Datapoint

Datapoint Corporation has a proud history as one of the most innovative American computer companies, and today, despite its weak reputation in the United States, it is the leading marketer of telephone-computer integration in Europe. Datapoint specializes in networking computers, and pioneered the local area network (LAN) and MINX, a device that integrated data, voice, and video communications. Datapoint was one of the first computer corporations to realize the importance of linking computer software to telecommunications, and some of the company's leading products are automatic call distributors for incoming calls, power dialers for outgoing calls, and other call management software. Datapoint produces a computer networking technology called ARCNET that is recognized as an industry standard. The company also owns significant patents in networked video products. Over 80 percent of Datapoint's sales are in Europe, and the company maintains a second headquarters in Paris. Datapoint Corporation was created in 1968 by two engineers, Phil Ray and Gus Roche, who had acquired cutting-edge knowledge of computer technology through their work on various NASA projects. They both worked for General Dynamics' Dynatronic Division in Florida, which was assigned to assist the U.S. space program's goal of putting a man on the moon. Ray and Roche feared that once that goal was reached their engineering skills would be less in demand, and they determined to go into business for themselves before that happened. On the advice of one of Ray's former professors at the University of Texas, they decided to manufacture a generic computer terminal that could be hooked into a mainframe computer. At the time, mainframe computers were room-sized monstrosities, and a terminal that fed it data required a noisy teletype that printed tape. Roche and Ray designed a terminal that would have a television screen instead of a teletype, would be quiet, and could be plugged into any mainframe and immediately be on line. With the startling success of the Data Point 3300, Computer Terminal's engineers decided to make a more sophisticated product, a terminal that would have some of its own memory and processing power. To do this, they first had to design what later became the first computer microprocessor. Two of Computer Terminal's engineers, Victor D. Poor and Harry Pyle, got the inspiration for this new silicon chip over a Thanksgiving dinner, achieving the technical breakthrough that made the small size of personal computers possible. However, Computer Terminal was still a small young company, and at first it had great difficulty convincing any one established in the industry to try to manufacture the new chip. Eventually Intel agreed to work on the new chip, which became its enormously successful Intel 8080. Computer Terminal Corp. used the new chip in its Data Point 2200 terminal. The 2200 had many problems and did not do all it was designed to do. Strangely enough, it also did more than any one thought it could. In 1971 Victor Poor, one of the 2200's inventors, went on a trip to an Alabama chicken ranch owned by Pillsbury, where the managers had invited him to see their terminal at work. Poor was not terribly interested in the machine, until he asked his hosts to what mainframe the terminal was hooked. The Pillsbury people told the engineer that the terminal worked by itself. Poor tried to explain that the 2200 required a computer modem and a telephone line connecting the terminal to a mainframe, but his hosts finally convinced him that theirs did not work that way. Poor realized that he and his partners had unwittingly created the first personal computer and that Computer Terminal had a chance to lead the industry. Unfortunately, because no one at the company had the necessary skills to manage the finances of the growing company, money was already running out. Founders Roche and Ray considered selling the company and soon worked out a deal with a leading ele