Rodime was an

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

company specialising in hard disks, based in

Glenrothes Glenrothes (; , ; sco, Glenrothes; gd, Gleann Rathais) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making it ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It was founded in 1979 by several Scottish and American former employees of

Burroughs Corporation The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company. In 1986, it merged with Sperry UNIVAC to form Unisys. The company's history paralleled many ...

and listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

in 1986, becoming Rodime PLC. Rodime produced a wide range of hard disks, initially 5¼-inch form-factor ST506-compatible devices, but later launching the world's first 3½-inch hard disk, as well as producing SCSI and ATA drives. Of particular note, Rodime produced the hard disks used in Apple Computer's first external hard drive for the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

, the Macintosh

Hard Disk 20 The Macintosh Hard Disk 20 was the first hard drive developed by Apple Computer specifically for use with the Macintosh 512K. Introduced on September 17, 1985, it was part of Apple's long-awaited solution toward completing the Macintosh Offi ...

, which connected to the external floppy disk drive port found on Macintosh computers from that period. Due to increasing competition and delays in developing new products, Rodime became unprofitable after 1985, and a financial restructuring package was put in place in 1989. However, in 1991, Rodime ceased manufacturing and was reduced to a holding company which continued to pursue

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

litigation against other hard disk manufacturers such as Quantum and Seagate. Some ex-Rodime engineering staff went on to form Calluna Technology, which specialised in 1.8 inch PC Card form-factor hard disks. In 2000, Rodime PLC performed a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

of the Littlewoods gaming business, thus changing its principal business to gaming and betting. Soon after, it changed its name to Sportech PLC.

References

* * * Computer storage companies Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct technology companies of the United Kingdom Computer companies established in 1979 British companies established in 1979 1979 establishments in Scotland {{UK-company-stub