TeleVideo Corporation was a
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
company that achieved its peak of success in the early 1980s producing
computer terminal
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that can be used for entering data into, and transcribing data from, a computer or a computing system. The teletype was an example of an early-day hard-copy terminal and ...
s. TeleVideo was founded in 1975 by K. Philip Hwang, a
Utah State University
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...
,
Hanyang University
Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양, ...
graduate born in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
who had run a business producing
CRT monitor
A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms ( oscilloscope), pictu ...
s for
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
s since 1975. The company was headquartered in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
.
TeleVideo's terminal protocol was popular in the early days of microcomputers and was widely supported by applications as well as
terminal emulator
A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote termin ...
s (often referred to as "TeleVideo 925 emulation").
TeleVideo also built
CP/M
CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...
-compatible 8-bit desktop and portable
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 ...
s based on the
Z80
The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...
processor. Up to sixteen of these machines could be connected to proprietary multi-user systems through
serial interface
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. T ...
s.
In April 1983, TeleVideo introduced an
MS-DOS 2.0
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
-compatible personal computer based on 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 ...
8088
The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and ...
. This was introduced as the Model TS-1603 and included 128 KB RAM (expandable up to 256 KB), integrated monitor, modem and keyboard. The Model TS-1603 ran both
TeleVideo PC DOS 2.0 and
CP/M-86 1.1.
The company later turned to manufacturing
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
-compatible
thin client
In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...
computers, but eventually sold this business line to
Neoware
Neoware Systems, Inc., was a company that manufactured and marketed thin clients. It also developed and marketed enterprise software, thin client appliances, and related services aimed at reducing the TCO of IT infrastructure.
Neoware owned one ...
in October 2005. The latter was subsequently taken over by
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
in 2007.
On March 14, 2006, TeleVideo, Inc. filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
After more than 35 years in business and with millions of terminals sold worldwide, TeleVideo discontinued the manufacturing and sales of all terminal products as of September 30, 2011.
Products
* Terminals: TeleVideo 905, 910, 912, 914, 920, 921, 922, 924, 925, 9320, 935, 950, 955, 965, 970, 990, 995-65, Personal Terminal
* Graphic boards for Terminals: 914GR, 924GR, 970GR
*
CP/M
CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...
systems: TeleVideo TS-800, TS-802, TS-803
*
CP/M Plus
CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...
and
MP/M II: TeleVideo TS-804 (4 users for MP/M II)
*
CP/M-86
CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research (DR) made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The system commands are the same as in CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format. Digital Research als ...
/
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
systems: TeleVideo TS-1603
*
TeleVideo TPC-1, a portable CP/M system similar to the
Osborne-1
The Osborne 1 is the first commercially successful portable computer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighs , cost US$1,795, and runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system. It is powered from a AC power plugs and sockets, w ...
* Early multi-user systems: TeleVideo TS-806 (6 users), TS-816 (16 users)
*
0286 IBM AT clone TELECAT 286 a small green desktop IBM AT clone with a 6 or 8 MHz 80286 CPU Trademark filing for TELECAT-286 1986
References
External links
Official website (mostly defunct)TS-802 CP/M personal computer History of Televideo founders Background on TS-1603 All In One ComputerTerminals Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Televideo
1975 establishments in California
2011 disestablishments in California
American companies established in 1975
American companies disestablished in 2011
Companies based in San Jose, California
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006
Computer companies established in 1975
Computer companies disestablished in 2011
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Manufacturing companies established in 1975
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2011
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area