbarro, CEO; Skip Hansen, vice president of engineering and sales; Doris V. Kaplan, comptroller; and Judy Anthony, head of product marketing. [4] According to Computerworld , the company was established to design, manufacture, and market computer systems and peripherals for businesses. [3] Although the firm manufactured systems that could run many applications designed for IBM's Personal Computer lineup, Gasbarro described compatibility as only a secondary design goal. He explained in 1984: "We created a professional product to solve various business needs. We didn't aim at being PC-compatible, but we do get some of the fallout". [5]

Pronto System 16

A month after Pronto's incorporation, at COMDEX/Spring, the company unveiled the Pronto System 16, an IBM PC compatible running an 8-MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor. [6] The System 16 was among the few compatibles based on the 80186; designing such machines based on 186 was a notoriously difficult proposition, owing to the processor's large-scale integration of support chips largely deviating in functionality from the support chips present on the original IBM PC's motherboard. [7]

Besides the unique processor, the computer was also one of the first personal computers built into a tower form factor. [1] According to the Smithsonian, the System 16 pioneered several design concepts in personal computers that became prevalent in the following decades, including a swivel–tilt monitor base, a compact footprint, adjustable keyboard tilt, and ample cable length for the monitor, allowing the bulkier tower to be stored a considerable distance from the monitor. [1] (A common practice was to put the tower on the floor.) The System 16's unique industrial design earned the company an award in I.D. magazine in 1983 for best-designed product in the field of instrumentation and equipment. [2] Its design was rendered by Joseph D. Ricchio Jr. of Ron Loosen Associates in Los Alamitos, California. [8]

The System 16 comes equipped with 128 KB of RAM stock, expandable to a maximum of 1 MB. [6] Depending on the computer's configuration of drives, the System 16 sold between US$2,995 and US$5,995. [9] The system could be ordered with one or two double-density, 800-KB 5.25-inch floppy disk drives; one such floppy drive and a hard drive; or two hard drives. [1] The hard drives in question were not the conventional "Winchester"-style, enclosed-platter drives used by many other personal computers—including the IBM PC XT—but were removable disk cartridges manufactured by SyQuest. [10] This variant of hard drive was chosen for its compactness and ease of upgrading to drives accepting higher-capacity cartridges, which the company promised at a later date. [11] Indeed, in May 1984, the company began selling System 16s with SyQuest drives between 23 MB and 56.7 MB in capacity, in solo- and dual-hard-drive configurations. [12]

The System 16 can also produce high-resolution graphics using two special modes developed for the NEC μPD7220 display controller on the computer's graphics card. Both modes implemented bitplanes: in color mode, eight colors from a palette of sixteen can be displayed simultaneously; in monochrome mode, eight shades of gray can be displayed simultaneously. As Pronto did not ship a color monitor for the Pronto until 1984, [5] early adopters who wanted to harness the computer's high-resolution mode had to subsist with the eight shades of green generated by its green-phosphor monochrome CRT. [6]

Between 1983 and 1987, Pronto sold 1,000 units of the System 16, according to the Smithsonian. [1]

Pronto Transportable Solution

In November 1983, the company introduced an IBM PC–compatible portable computer also based on the 186 microprocessor. [13] Called the Pronto Transportable Solution, the computer was built into a 19.75 by 17.25 by 8 inches (50.2 by 43.8 by 20.3 cm) suitcase-style chassis and a nine-inch monochrome CRT display, available in amber and green phosphors. The computer featured 256 KB of RAM stock and featured an EPROM socket for custom software on chips, between 16 KB and 64 KB in total length. The computer was optioned with the same SyQuest disk cartridge system as the System 16, available in 5.6-MB and 23.3-MB drive variants, or the user could have bought a unit with dual 5.25-inch floppy drives. [14]

Graphics cards and decline

In September 1986, the company introduced a line of high-spec ISA graphics cards aimed at the computer-aided design market. Called the HR1200 Series, all cards were 16 bits in width. While they could support the 8-bit ISA slots of the original IBM PC and the PC XT (and compatibles), only the PC/AT and RT PC could take advantage of the data lines of the 16-bit portion of the cards. The HR1200 family comprised four cards: the first with a 1280-by-1024 pixel resolution and 256 simultaneous colors (from a palette of 4,096 colors); the second with a 1280-by-1024 resolution and 16 simultaneous colors; the third with a 1024-by-768 resolution and 256 simultaneous colors; and the last with a 1024-by-768 resolution and 16 simultaneous colors. [15]

Pronto Computers filed for bankruptcy in 1987, shortly after its initial public offering amid the Black Monday financial crisis. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 National Museum of American History n.d.
  2. 1 2 Marshall 1984, p. 60.
  3. 1 2 Staff writer 1983a, p. 115.
  4. ↑ Staff writer 1987, p. 555.
  5. 1 2 Warren 1984, p. 188.
  6. 1 2 3 Chin 1983, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Marshall 1984, pp. 59–60.
  8. ↑ Staff writer 1983c, p. 38.
  9. ↑ Staff writer 1983b, p. 69.
  10. ↑ Hansen 1983, p. 168.
  11. ↑ Hansen 1983, p. 176.
  12. ↑ Staff writer 1984b, p. 90.
  13. ↑ Nadeau 2002, p. 110.
  14. ↑ Staff writer 1984a, p. 72.
  15. ↑ Ranney 1986, p. 19.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enhanced Graphics Adapter</span> IBM PC graphic adapter and display standard

The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) is an IBM PC graphics adapter and de facto computer display standard from 1984 that superseded the CGA standard introduced with the original IBM PC, and was itself superseded by the VGA standard in 1987. In addition to the original EGA card manufactured by IBM, many compatible third-party cards were manufactured, and EGA graphics modes continued to be supported by VGA and later standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PS/2</span> Second generation of personal computers by IBM

The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART, 1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk format, 72-pin SIMMs, the PS/2 port, and the VGA video standard, went on to become standards in the broader PC market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Personal Computer AT</span> IBM personal computer released in 1984

The IBM Personal Computer AT was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 80286 microprocessor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandy 2000</span> Personal computer by Radio Shack

The Tandy 2000 is a personal computer introduced by Radio Shack in September 1983 based on the 8 MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor running MS-DOS. By comparison, the IBM PC XT used the older 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor, and the IBM PC/AT would later use the newer 6 MHz Intel 80286. Due to the 16-bit data bus and more efficient instruction decoding of the 80186, the Tandy 2000 ran significantly faster than other PC compatibles, and slightly faster than the PC AT. The Tandy 2000 was the company's first computer built around an Intel x86 series microprocessor; previous models used the Zilog Z80 and Motorola 6809 CPUs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mindset (computer)</span> 1984 personal computer

The Mindset is an Intel 80186-based MS-DOS personal computer. It was developed by the Mindset Corporation and released in spring 1984. Unlike other IBM PC compatibles of the time, it has custom graphics hardware supporting a 320×200 resolution with 16 simultaneous colors and hardware-accelerated drawing capabilities, including a blitter, allowing it to update the screen 50 times as fast as an IBM standard color graphics adapter. The basic unit was priced at US$1,798. It is conceptually similar to the more successful Amiga released over a year later. Key engineers of both the Amiga and Mindset were ex-Atari, Inc. employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrow Pivot</span> 1985 personal computer

The Pivot is a family of early IBM PC–compatible portable computers first released in 1984 by Morrow Designs, a company founded by George Morrow. It was the first lunchbox-style portable computer, with a vertically configured case that has a fold-down keyboard. The only external component is a single AC adapter. It would have been a little top heavy except for the large camcorder-style battery loaded into its base. The Pivot was designed by Chikok Shing of Vadem Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professional Graphics Controller</span> Graphics adapter and display standard for early IBM PCs

Professional Graphics Controller is a graphics card manufactured by IBM for PCs. It consists of three interconnected PCBs, and contains its own processor and memory. The PGC was, at the time of its release, the most advanced graphics card for the IBM XT and aimed for tasks such as CAD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM 3270 PC</span>

The IBM 3270 PC, is a personal computer developed by IBM and released in October 1983. Although its hardware is mostly identical to the IBM PC XT, the 3270 contains additional components that, in combination with software, can emulate the behavior of an IBM 3270 terminal. Therefore, it can be used both as a standalone computer, and as a terminal to a mainframe.

The MBC-550 series, also known as the MBC-550/555, is a series of personal computers sold by Sanyo. It was unveiled at the COMDEX/Spring '83 in April 1983 and first released to market in March 1984. All models in the MBC-550 series featured pizza-box-style cases and Intel 8088 microprocessors and run versions of MS-DOS. On its release in 1984, the MBC-550 was the least expensive IBM PC compatible released to date, at a price of $US$995. The MBC-550 series followed Sanyo's MBC-1000 line of CP/M computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivetti M24</span> Computer sold by Olivetti in 1983 using the Intel 8086 CPU

The Olivetti M24 is a computer that was sold by Olivetti in 1983 using the Intel 8086 CPU.

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

The APC was a series of business microcomputers released outside of Japan by the NEC Corporation. The series comprised the APC, the APC II and APC III, international versions of models from the Japanese NEC N5200 series(jp).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Personal Computer XT</span> Personal computer model released in 1983

The IBM Personal Computer XT is the second computer in the IBM Personal Computer line, released on March 8, 1983. Except for the addition of a built-in hard drive and extra expansion slots, it is very similar to the original IBM PC model 5150 from 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West PC-800</span> Norwegian Apple II clone

The West PC-800 was a home computer introduced by Norwegian company West Computer AS in 1984. The computer was designed as an alarm center allowing use of several CPUs and operating systems. The company introduced an IBM PC compatible in early 1986 and the West PC-800 line was phased out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Chip Electronics</span> Former American computer company

Blue Chip Electronics, Inc., later Blue Chip International, was an American computer company founded by John Rossi in 1982. Founded to develop peripherals for Commodore home computers, the company in 1986 began selling low-cost IBM PC compatibles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PS/2 Model 30</span> 1987 IBM desktop computer

The Personal System/2 Model 30 and Personal System/2 Model 30 286 are IBM's entry-level desktop computers in their Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of personal computers. As opposed to higher-end entries in the PS/2 line which use Micro Channel bus architecture, the Model 30 features an Industry Standard Architecture bus, allowing it to use expansion cards from its direct predecessors, the PC/XT and the PC/AT. The original PS/2 Model 30 is built upon the Intel 8086 microprocessor clocked at 8 MHz; the Model 30 286 features the Intel 80286 clocked at 10 MHz.

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 MAD-1 is an IBM PC–compatible desktop computer released by Mad Computers, Inc., of Santa Clara, California, in 1984. The computer was noted among the technology press for its unique, modular design and its 80186 microprocessor, the latter seldom used in PC compatibles. It received positive reviews but sold poorly and was pulled from market a year later.

Terak Corporation was an American computer company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company was among the first to market graphical workstations, with their most successful being the Terak 8510/a in 1977. After going public in 1983, the company was acquired by Sanders Associates, who placed it under their CalComp division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonos</span> Defunct American computer systems company

Jonos International, Inc., originally Jonos, Ltd. (JL), later Netcom Research, Inc., was an American computer company active from 1980 to 1992. The company sold a variety of computer hardware products and systems, including STD Bus peripherals, smart terminals, microcomputers, and portable computers. The company's Courier portable computer was the first microcomputer sold with Sony's then-new 3.5-inch floppy disk drives on its release in June 1982. Jonos' systems were widely used in the fields of construction, roadworks, machining, and military.

References

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.