Pertec Computer Corporation
| Pertec Computer Corporation | |
|---|---|
| legal form | |
| resolution | 1980 |
| Reason for dissolution | Sale to Triumph-Adler |
| Seat | Chatsworth , California , USA |
| Branch | Hardware manufacturer |
The pertec computer ( PCC ), formerly Peripheral Equipment Corporation ( PEC ), was a computer manufacturer in Chatsworth , California , USA . As a supplier, Pertec primarily manufactured peripheral devices such as floppy drives , tape drives , mass storage devices or input and control devices for the computer industry.
Pertec's most successful products were hard drives and tape drives, which were sold as OEM products to the largest computer manufacturers at the time, such as IBM , Siemens and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Pertec manufactured a whole range of different models, including seven and nine-track tape drives in half-inch format with data densities between 800 CPI ( NRZI ) and 1600 CPI ( PE ) as well as phase encoders , which were used by almost all original equipment manufacturers as input / output devices .
In the 1970s, Pertec entered the computer industry by acquiring several smaller computer manufacturers and began manufacturing and selling small computers for data processing.
In 1976, Pertec acquired Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the maker of the Altair 8800 home computer, for $ 6.5 million . The main reason for purchasing MITS was the assumption that the source code and all rights to Microsoft BASIC would be obtained, the basics of which Microsoft had developed with Altair BASIC for MITS. Later, however, this turned out to be a fatal error.
With the acquisition of MITS, Pertec now had the opportunity to develop computer systems with microprocessors itself. The first models were extended versions of the Altair, typically supplemented with drives from their own product range. Sales were good at first, but the Altair was soon over.
Computer models
PCC-2000
In 1978 Pertec started the first completely in-house design with the PCC-2000. This had two Intel 8085 microprocessors, one of which was exclusively responsible for the input / output control. The PCC-2000 was a cutting-edge computer, had an appealing design and was supposed to become the core of what we now understand as a “workgroup”. The computer made it possible to operate several terminals at the same time , which in addition to their own console could be connected via serial RS-232 connections. A monochrome green monitor with a screen diagonal of 12 inches served as the screen . The base unit also had two 8-inch floppy drives with a capacity of 1.2 MB each . Everything was built into a common metal housing together with a high-quality keyboard with a separate numeric keypad. The whole computer already weighed over 45 kilograms. In addition, the PCC-2000 could be connected to two Pertec 14-inch disk drives . Each hard disk drive had 5 MB permanently installed and another 5 MB could be replaced. Together with the floppy drives, this enabled an effective total storage capacity of 22.4 MB, which at the time was a tremendously large amount of data. The PCC-2000 was generally delivered with a multi-user operating system called MTX. MTX contained a BASIC - interpreter which to Business BASIC was compatible. In the United Kingdom , some systems ran under the platform-independent BOS operating system developed and widely used there , which also ran on the PDP-11 and on DEC's VAX computers . Due to its high price, the PCC-2000 was not a great success. In 1979 the PCC-2100 was available in Germany from DM 24,800 .
PCC-2100
Pertec's computer product line initially referred mainly to minicomputers, which should only serve as input devices for IBM 360/370 systems and the like. Pertec began serving this segment in the mid-1970s with the PCC-2100. The PCC-2100 is not to be confused with the PCC-2000, the PCC-2100 was intended for use as a mainframe. The system could serve up to 16 terminals and have two D3000 disk drives and one T1640 tape drive.
XL-40
The Pertec XL-40 presented in 1978 was the more successful successor to the PCC-2100. The computer had special 16- bit processors, which were made from the TI3000 or from slices from the AMD2900 . It also had up to 512 KB of RAM, dedicated master-mode-capable DMA controllers for tape drives, floppy drives and hard drives, printers, punch card readers and terminals. In the maximum configuration, the XL-40 had four Pertec T1600 / T1800 tape drives, two floppy disk drives (manufactured by IBM or by Pertec), four D1400 / D3400 hard disk drives with 4.4 MB, 8.8 MB or 17.6 MB capacity (manufactured from Pertec or from Kennedy) or optionally two disk drives with up to 70 MB capacity (manufactured by Kennedy or by NEC), a line printer (DataProducts LP600, LP1200, B300, Printronix P300, P600), four other printers connected via Centronics , a punch card reader from Pertec, four SDLC data communication channels and 30 proprietary terminals (Model 4141 with 40 × 12 characters or Model 4143 with 80 × 25 characters).
The computer was mainly intended as a key-to-disk system and should be able to replace the punched card punchers from IBM, which were widely used up to that point, and the more advanced key-to-tape systems, for example from Mohawk Data Systems (MDS) or Singer. In addition to pure data entry, the proprietary XLOS operating system also made it possible to handle indexed data files for online data processing, even with transaction logs. The system offered two basic program functions: the pure input of data in various previously defined table masks with optional validation or the direct access to an indexed data file which supported the handling of IDX and SEQ files with a special dialect of the programming language COBOL .
System maintenance could be carried out in a protected supervisor mode. In this mode the XL-40 supports the execution of batch files in which operations previously defined by the supervisor were processed one after the other.
The system interacted with the user through a series of automatic messages on the screen explaining certain functions and suggesting default values, probably the greatest ease of use achievable for plain text systems.
The XL-40 was also marketed by Triumph-Adler in Europe as the TA1540 and the Alphatronic P40 . This was the beginning of a business relationship that ended with the takeover of Pertec by Triumph-Adler.
Pertec 3000
Pertec's last in-house development took a completely different direction. The 3000 series was based on Motorola's MC68000 microprocessor . The system was intended as a CP / M multi-user system and was sold again in England with BOS as the operating system. As with the XL-40 before, Triumph-Adler also sold the 3000 in Europe under its own model name MSX 3200. There were later a total of three improved successor models, the MSX 3220, MSX 3230 and MSX 3240.
The 3000 was very advanced for its time. It supported up to 16 users at the same time, who were connected to the serial RS-232 interfaces of the 3000 series via intelligent terminals with local CP / M support.
The computer was the first Pertec product to support the increasingly popular Winchester standard for miniature hard drives.
Decline
Pertec believed that they had bought all rights to Altair BASIC together with MITS, which was developed by the young Microsoft . Microsoft saw itself on the verge of ruin and took Pertec to court. Pertec sent three lawyers to the trial. Microsoft's Paul Allen and Bill Gates showed up in person with just a single attorney. During the six-month process, no agreement could initially be found. Finally, both sides made use of an arbitration clause in the contract between MITS and Microsoft and an amicable agreement was reached. The consensus was that Pertec could continue to use Microsoft BASIC for the Altair from now on, but the exclusive rights remained with Microsoft. This was the first time that a court had to rule whether or not the ownership rights to software were transferred to the buyer upon purchase. To this day, the principle applies that the buyer only ever acquires one license for use with the purchase price . This paved the way for Microsoft to grow rapidly. However, this agreement was fatal for Pertec, as Microsoft now also sold its BASIC to the direct competition from Pertec / MITS. Today this is seen as the decisive management mistake Pertec made for not having secured the exclusive rights to Microsoft BASIC.
Soon after the model 3000 was presented, Pertec was bought out by Triumph-Adler (TA) in 1980 . Just a few months earlier, Philips withdrew a last-minute purchase offer. At that time, Pertec already had a cooperation with the Philips computer division in North America (Philips Business Systems Inc.). Philips initially pursued its own efforts to take over Pertec. However, in return for payment of $ 700,000 in compensation, they eventually agreed to abandon these plans.
Pertec had to struggle with some problems with new types of floppy disk drives with two read heads. There was also a bit of anger about maintaining a booking system for banks that Philips had taken over. Pertec went bankrupt a little later.
successes
Pertec's PPC interface standard for magnetic tape drives from the early 1970s quickly became an industry standard and is used by manufacturers of such drives to this day. Likewise, Pertec's hard drive interface was an industry standard before Winchester drives became popular in the 1970s .
Individual evidence
- ↑ MITS vs. Microsoft ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ PCC-2000 on Datareign Limited ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ PCC-2000 compact system, purchase price in Germany (Computerwoche 29/1979) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ New Unix-Mini MSX 3200 (Computerwoche 13/1988) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview with Bill Gates ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Triumph-Adler takes over Pertec (Computerwoche 6/1980) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ TA pays compensation for Philips (Computerwoche 49/1979) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cooperation agreement between Philips Nordamerica and Pertec is perfect (Computerwoche 1/1979) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
