Percom Data was an early

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

company formed in 1976 to sell peripherals into the emerging microcomputer market. They are best known for their

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

systems, first for S-100 machines, and the later for other platforms like the TRS-80 and the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

. The company was purchased by

Esprit Systems Esprit Systems Inc. was a vendor of computer terminal products created as a spin-off from Hazeltine Corporation's terminal division in January 1983. The name refers to the Hazeltine Esprit terminal, which division management felt the parent compan ...

in 1984.

Origins

Percom started after the meeting that produced the Kansas City standard for storing data on

cassette tapes The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

. The final version of the standard was written in February 1976, co-authored by Lee Felsenstein and Harold Mauch. Mauch published an article on the technical aspects of the standard in the next month's ''Byte'' magazine, entitled "Digital Data on Cassette Recorders". Mauch and his wife Lucy started what was originally PerCom Data that same month, selling the ''CIS-30'' adaptor allowing any portable cassette player to be connected to the Motorola 6800-based micros from SWTPC. The CIS-30 was a success, and soon followed by similar devices for other platforms. Floppy disk drives followed, along with rapid growth. Percom incorporated (dropping the capital C in the name) in 1978. In 1979 the company branched out into the

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

market, starting with the ''Percom Separator'', and add-on device that corrected deficiencies in Radio Shack's own floppy disk interface. In 1980 they introduced the ''Percom Doubler'', the first double-density floppy disk for the TRS-80 platform. They later introduced ''Electric Crayon'', a color graphics system that communicated with the TRS-80 through the printer port and output to a separate composite monitor or color television. In 1981 they moved all operations to Dallas, Texas except technical services and repair which stayed in Garland, Texas. Percom introduced a drive for the

in 1982. In contrast to the Atari 810, the only drive on the platform at that time, the RFD40 drive offered double-density formatting and higher performance. Its onboard controller also allowed three additional "dumb" drives, lacking the controller, to be connected and thereby lowering the cost of a multi-drive system. A drive with the controller cost $799, additional drives were $399. The standard 34-pin connector also allowed for the use of 8-inch drives on the same controller. The system did not ship with a compatible DOS, instead, it shipped with a utility that modified an existing copy of

Atari DOS Atari DOS is the disk operating system used with the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Operating system extensions loaded into memory were required in order for an Atari computer to manage files stored on a disk drive. These extensions to t ...

to add double-density support. The 1983 AT-88 model was a single-density version otherwise the same as the RFD40. Harold died suddenly in August 1982 and the company began to focus on the business market. This resulted in the creation of the Visionnet, an early

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

card for 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 ...

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

licensed the design and sold it under the name Ethercard Plus.

After Mauch

Harold Mauch's sudden death in August 1982 upset the company considerably. Focussing on business products, leaving the home compute field, the company started branching out into new product lines. ''PerComNet'' for the

was licensed by

and was sold under the name ''PC-LAN''. In 1984, Esprit Systems purchased Percom and folded many of their product lines. Esprit made video terminal systems, which it continues to do to this day.

References

* Matthew Reed
"Percom Data Company"
* Margo Arrick
"Percom Data Corp. 1976-1986"

Percom Software Goes On Two Vendors Disks
Computerworld 30 Jul 1979, Page 59, ''...Percom Super Basic;...''
Percom Peripheral (1979-10)
Percom Data Company(US)
Percom
tagged media {{refend 1976 in computing Early microcomputers