Supra Corporation was best known as a manufacturer of

modems A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

for personal computers, but also produced a range of hardware for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

, including

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

controllers, memory boards, and processor accelerators. They were purchased by

Diamond Multimedia Diamond Multimedia is an American company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackSta ...

in 1995.

Early history

The company was founded by John Wiley and Alan Ackerman as Microbits Peripheral Products (MPP), a provider of interface products for 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 two of them were friends in high school when they developed various computer hardware for the school computers, and were best known for a 300 baud modem and a printer interface. The company was successful for some time, but a number of factors led to its bankruptcy around 1986, and its reformation as Supra, initially selling

s for the

. Originally from

Albany, Oregon Albany is the county seat of Linn County, Oregon, and is the eleventh largest city in that state. Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton counties, just ...

, they later moved to

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

SupraFAXModem 14400

In 1991 the company arranged a deal with

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. R ...

to use their new V.32bis 14,400 bit/s modem chips with an exclusivity arrangement. Their

SupraFAXModem 14400 The SupraFAXModem 14400 was a v.32bis modem. When it was launched by Supra, Inc. in January 1992 at a $399 price point,Difference sources list the price between $349 and $399 the 14,400 bit/s model was less expensive than most existing 9600 b ...

was sold at prices points about half that of the slower 9600 V.32 models of the same era, and its introduction led to a rapid downward spiral in modem pricing.

Notable Dates

*1986 - Supra introduces a 10 MB hard drive for the Atari ST. *1987 - Supra introduces the Supra Modem 2400 at $179. *1991 - Supra introduces the SupraFAXModem 14400 at $399 and the SupraFAXModem V.32 at $299. *1994 - Supra purchases PSI Integration *1994 - Supra ships First 28.8 Modem *1994 - Supra ships First Voice Modem *1995 - Supra purchased by

*1999 -

S3 Graphics S3 Graphics, Ltd (commonly referred to as S3) was an American computer graphics company. The company sold the Trio, ViRGE, Savage 3D, and Chrome series of graphics processors. Struggling against competition from 3dfx Interactive, ATI and Nvidi ...

purchases Diamond Multimedia

Products

*Supra Modems *Supra Voice Modems

Software

*FAXCilitate *Supra VoiceMail

References

{{Reflist

External links

List of Supra products for the Amiga
Defunct computer hardware companies Companies based in Albany, Oregon