On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Matthew Sayler wrote:
> I remember back in '98 when Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
> > Chris Halarewich wrote:
> > >
> > > I was looking around at http://www.patents.ibm.com
> > >
> > > I discovered that Commodore Electronics held the
> > > patent for the case of the TRS-80 CoCo2(3?), which makes me wonder if
> > > they designed the rest of the computer for Radio Shack.
> > >
> > > Any Edgeumacated guesses anyone...anyone :)
>
> I recall that Commodore started buisness as a manufacturer of cases and
> such, so this isn't too much of a surprise.
Actually, I think the _very_ first incarnation of Commodore was into
typewriter repair. From there they went into office furniture and
mechanical adding machines, then to electronic calculators and finally to
computers.
I'm constantly running into Commodore filing cabinets around here, in
places as diverse as The Montreal General Hospital, the Salvation Army
(which actually uses rows of Commodore book shelves with little metal "C=
Commodore" plates on them), local schools and even at garage sales. A
friend of mine had Commodore filing cabinets in his office where he worked
as a programmer, as well as at home.
My father had a Commodore programmable scientific calculator (PR-100)
which I have claimed, but which has unfortunately had its case smashed
to bits and is therefore now held together by glue-gun glue. That
calculator was my Dad's main mathematical tool for over a decade of
engineering work.
My father remembers seeing lots of Commodore adding machines where he
worked, too, and I've been hoping to find one in a junk shop somewhere,
but I've had no luck so far. (My brother has a Burroughs adding machine,
which is kind of cool.)
For a time, Commodore also made some digital watches, but I've never seen
one.
Apparently Commodore and Tandy were in negotiaions for the design of
Tandy's first personal computer, and Commodore showed them the PET but
failed to cut a deal. Probably because Radio Shack had just stolen
another machine and no longer needed Commodore's expertise. ;)
I've also read that Commodore attempted to buy out Apple, but Mike
Markkula got involved with Apple and convinced Jobs and The Woz not to
sell.
I don't know anything about Commodore involvement with the CoCo{2|3}
cases, though. Nor do I know why anyone would bother patenting something
like that.
The PET case maybe. It's pretty distinctive.
BTW, does anyone know what happened to the computer mockups that Porche
made for Commodore?
Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Received on Fri Jun 26 1998 - 01:56:41 BST