Огайо Сайентифик: История ранней американской компьютерной компании

Early microcomputer company

Ohio Scientific, Inc. (OSI, originally Ohio Scientific Instruments, Inc.), was a privately owned American computer company based in Ohio that built and marketed computer systems, expansions, and software from 1975 to 1986. Their best known products were the Challenger series of microcomputers and Superboard single board computers. The company was the first to market microcomputers with hard disk drives in 1977. The company was incorporated as Ohio Scientific Instruments in Hiram, Ohio, by husband and wife Mike and Charity Cheiky and business associate Dale A. Dreisbach in 1975. Originally a maker of electronic teaching aids, the company leaned quickly into microcomputer production, after their original educational products failed in the marketplace while their computer oriented products sparked high interest in the hobbyist community. The company moved to Aurora, Ohio, occupying a 72,000 square foot factory. The company reached the $1 million revenue mark in 1976; by the end of 1980, the company generated $18 million in revenue. Ohio Scientific's manufacturing presence likewise expanded into greater Ohio as well as California and Puerto Rico. In 1980, the company was acquired by telecommunications conglomerate M/A COM of Burlington, Massachusetts, for $5 million. M A/COM soon consolidated the company's product lines, in order to focus their new subsidiary on manufacturing business systems. During their tenure under M A/COM, Ohio Scientific was renamed M/A COM Office Systems. M A/COM struggled financially themselves and sold the division in 1983 to Kendata Inc. of Trumbull, Connecticut, who immediately renamed it back to Ohio Scientific. Kendata, previously only a corporate reseller of computer systems, failed to maintain Ohio Scientific's manufacturing lines and subsequently sold the division to AB Fannyudde of Sweden. The flagship Aurora factory, by then only employing 16 people, was finally shut down in October 1983.

Ohio Scientific was founded in Hiram, Ohio, in 1975 by Dale A. Dreisbach ( 1909 – June 16, 1987) and husband and wife Michael "Mike" Cheiky (January 1, 1952 – December 7, 2017) and Charity Cheiky (born 1954). Dreisbach meanwhile was a chairman and professor emeritus of Hiram College's chemistry department; The three founded Ohio Scientific with between $5,000 and $25,000 of start up capital. The company was originally outfitted from the Cheiky's garage and was dedicated to the production of electronic teaching aids. The first products the company released included a calculator that also taught the basics of statistics and a single board microcomputer. was designed by Mike, inspired by his experience with microprocessor based minicomputers at his Ohio Nuclear job. much more than they had originally anticipated. To keep up with growth, Cheikys moved the company to a 700 square foot storefront in Hiram, Ohio, last occupied by a barbershop and right next to a pizza parlor. In June 1976, Ohio Scientific had logged their first $1 million in revenue. In late January 1978, the company moved from Hiram to Aurora, Ohio, occupying a 72,000 square foot factory formerly occupied by Custom Beverage. By that point, the company had employed 35. Within six months, the number of employees had reached 100. Cash flow increased in tandem: between 1977 and 1978, the company grossed $10 million, and between 1978 and 1980, it logged sales of $20 million. In 1980, Ohio Scientific generated $18 million in revenues In order to appease chagrined dealers who complained of long development times for the company's software, Ohio Scientific initiated a cooperative centralized software dealership program to spur the development of business applications for their computers in late 1978. Ohio Scientific additionally opened a printed circuit board manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico around the time of their expansion into Cleveland, After acquiring the division, Ohio Scientific folded it into their wholly owned Ohio Scientific Memory Products division. By 1980, Ohio Scientific had 300 employees overall. Still wanting an out, the Cheikys contacted a business friend, who got them in contact with M/A COM, a telecommunications conglomerate based in Burlington, Massachusetts. later revealed to be $5 million in cash. The Cheikys pocketed $3 million, while Dreisbach received the rest. M/A COM's decision to acquire a computer systems company surprised some in the telecommunications industry; Irwin M. Jacobs, president of M/A COM, stated it was contingent with their push to supply offices with complete and comprehensive communications systems. Doug Hajjar was named as interim president before being replaced by William Chalmers later in the month. Chalmers beat out Chuck Kempton, a newly appointed marketing vice president poached from Wang Laboratories, for the position. quote box|quote=The not so smooth acquisition of OSI has, within a year, virtually transformed the company, through M/A COM resources, from a shoe string, technical product operation offering little documentation and support, into a $500 million company focusing on full solutions for users.|author=Mini Micro Systems, January 1982 Further computer systems would be based on the Intel 8088 processor and were slated to be installed with CP/M 86. A corporate reseller of Victor computers, Kendata was one of two companies in talks with M/A COM to acquire the division in 1982. The first order of business for Kendata was restoring the subsidiary's name back to Ohio Scientific, in order to take advantage of its existing brand presence. On October 3, 1983, Ohio Scientific's Aurora's factory was shut down, and the inventory liquidated, after Kendata had foreclosed on the property. Locals lamented the closure of Ohio Scientific as the end of the high tech industry for Aurora. Ohio Scientific continued as a second order subsidiary under Isotron until 1986, when Dataindustrier AB (DIAB) acquired Isotron from Fannyudde in 1986.

Ohio Scientific are best remembered for their Superboard and Challenger lines, single board and fully encased microcomputer systems respectively. The first Superboards were first announced in the December 1975 issue Byte. Announced later, but probably preceding the first Superboards in production, was the Model 300 Computer Trainer Board, In a design scheme similar to a number of trainer boards of its contemporary, a number of slide switches on the bottom of the board connect directly to the MOS 6502's data, read–write, and address select pins, allowing the microprocessor to be halted and the RAM loaded with machine code instructions. A row of LEDs connected in series with each line of the 6502's bus acts as a visual representation of the state of the processor. Ohio Scientific fully assembled each Computer Trainer Board, which came shipped with a manual; optional was a power supply and hardware and programming monographs.

In September 1976, the company announced the Model 400 Superboard, a DIY kit which in fully assembled form runs either the MOS 6502, the MOS 6501, or the Motorola 6800 microprocessors. The Model 400 Superboard has a 48 line wide bus at its edge, allowing it to be slotted into a backplane and take advantage of a number of expansion and peripheral boards, The Model 400 can be outfit with up to 1 kB of RAM, 512 Bytes of ROM, an ACIA chip for implementing RS 232 or 4–20 mA loop interfaces for serial communication, and a peripheral device adapter with 16 I/O lines.

The Challenger III was released alongside the Challenger II in 1977. a Zilog Z80, and a Motorola 6800—on one board. This combination of processors allowed the computer to run virtually all software for microcomputers on the market at the time of its release. Only one processor can be active at a time, preventing it from computing in parallel, but software interrupts allow programs to switch from processor to processor on the fly. as was the C D74 hard drive unit. Ohio Scientific was keen to match the Challenger III with the C D74, offering both in a 74 inch tall rack mount case as a complete system christened the C3 B A version of the Challenger III with integrated CA 10 and dual 8 inch floppy drives (but without the integral keyboard) was introduced as the C3 OEM in late 1978.

Released in fall 1978, the Superboard II featured a MOS 6502, 8 KB BASIC in ROM, a BIOS and machine code monitor in separate ROM, 8 KB of static RAM, a cassette interface, and, most notably, a built in keyboard soldered to the board. Ohio Scientific billed it as the first microcomputer integrated onto one single circuit board, owing to the soldered on keyboard. The company introduced it alongside the Challenger 1P, essentially the same as the Superboard II but enclosed in a case and including a power supply. Bruce S. Chamberlain, writing in Kilobyte Microcomputing, praised the Superboard II's BASIC interpreter for its speed and called the system overall "less expensive than comparable systems" and "the best buy available for both beginner and expert. It is also easier and less expensive to expand than other computer systems". Byte Christopher Morgan similarly called it "an excellent choice for the personal computer enthusiast on a budget".

The Challenger 4P (4P MF), released in late 1979, was a keyboard computer like the Challenger IIP. In text mode, it displays 64 columns by 32 rows. As with the Challenger II, characters in the code page are redesignable, allowing for complex shapes to be drawn even in text mode. The Challenger 4P was very adept at this latter task, implementing the X10 industry standard protocol for home automation. Through special software, the computer can control up to 16 lights and appliances in the house.