} Sord Computer Corporation is a Japanese electronics company, founded in 1970 by the entrepreneur Takayoshi Shiina. From 1985 until 2018, it was a subsidiary of Toshiba and became known variously as Toshiba Personal Computer System Corporation and Toshiba Platform Solution Corporation. In 2018, Toshiba sold off the business and its name reverted to Sord Computer Corporation. It now focuses on embedded systems among other interests.

History

Early years

SORD was founded by Takayoshi Shiina in 1970 when he was 26 years old. Initially, the company wrote software for DEC PDP minicomputers, before it branched out into hardware production. The name SORD is a contraction of SOftware/haRDware, reflecting the dual focus of the company. Sord presented the SMP80/08 in 1973, one of the first

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 ...

s, using the Intel 8008 microprocessor. However, it did not have a commercial release. After the first general-purpose microprocessor, the Intel 8080, was announced in April 1974, Sord announced the SMP80/x series in May 1974. In 1977, SORD released the M200 Smart Home Computer, one of the first home computers. It was a

desktop computer A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply ...

that combined a Zilog Z80 CPU, keyboard,

CRT display CRT or Crt may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine and biology * Calreticulin, a protein * Capillary refill time, for blood to refill capillaries * Cardiac resynchronization therapy and CRT defibrillator (CRT-D) * Catheter- ...

, floppy disk drive and MF-DOS operating system into an integrated unit. This was followed by the M100 and various other versions of the M100/M200 series, plus the multi-user M223 and M243 computers. The SORD M23 followed in 1981 and become one of the most popular SORD computers. It was one of the first to see significant use outside Japan. In 1982, Sord released the M5, a home computer that primarily competed in the Japanese market. The M68, a dual 8/16 bit computer using both 68000 and Z80 CPUs, was released in Japan in 1983. The PIPS - Personal (or Pan) Information Processing System was released in 1980. This package was a combined spreadsheet and database business package. This was followed by PIPS-II in 1981, PIPS-III in 1982 and a complete rewrite (by a team led by Peter Hyde) as 4G-PIPS in 1986.

Under Toshiba ownership

Shiina was approached by a larger Japanese corporation in 1983 and advised to sell. He didn't - and in 1984, on the back of turnover of 35 billion yen and profit of 2 billion yen SORD found itself struggling with suppliers and the banks. SORD was sold to Toshiba in 1985. Under Toshiba, SORD went on to produce additional hardware such as the M68MX (with no Z80A) and M343SX-II multi-user computer and new versions of PIPS, a series of high performance IBM compatible machines and systems based on Alpha. Latterly, SORD (known at that point as Toshiba-TOPS) changed focus to primarily dealing with embedded systems.

Sell-off and restoration of 'Sord' name

In 2018, Toshiba sold Toshiba Platform Solution Corporation to Aspirant Group. Following this, the company name was changed back to Sord Computer Corporation. The company continues the focus on embedded systems begun under Toshiba.

Selected models

* Sord SMP80/08, 1972 * Sord SMP80/x series, 1974 * Sord M200 Smart Home Computer, 1977 * Sord M223 series, 1980 * Sord M68, 1982 *

Sord M5 The Sord M5 is a home computer launched by Sord Computer Corporation in 1982. Primarily the Sord M5 competed in the Japanese home computer market. It was also sold as the CGL M5 in the United Kingdom by Computer Games Limited and was reasonably p ...

, 1982 *

Sord M23P The Sord M23P was a "luggable" Japanese personal computer (weighed about 9 kg), manufactured by '' Sord Corp.'' from 1983. It was one of the first machines to use the 3½" disk drive produced by Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japa ...

(1983),

luggable A portable computer is a computer designed to be easily moved from one place to another and included a display and keyboard together, with a single plug, much like later desktop computers called '' all-in-ones'' (AIO), that integrate the sy ...

* Sord M685 Micro-mainframe, 1984 * Sord DF44H Floppy Disk Unit, 1984 * Sord M343SX-2 Multi-user computer, 1984 *

Sord IS-11 The Sord IS-11 is an A4-size, lightweight, portable Z80-based computer. The IS-11 ('IS' stands for 'Integrated Software') had no operating system, but came with built-in word processing, spreadsheet, file manager and communication software. The ma ...

(1984),

notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...

Full list of products of Sord Computer Corporation

References

External links

Sord Computer Corporation homepage
(in Japanese) {{Authority control Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct companies of Japan Electronics companies of Japan Computer companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in Japan