Products
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2023) |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer |
| Founded | 1974 in Provo, Utah |
| Founder | John McMullen |
| Fate | Dissolution |
| Headquarters |
|
Zeda Computers International Limited, trading as Zeda Computer Systems, was an American computer company based in Provo, Utah, and with overseas office in Nottingham. Founded in 1974, their best-selling computer was the Zeda 580, a Zilog Z80-based all-in-one microcomputer.
Zeda Computers International was founded in 1974 by John McMullen. [1] [2] Beginning life as a electronics research and development laboratory, with few years later the company expanded to full-time production and marketing of computer systems and electronic word processors from within its 7,000-square-foot headquarters. Expansion was hastened after the company earned a contract to design a computer terminal and a data buffer system for a computer peripheral manufacturer out of San Jose, California, in the mid-1970s. [1] [3] In 1976, the company established an overseas sales office in Nottingham. [4]
After Zeda released its first microcomputers in late 1977, the company's revenues soon rose to US$1.5 million. The company's Z80-based all-in-one, the Zeda 580, sold especially well and prompted Zeda's expansion into a 1,500-square-foot building adjacent to its Provo headquarters to where they moved their marketing department. [1] [2] [5] They released a companion dumb terminal, the Zeda 550, in December 1979, allowing two users to operate the computer at once with the computer's special operating system, [6] InfiNet. [7]
Zeda had by 1980 dealer networks in the Western United States, England, Australia, and the South Pacific. [2] That year's summer, the company earned two additional contracts from dealers in Portland, Oregon, and Rantoul, Illinois, to distribute $5.7 million worth of Zeda's 580 systems. [2] [8] The computer topped $1 million in domestic sales in August 1981; [9] in the United Kingdom, the company topped £1 million in sales turnover in 1984. Its Brighton sales office staffed 40 that year. [4] The branch was commissioned by the Peterborough Building Society to transform the bank's Westgate branch into having a computerized open office floor plan. [10]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2023) |
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare.
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Billings Computer Corporation was a publicly traded computer company and fully owned subsidiary of Billings Energy Corporation, a defunct American energy company based in Provo, Utah, that specialized in hydrogen fuel. Billings Computer was active between 1977 and 1985 and released several minicomputers and microcomputer systems.
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's long-awaited 510 Winchester tape drives.
The Baby! 1 is a microcomputer released by STM Systems Inc. of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, in August 1976. The computer was based on the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor and came in a small enclosure that fit inside an attaché briefcase that came shipped with the computer. Byte magazine in 1985 called it the first portable microcomputer, although it more closely resembled the home computers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64 than early laptops like the Grid Compass.