Cromemco, a company that cares!
Here's a reply I received from them this morning in reply to the message I
sent yesterday questioning their history:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 12:35:55 +0100
To: 'Sellam Ismail' <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
Subject: RE: Cromemco (was Re: S-100 bus specs)
E-Mail
From: Werner Salmen
Cromemco GmbH
Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Strasse 4
D-61350 Bad Homburg
Germany
Tel.: Int + 49 6172 967860
Fax: Int + 49 6172 304519
To: Sellam Ismail
Attn.:
Email: dastar_at_ncal.verio.com
_at_
cc:
Ref.: Your E-Mail of March 18
Date: March 19, 1999
Subj.: Cromemco
Dear Sellam,
thank you for visiting Cromemco's homepage and also for your input, which
was very much appreciated. You know, marketing occassionally tends to
express things in their own wording. We shall release a next version of our
homepage in April. I think, obvious errors should then be corrected.
However, it is always nice to talk to people who used ( some still do !)
the Cromemco computers from the 80's. Many of them still like the stuff,
although from nowadays point of view they look pretty antique. Believe it
or not, we just worked on fixing the Y2K problem in Cromix, and it was a
lot of fun.
The company Cromemco itself did change, as you may have learned form our
webpage. The new businesses are now mainly in Europe, and we do a lot in
parallel and massively parallel computing, still comitted to Cromemco's
mission: "Tomorrow's computers today".
I wish you a nice weekend and remain with
Best regards,
Cromemco
Werner Salmen
-----Original Message-----
From: Sellam Ismail [SMTP:dastar_at_ncal.verio.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 1999 11:36 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Cc: webmaster_at_cromemco.com
Subject: Re: Cromemco (was Re: S-100 bus specs)
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, James Willing wrote:
>
> > > ...Cromemco actively manufactured S-100 systems
> > > until they went out of business in around 1986 or so.
> >
> > as much as I absolutely hate to contradict... <BIG B^} >
> >
> > You may want to take a look at www.cromemco.com before you cast the
> > previous thot in stone...
>
> You're kidding!
>
> Wow, you're not. But this is a far different company than us old tech
> nerds know and love. Most of the business base seems to be European
> these days. But hey, this is significant. A micro/mini-computer company
> that's been around longer than Apple and is still alive and kicking.
> That's more than you can say for any other computer comapnies that sprang
> up around the same time, save for the obvious.
Their history seems a bit revisionist, and in some cases downright
fradulent. This is from the History section of their web site:
1975
First supplier of complete micro computer systems (based on Z-80)
Call me stupid but the Z80 wasn't even invented yet:
July 1976
The Apple I computer board is sold in kit form, and delivered to stores by
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Price: US$666.66. [46] [218] [593.350]
Paul Terrell orders 50 Apple computers from Steve Jobs, for his Byte Shop.
[266.213]
*****Zilog releases the 2.5-MHz Z80, an 8-bit microprocessor whose
instruction set is a superset of the Intel 8080. [32] [202.168]
(early 1975 [9]) (1975 [556.11]) (1975 December [346.257])
Micom Data Systems ships its first product, the Micom 2000 word processing
computer. [615.99]
Source: Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/comp1971.htm
And then there's:
1976
Development of the industrial standard S-100 Bus IEEE 696
First of all, I hope they don't intend to mean they invented the S-100 bus.
That goes to Ed Roberts. And as far as I know, the IEEE696 standard
wasn't ratified until 1982.
December 1982
Pepsi-Cola president John Sculley first visits Apple Computer.
[745.62]
Tabor demonstrates a 3.25-inch floppy disk drive, the Model TC500 Drivette.
Unformatted capacity is up to 500KB on a single side. [444.72]
Amdek releases the Amdisk-3 Micro-Floppy-disk Cartridge system. It houses
two 3-inch floppy drives designed by Hitachi/Matsushita/Maxell. Price is
US$800, without a controller card. [444.70]
Satellite Software International ships WordPerfect 2.0 for DOS, for US$500.
[330.108] (v2.2 in October [502.49])
*****The IEEE Standards Board passes the IEEE 696/S-100 bus standard.
[443.278]
Digital Research announces CP/M+. [443.431]
Atari issues a US$55 rebate on the Atari 400, dropping its retail price to
under US$200. [713.268]
Texas Instruments extends its US$100 rebate on the TI 99/4A to April 1983.
[713.268]
Apple Computer becomes the first personal computer company to reach US$1
billion in annual sales. [46]
Source: Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/comp1981.htm
Then there's this:
1979
First multi-user operating system CROMIX (UNIX derivative)
First multi-user operating system...what? On a micro? Maybe.
Sheesh. These guys are as bad if not worse than Tandy and their
self-aggrandizing history.
(Is it obvious I have too much time on my hands these days? Oh well,
someone's got to keep the record straight.)
cc: webmaster_at_cromemco.com
Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar_at_siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See
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[Last web site update: 02/15/99]
Received on Fri Mar 19 1999 - 11:31:00 GMT