Industrial Computer Source was a company launched in 1985 with the publication of their firs
Industrial Computer Sourcebook
Industrial Computer Source was also known as ICS. Industrial Computer Source became notable for the volume of Sourcebooks mailed to engineers and scientists. The company would mail two to four Sourcebooks per year with quarterly supplements. The company was headquartered in

San Diego, CA San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Eventually there were satellite divisions in the UK, France and Germany. The first Sourcebook was 52 pages long. Included were sections on industrial computers, industrial

I/O card In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus sl ...

s, monitors and printers, rack accessories, computer accessories, software and books. The 6531, a 4 U

rackmount A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide. The 19 inch dimension includes the edges or ''ears'' that protrude from each side of the ...

computer with a 4.77 MHz

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 ...

processor. 128KB of RAM, 360K

floppy A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a 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 with a ...

and 10MB

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

sold for $7,795.00. The products were industrial and rackmount computers, I/O cards and accessories. Industrial Computer Source was sold to

Dynatech Dynatech Corporation, originally Microtech Research Corporation, was an American technology corporation originally based in Burlington, Massachusetts. The company owned a wide variety of manufacturing subsidiaries across multiple industries, inclu ...

in 1992. In 1999, the company acquired Advent Design, Inc. and changed the name to ICS Advent. In 2001, Kontron purchased ICS Advent from Dynatech. While

Kontron Kontron AG is a German-based multinational company that designs and manufactures embedded systems, modules and boards, and provides software products for Internet of Things and 5G technologies. The company operates in various industrial segme ...

is a German firm, the US division of Kontron initially occupied the headquarters building of ICS Advent in San Diego before moving to a new building in

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., in May 2005. Kontron allowed the trademark "Industrial Computer Source" to lapse July 20, 2002, and the trademark "Industrial Computer Sourcebook" lapsed May 31, 2003. Chassis Plans secured the trademark "The Original Industrial Computer Source" December 27, 2005.USPTO
/ref> Chassis Plans offers original equipment support for previous Industrial Computer Source customers. Industrial Computer Source is currently a popular term used by companies in the industrial computer market with a

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

search returning over 24,000 pages. Many previous customers still search on that term looking for the company for either new equipment or support for existing systems. Industrial Computer Source and ICS Advent systems can often be found for sale on

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

. Industrial Computer Source started as a division of Action Instruments as created by Chuck Philyaw. The concept of

Intrapreneur Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization. Intrapreneurship is known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as ...

was popular and Industrial Computer Source fit the definition perfectly. David Lippincott was brought in as a founder for technical and manufacturing support. Misters Philyaw and Lippincott purchased Industrial Computer Source from Action Instruments in 1987.

References

{{Authority control American companies established in 1985 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies