Leading Edge Hardware Products
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Leading Edge Hardware Products, Inc., was a
computer manufacturer Current notable computer hardware manufacturers: Cases List of computer case manufacturers: * Aigo * Antec * AOpen * ASRock * Asus * be quiet! * CaseLabs (defunct) * Chassis Plans * Cooler Master * Corsair Gaming, Corsair * Dell * Deepcool ...
in the
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and the
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. It was based in
Canton, Massachusetts Canton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,370 at the 2020 census. Canton is part of Greater Boston, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of downtown Boston. Hist ...
.


History

Leading Edge was founded in 1980 by Thomas Shane and Michael Shane. At the outset, they were a PC peripherals company selling aftermarket products such as Elephant Memory Systems brand
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 ...
media ("Elephant. Never forgets") and printer ribbons, and acting as the sole North American distributor/reseller of printers from the Japanese manufacturer,
C. Itoh is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descende ...
, the most memorable being the popular low-end
dot-matrix printer A dot matrix printer is an impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires. Typically the pins or wires are arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon ...
, "The Gorilla Banana". In 1984 the company sold the computer aftermarket product line and sales division to Dennison Computer Supplies, a division of Dennison Manufacturing. In 1984, they began to use
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 ...
parts, and in 1989, they were acquired by Daewoo, as part of their recovery from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
. (Shane declared that the costs of a legal dispute with
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
lead to its bankruptcy). In January 1990, Daewoo hired Al Agbay, a veteran executive from
Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
to lead the company out of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In the three years that followed, Agbay and his executive team repaid dealers approximately $16 million and increased annual revenues to over $250 million before a contract dispute severed Agbay and Daewoo's relationship. In October, 1995, Daewoo sold the company to Manuhold Investment AG, a Swiss electronics company. Leading Edge had sold 185,000 of its PC clones in the United States in 1994, but in 1995 sales fell from 90,000 in the first half to almost none in the second half. By 1997 the company was defunct.


Products


Hardware

The first known computer to be produced by Leading Edge is the Model M, released in 1982. By 1986 it sold for $1695 (US) with a monitor and two floppy drives. It used an Intel 8088-2 processor, running at a maximum of 7.16 MHz on an 8 bit bus, compared to 6 MHz for the IBM PC-AT on a 16 bit bus. The 'M' stands for
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
, their parts provider.Peter H. Lewis, "Peripherals: Leading Edge: One name, two computers," New York Times, March 18, 1986, pg. C5 They began producing the
Leading Edge Model D The Leading Edge Model D is an IBM clone first released by Leading Edge Hardware in July 1985. It was initially priced at $1,495 configured with dual 5.25" floppy drives, 256 KB of RAM, and a monochrome monitor. It was manufactured by South Kor ...
in June, 1985, when they began to use Daewoo parts. That model was described as "the quality is good and the price is right." It was a
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"Best Buy." It was IBM compatible, using the same Intel 8088 16 bit processor as the IBM PC, with two floppy disc drives, 256K of RAM, and an amber monitor. The machine sold for $1495 (US). They sold 125,000 in the first 13 months, then reduced the price to $1295 (US). When IBM started supplying 20 MB hard drives as standard for its newer PC-XT's, Leading Edge supplied a 30 meg hard drive standard. They later released a Model D86 (an
Intel 8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowi ...
), Model D2 in 1988 with a 65 MB hard drive for $2495(US) and a 10 MHz processor (an
Intel 80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the fi ...
) and Model D3 (an
Intel 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 transistorsi486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. The i486 was introduced in 1989. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the ...
or
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 ...
80486 processors. The low end model had an i486 SX25 processor—which lacked an
FPU FPU may stand for: Universities * Florida Polytechnic University, in Lakeland, Florida, United States * Franklin Pierce University, in New Hampshire, United States * Fresno Pacific University, in California, United States * Fukui Prefectural Univ ...
. The i486 DX33 Processor had the FPU in. The computers had a 3.5 inch floppy, a 5.25 in floppy, 170 MB hard drive, with 4MB of
RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...
, which could be expanded to 20MB if needed. Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 5.0 were the operating systems. The cost of a Leading Edge Computer ranged from $1299.99 to $2199.99 during this time. In 1994, Leading Edge marketed the Wintower 486 Multimedia PC, with 66 MHz processor, 8 MB ram, 340 MB hard drive, 2 floppies, CD ROM, modem, sound card and monitor for a "street price" of $2600 (US).


Software

One of the programs offered on Leading Edge computers was the Leading Edge Word Processor. It was described as easy to use, created automatic backup copies, and loaded in 256 K of RAM, described as a "large" amount. With the program in memory, both floppy drives were available for storage. It was introduced in 1983, and sold in 1984 for $100. (U.S.)"Word processing," New York Times, 28 October 1984, pg. AS 24. LEWP, as it was called, was a very easy to use word processor that had features that were bred into newer systems later. It automatically fixed transpositions on the run, a feature not seen in more sophisticated contemporary word processing programs. In 1984, Leading Edge also released an innovative database application called Nutshell (developed by a company called Nashoba Systems and distributed by Leading Edge). Nutshell was an earlier form of a program later released as FileMaker and subsequently FileMaker Pro.


References


Compute! Issue 86, July 1987. IBM Compatibles - The Universe Expands
refers to Leading Edge as a "young and aggressive" company.


External links

* {{Daewoo Group Daewoo 1980 establishments in Massachusetts 1997 disestablishments in Massachusetts 1989 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1980 American companies disestablished in 1997 Computer companies established in 1980 Computer companies disestablished in 1997 Defunct computer companies based in Massachusetts Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies IBM PC compatibles Manufacturing companies established in 1980 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1997