Corona Data Systems, later renamed Cordata, was an American

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

company. It was one of the earliest

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...

computer system companies. Manufacturing was primarily done by

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...

of Korea, which became a major investor in the company and ultimately the owner.

History

Founded in mid-1981 by Robert Harp, who co-founded

Vector Graphic Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

. Along with Harp, the firm was co-founded by Robert Steven Kramarz who at age 31 was employee #1 and General Manager. Daniel R. Carter was named as CEO a year later. By 1984, Corona employed 280 people. In mid-1985 the firm received fresh capital from the Daewoo Group of South Korea who acquired a controlling interest. Corona Data System's first products were 5MB and 10MB external hard drives with interface cards and software to connect them to the Apple II and the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

. The drives were sold under the brand name ''Starfire'' (''Starfire 5'' and ''Starfire 10''). The original Corona PC was later released in 1983. The company went on to develop and release additional desktop and portable PCs corresponding to the development of the

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

architecture through the

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistorsintegrated

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...

system known as ''Intellipress''. The latter offered either

Aldus Aldus may refer to: People * Aldus Manutius, a Venetian publisher who popularized small personal volumes * Aldus Manutius the Younger, grandson of Aldus Manutius Businesses * Aldine Press, the printing office founded by Aldus Manutius * Aldus Cor ...

PageMaker Adobe PageMaker (formerly Aldus) is a discontinued desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, ...

Ventura Publisher Ventura (Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, Spanish for "fortune") may refer to: Places ; Brazil * Boa Ventura de São Roque, a municipality in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil * Boa Ventura, ...

software bundles In marketing, product bundling is offering several Product (business), products or services for sale as one combined product or service package. It is a common feature in many Imperfect competition, imperfectly competitive product and service ma ...

. The laser printer was based on the Canon CX engine, but unlike competing products from HP and Apple, the printer's

raster image processor A raster image processor (RIP) is a component used in a printing system which produces a raster image also known as a bitmap. Such a bitmap is used by a later stage of the printing system to produce the printed output. The input may be a page de ...

was on an interface card inside the PC, which partially used the PC's processor for image processing thus reducing product cost.

IBM Lawsuit

Corona claimed "Our systems run all software that conforms to IBM PC programming standards. And the most popular software does." In early 1984, IBM sued Corona and

Eagle Computer Eagle Computer of Los Gatos, California, United States, was an early microcomputer manufacturing company. Spun off from Audio-Visual Laboratories (AVL), it first sold a line of popular CP/M computers which were highly praised in the computer mag ...

for copyright violation of the IBM PC

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

. Corona settled with IBM by agreeing to cease infringement.

Corona PPC-400

Corona Portable PC Model PPC-400, arguably the most notable Corona computer, was introduced in 1984. The PPC-400 was remarkable for its elegant and clear screen fonts. The desktop version was the PC-400.

Cordata

After Daewoo acquired a 70% share in the company, Corona Data Systems was renamed Cordata in 1986 in order to reflect diversification and to try to distance itself from identification as just a "PC clone" manufacturer. Harp resigned in 1987, accusing Daewoo of transforming the company into a paper-only entity for the purpose of loss

write-off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

. According to Harp, Cordata had posted $20M losses in the previous year despite the $40M investment made by Daewoo since 1985. Daewoo phased out the Cordata name in 1993.

In Popular Culture

In the first season of the TV series, Halt and Catch Fire, a fictional drama depicting the birth of the personal computer industry in the 1980s, the pivot of company Cardiff Electric resembles both the history of Corona Data Systems and

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

. Like Cardiff Electric's fictional pivot to become a PC manufacturer, Corona's actual history included founding by two individuals: a computer systems expert (Harp) and a marketing/sales executive (Kramarz), and design of a portable IBM PC-compatible. Although Cardiff Electric, like Compaq and unlike Corona, successfully fought IBM's accusations of

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

with

clean room design Clean-room design (also known as the Chinese wall technique) is the method of copying a design by reverse engineering and then recreating it without infringing any of the copyrights associated with the original design. Clean-room design is usefu ...

. Also like Cardiff, Corona Data Systems in 1985 sold a majority share to a conglomerate (

Group).

Competitors

Early

computer system companies: *

Compaq Portable The Compaq Portable was an early portable computer which was one of the first IBM PC compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and later Compaq Deskpro series. ...

Columbia Data Products Columbia Data Products, Inc. (CDP) is a company which produced the first legally reverse-engineered IBM PC compatible, IBM PC clones. It faltered in that market after only a few years, and later reinvented itself as a Software development, softwa ...

IBM Personal Computer The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

Seequa Chameleon The Seequa Chameleon was an early 1980s luggable personal computer; it was capable of running both the DOS and CP/M operating systems. It did so by having both Zilog Z80 and Intel 8088 microprocessors.Hyperion (computer) The Hyperion is an early portable computer that vied with the Compaq Portable to be the first portable IBM PC compatible. It was marketed by Infotech Cie of Ottawa, a subsidiary of Bytec Management Corp., who acquired the designer and manufactur ...

Kaypro Kaypro Corporation was an American home and personal computer manufacturer based out of San Diego in the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems (NLS) to compete with the popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Kaypro produced a ...

References

External links

Daewoo Electronics
{{Daewoo Group Daewoo 1982 establishments in California 1993 disestablishments in California 1986 mergers and acquisitions Computer companies established in 1982 Computer companies disestablished in 1993 Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer companies of the United States