Altos Computer Systems was founded in 1977 by David G. Jackson and Roger William Vass Sr. It focused on small multi-user computers, starting with multi-user derivatives of CP/M, and later including
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
on
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
, the company raised $59M. Thereafter the company's stock was traded under the symbol ALTO.
Coming under increasing pressure from competitors in the server market, such as
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
and
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, ...
, Altos posted a $5M loss (its first ever) in the
fiscal year
A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ju ...
ending in June, 1989.Taiwanese May Acquire Altos Computer /ref> In the aftermath, Altos was acquired by
Acer
Acer may refer to:
* ''Acer'' (plant), the genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples
* Acer Inc., a computer company in Taiwan
** Acer Laboratories Incorporated, a subsidiary company of Acer, Inc., that designs and manufactures integrate ...
in 1990 for $94M, although mostly for its US distribution channels rather than its technology. Shortly before this acquisition, there were about 128,000 Altos systems installed throughout the world.
Company history and products
According to a brief history of the company, which ran as an advertisement on their 10th anniversary, Altos Computer Systems was started by Dave Jackson in 1977 when he designed a single-board microcomputer in a room he rented on Stevens Creek Boulevard. According to this account, the company
bootstrapped
In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input.
Etymology
Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers ...
itself with profitable sales from the beginning, with a revenue of $260,000 in the first year. Jackson named the company after
Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential ...
, where he lived.
In an interview from May 1979, the company's vice-president Roger Vass described the Altos' strategy at the time as selling OEM computer systems. Vass also said that the company's revenue had reached an annual figure of $5M that year, after 15 months of operations. The company's single-board computer product was named "Sun-Series 8000" at this point; it was based on 4-MHz Z80 processor and shipped with 32 KB of RAM, expandable to 64 KB. Altos eschewed using the (fairly standard at the time) S-100 bus, but packed their board with a disk controller (which could connect up to two 8-inch Shugart drives), two serial and one parallel port, while also leaving room for another optional Z80 to be used as
DMA
DMA may refer to:
Arts
* ''DMA'' (magazine), a defunct dance music magazine
* Dallas Museum of Art, an art museum in Texas, US
* Danish Music Awards, an award show held in Denmark
* BT Digital Music Awards, an annual event in the UK
* Doctor of M ...
controller and an optional AMD 9511 floating-point coprocessor. As operating system, this machine could use CP/M or
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment
ACS 8000
In the aforementioned interview, Vass also described their plans for the company's first multi-user computer, based on a CP/M-derived executive that they called AMEX (Altos Multiuser Executive). Their new design planned to support up to four users, by providing each user with its own 48 KB of dedicated program memory (addressable by the 8-bit Z80 processor through bank switching), while the 16 KB of memory for the operating system's image could be shared by all users. An advertisement for the "Sun-Series ACS8000-6" sold under Altos' own brand appeared in the November 1979 issue of ''
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'', and indeed promised to support up to four users by means of its AMEX kernel, and supporting a maximum system memory of 208 KB. The ACS 8000 could run at least three multi-user operating systems: Altos' own AMEX, Oasis, or MP/M. The sample code for the Banked XIOS implementation published in the MP/M II System Implementors Guide was written by Altos (and carries a disclaimer that it only works as-is with their Sun Series 8000).
The "8000" contained in the name of Altos' first series of computer did cause some confusion in the marketplace because its name may have suggested the inclusion of the 16-bit Zilog Z8000 processor, which had just been released in 1979, although Altos' ACS-8000 did not use this processor, but the older 8-bit Z80. A 1981 review in ''
Computerworld
''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...
'', comparing the ACS 8000 with other multi-user systems, found that Altos' Z80 processor was underpowered, especially for CPU-intensive tasks (most other multi-user systems used 16-bit processors by then), but the ACS-8000 was found adequate for multi-user order entry systems. A configuration with a 10-MB hard-drive plus a 1-MB 8" floppy drive, bundled with a printer and one terminal was priced at $12,340 (the same machine but with four terminals was $15,625), which was considerably less than most other multi-user systems, which were typically priced in the $25,000–$50,000 range. Altos thus carved for itself a niche in the low-cost multi-user systems. The lack of any expansion slots was judged however as fairly limiting. Their omission, as well the omission of circuitry that would have been necessary to connect the Z80 to the industry-standard S-100 bus, which was Intel-centric (around the
Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compati ...
) was one of the reasons why the ACS-8000 could keep its cost low (relative to its epoch).
ACS 8600
Alto's next major product line would indeed use a 16-bit processor, but it would be Intel's
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 (allo ...
, seemingly chosen for reasons of availability both in terms of the hardware itself and of the
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 al ...
operating system. The ACS-8600 series, announced in October 1980 as "ACS 16000" and launched in November 1981, was based on the 8086 with a
8089
The Intel 8089 input/output coprocessor was available for use with the 8086/8088 central processor. It was announced in May 1979, but the price was not available at that time. It used the same programming technique as 8087 for input/output operat ...
standard communications co-processor. Supported operating systems were CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Oasis-16, and—for the first time— Xenix. This was still a machine based on 8" disk technology, both for floppy and hard disks. The entry level unit, equipped with 128 KB RAM and a single 1-MB floppy drive was priced at $8,990 at launch, while the high end version, with 512 KB of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive launched at $18,980. By 1983 Altos was the leading 8086-based Unix vendor, running Xenix.
ACS 68000
In 1982, Altos diversified its product line yet again with the introduction of the ACS68000, which was based on the
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sect ...
processor (at 8 MHz) and was intended to support up to 16 users. It shipped with Unix System III initially. The machine was initially offered with a 40 MB disk drive (and sticker price of $14,500), while an 80-MB disk version was offered in the first quarter of 1983 (for $16,500). As business packages were generally lacking for the ACS 68000, it was mostly sold through OEMs rather than Altos' own dealer network. The first version of the Oracle database which ran on Unix (version 3) was announced supporting the ACS68000 among other similar "supermicro" computers like the Tandy Model 16, and the Fortune 32:16.
Subsequent products
Other multi-user computers:
* Altos 580 (1983), 5-5, and 5-15 were somewhat cheaper Z80 machines, based on 5.25" drives.
* Altos ACS-86C, ran Altos MS-DOS 2.11 including a 1.95 MiB harddisk with media descriptor byte 0xF5. (NB. While the publishers claim this would be MS-DOS 1.1 and 2.0, it actually is SCP MS-DOS 1.25 as well as TeleVideo PC DOS 2.11 with an example BIOS for the Altos ACS-86C.)
* Altos 586 (despite what its name might suggest today) used a 10 MHz
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 (allo ...
processor, among the fastest for a 1983 microcomputer. An
8089
The Intel 8089 input/output coprocessor was available for use with the 8086/8088 central processor. It was announced in May 1979, but the price was not available at that time. It used the same programming technique as 8087 for input/output operat ...
chip aided by a Z80 queuing processor supported up to eight terminals. Ran Xenix or MP/M-86. The 586 had 512 KB standard memory and came with six
RS-232C
In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' ('' data terminal equipment'') suc ...
serial port and one
RS-422
RS-422, also known as TIA/EIA-422, is a technical standard originated by the Electronic Industries Alliance that specifies electrical characteristics of a digital signaling circuit. It was meant to be the foundation of a suite of standards tha ...
, which was intended for networking rather than terminal attachment. The Altos 986 was a variant with 1 MB RAM and four extra serial ports.
3Com
3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe e ...
developed their new
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in ...
card for the 986 model, running Xenix 3.0 and sold as a network disk server for IBM PC, XT computers installed with 3Com Ethernet expansion cards.
* The Altos 486 was announced in November 1984. Altos claimed it was their response to the perceived multi-user capabilities of the
IBM PC/AT
The IBM Personal Computer/AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 80 ...
. The Altos 486 was however based on an 8-MHz Intel 80186 processor and also ran Xenix. It was however cheaper than their 586.
* Altos 886, 1086, and 2086. Based on a
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 th ...
central processor, and intended to support 8, 10, and respectively 20 users at terminals. The 886 used a 7.5 MHz processor, while in the other two it ran at 8 MHz. The 2086 had a zero wait state main processor. Each 10-port serial communication board had its own 8-MHz 8086. Announced in 1985. Ran Xenix 3.0. Unlike Altos' earlier machines, the 1086 and 2086 used a tower case.
* Altos 3068. Initially based on a 12 MHz Motorola 68020. Released in 1985. Ran the Pick operating system release 2.15 or Unix System V (
SVR2
Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, ...
). This machine formed the basis of the
Tandem
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction.
The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
LXN.
* Altos 686 and 3086. Announced in June 1986, these were a revamping of the 286-based product line. The high-end 3086 supported up to 32 users and had 12.5 MHz processor. This faster processor was now also offered as an upgrade option for the 1086 and 2086 machines, which had a processor board. The 686 model used a 7.5 MHz processor. The company also announced some 50 layoffs due to flat sales, reducing their workforce to about 700.
* Altos Series 2000 was their first system based on a 80386 and was released in 1987. Ran Xenix System V. For their 386 and 486-based systems Altos later offered a rebranded version of SCO Unix, "Altos Unix". They also offered a rebadged version of Portable NetWare running on their Unix.
* In December 1988, Altos introduced an updated 68030-based product called "68x Series 030", which supported up to two 25 MHz processors. The operating system offered for this machine was still Pick.
Altos also sold a number of accompanying terminal models, from Altos II to Altos IV. Typically, these were VT100 compatible.
After it was acquired by Acer, Altos started to sell Unix servers derived from Acer products. For example, in February 1993, Altos was offering servers based on AcerPower 486e ( EISA-based) systems, but bundled with Unix. In December of that year, Acer unified its server line with that of Altos and created its Acer Altos brand, which is still being commercialized , although Acer also commercialized servers under the other brands it has acquired, such as Gateway, as part of its multi-brand strategy.Acer embiggens server and storage range /ref>
InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its sister ...
- The Newspaper for the Microcomputing Community , department=InfoViews , date=1980-12-22 , volume=2 , number=23 , publisher= Popular Computing, Inc. , publication-place=Palo Alto, California, USA , issn=0199-6649 , page=12 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT11 , access-date=2021-08-20