 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer |
| Founded | January 1981 |
| Defunct | January 1996 |
| Fate | Acquired by Sierra Semiconductor in October 1994; divested and dissolved in 1996 |
| Products |
|
Prometheus Products, Inc. was an American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1981 to 1996. The company primarily manufactured modems and sound cards for personal computers for the bulk of its existence.
Prometheus Products was incorporated in Fremont, California, in January 1981. [1] The company was founded to capitalize on the Apple II series of home computers by providing peripherals and other add-on products. In 1984, the company began focusing on the production of modems, following a breakthrough in modem design developed within Prometheus that allowed the relatively inexpensive Intel 8031 to be used as a digital signal processor. This replaced the need for numerous analog devices for signal processing circuits customary in modem design at the time. [1] [2] : 197 In 1984, the company's board of directors hired Tom McShane as chairman of the company; [1] [2] : 197 he shortly after expanded the company to occupy two buildings, including a production factory and a research and development company, within Fremont. [1]
Prometheus was en route to generating $7 million in sales in 1987 and was one of the top 10 modem manufacturers ranked by global sales. [2] : 197 Between 1987 and 1989, the company relocated out of state to Tigard, Oregon. [2] : 198 [3] In 1992, the company merged with Technology Concepts, Inc., a manufacturer of fax and enhanced voice modems based in Belmont, California. [4] Prometheus relocated again to Tualatin, Oregon, by early 1994. [5]
In early 1994, the company introduced its first series of sound cards, the Aria 16 (comprising the flagship Aria 16 product and the Aria 16se featuring a SCSI-2 connector for connecting to optical drives). The Aria 16 was based on Sierra Semiconductor's Aria sound chipset featuring 32-polyphony wavetable synthesis and Sound Blaster–compatible FM synthesis. The Aria 16 was bargain priced but received decent reviews from the computer press of its day. [5] Prometheus' sound cards soon found use in prebuilt computer systems manufactured by IBM and DEC. [6]
Sales of Prometheus' modems cooled considerably in the early 1990s, the company trailing behind the growing pace of advancements in modem bit rates and hampered by quality control issues stemming for slow communication with their Taiwanese manufacturing contract. [7] In October 1994, Sierra Semiconductor purchased Prometheus Products in whole for an undisclosed sum of cash, making the company a subsidiary under Sierra while still operating out of Tualatin. [8] Sierra tasked businessman Jack Murphy, then recently of Practical Peripherals to turn the company around; actions he took included moving the company's manufacturing efforts stateside and shuffling the company's management to included his contacts from Practical Peripherals, Apple, and Tektronix. [7]
These actions were not enough to stem Prometheus' losses immediately, the subsidiary generating $4.6 million in losses on revenues of $19 million by late 1995. In January 1996, Sierra announced the divestiture and sale of Prometheus to the highest bidder. [9]
Packard Bell Electronics, Inc., was an American computer company independently active from 1986 to 1996, now a Dutch-registered computer manufacturing brand and subsidiary of Acer Inc. The company was originally founded in 1986, after Israeli-American investors bought the trademark rights to the Packard Bell Corporation from Teledyne. The investors wanted to name their newly formed personal computer manufacturing company producing discount computers in the North American markets. In the late 1990s, Packard Bell became a subsidiary of Japanese electronics conglomerate NEC, Packard Bell NEC. In 1999, NEC stopped its North American operations and focused squarely the division on the European market, where it continued to sell PC and laptop under the Packard Bell name. In 2006, NEC divested Packard Bell, and in 2008, the brand was acquired by the Taiwanese consumer electronic firm Acer, in the aftermath of their takeover of Gateway, Inc.
The LTE is a line of laptops manufactured by Compaq Computer Corporation, introduced in 1989 and discontinued in 1997. It was the first notebook-sized laptop sold by Compaq and the first commercially successful notebook computer, helping launch the burgeoning industry.
Global Village Communication Inc. was a leading manufacturer of easy-to-use fax modems and other telecommunications products for Apple's Macintosh platform. It was one of the few manufacturers to support the Mac's RS-422 serial ports without requiring an adapter. Major product lines included the TelePort series of high-speed desktop dial-up modems, and the PowerPort series of internal PowerBook modems, as well as a series of modems that connected to the Mac's ADB port. Many of its products were bundled with the Macintosh Performa series of computers, and it was the manufacturer for the internal modem in the PowerBook 500 series.
The LTE Lite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1992 to 1994. The first entries in the series were Compaq's first computers after co-founder Rod Canion's ousting and Eckhard Pfeiffer's tenure as the new CEO. The notebooks were co-developed and manufactured by Compaq and Citizen Watch of Japan. They were a hot-seller for Compaq and spanned multiple models, with various processors and liquid-crystal display technologies.
Canon Computer Systems, Inc. (CCSI), sometimes shortened to Canon Computer, was an American subsidiary of Canon Inc. formed in 1992 to develop and market the parent company's personal computers and workstations. The subsidiary also assumed the responsibility of marketing Canon's printers and photocopiers, which were formerly sold by other Canon divisions. It went defunct in January 2001.
OPTi Inc. was a fabless semiconductor company based in Milpitas, California, that primarily manufactured chipsets for personal computers. The company dissolved in 2001 and transferred its assets to the unaffiliated non-practicing entity OPTi Technologies
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.
Cumulus Corporation was an American computer peripheral and system manufacturer active from 1987 to 1993. Based in Beachwood, Ohio and started by Tecmar founder Martin Alpert, the company set out to exclusively manufacture expansion products for IBM's Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of computers—mainly RAM expansion cards. It later released cross-platform CPU upgrade cards and memory expansion cards for other platforms besides the PS/2. Beginning in 1990, the company began trading as Cumulus Computer Corporation and began releasing complete systems of their own. Initially a success story for the tech industry in Cleveland, a botched stock launch in 1992 proved disastrous for the company's ailing cash flow situation, and in 1993 the company was liquidated amid massive debt to suppliers and lenders.
CoreCard Corporation is an American financial technology company based in Norcross, Georgia. Before 2021, the company was named Intelligent Systems Corporation and once 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.
Leading Technology, Inc., was an American computer company based in Beaverton, Oregon, and active from 1985 to 1992. It sold IBM PC–compatible computer systems, monitors, and other peripherals supplied by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan. In 1992, the company was purchased by VTech of Hong Kong.
Cardinal Technologies, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that primarily manufactured modems for personal computers, among other peripherals.
Practical Peripherals, Inc., was a private American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1981 to 1999 and based in Los Angeles County. Founded by Michael Seedman, the company specialized in telecommunications products, primarily modems, for personal computers. Seedman led the company from its inception in 1981 until 1993, after Practical Peripherals was sold to Hayes Microcomputer Products.
Asanté Technologies, Inc., was an American computer networking equipment manufacturer active between 1988 and 2005. Founded in Sunnyvale, California, the company was for a time the market leader in networking products for Apple's line of Macintosh computers, providing hubs, switches, routers, and other equipment. The computer also dabbled in the PC-compatible and enterprise networking markets. Following a period of declining market share and stagnation between 1998 and 2005, the company was acquired by rival TechnoConcepts in 2005.
Boca Research, Inc., later Inprimis, Inc., was an American computer company based in Boca Raton, Florida, and active between 1985 and 2002. The company manufactured a variety of expansion cards for the IBM PC and compatible systems, including memory cards, networking cards, sound cards, and graphics cards. Once a major player in the computer networking market, being the fourth-largest manufacturer of modems in 1996, Boca Research abandoned the PC hardware market entirely amid falling market share and manufactured set-top boxes in the last years of its existence.
Reveal Computer Products, Inc., was a short-lived American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1992 to 1996. It was established as a subsidiary of Packard Bell Electronics, an American computer company. The company was once a major player in the IBM PC peripheral market, with annual sales peaking above the US$200 million mark. It went bankrupt in 1996 after an aborted $65-million merger with Creative Technology.
BusLogic, Inc., was an American computer company active from 1988 to 1996. It specialized in the production of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) device controller chips and controller expansion cards, becoming a dominant player in that market, behind only Adaptec. In 1996, the company was acquired by Mylex Corporation.
New Media Corporation, also known as New Media Technology Corporation, was an American computer company active from 1992 to the early 2000s. The company focused on the design and manufacture of PC Cards, a type of expansion card bus for laptops that had their heyday from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. New Media was privately held and based out of Irvine, California.
Genoa Systems Corporation, later Genoa Electronics Corporation, was an American computer multimedia peripheral vendor based in San Jose, California, and active from 1984 to 2002. The company was once a prolific and well-known manufacturer of video cards and chipsets. They also dabbled in modems, tape drives, sound cards, and other peripheral expansion cards. The company was a founding member of the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and were instrumental in the development of Super VGA.
Actix Systems, Inc., was an American graphics adapter manufacturer active from 1990 to 1998 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company was founded by Stephen W. Cheng and initially specialized in a subset of graphics adapters known as GUI accelerators, becoming a major player in the field. Toward the mid-1990s the company began manufacturing more general-purpose adapters under their GraphicsEngine brand.
Micronics Computers, Inc. was an American computer company active from 1986 to 1998 that manufactured complete systems, motherboards, and peripherals. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Micronics was one of the largest domestic motherboard manufacturers in the United States in the 1990s. After acquiring Orchid Technology in 1994, the company entered the market for multimedia products, such as graphics adapters and sound cards. In 1998, Micronics was acquired by Diamond Multimedia.