Gnat Computers, Inc. (also spelled GNAT Computers) was an American computer company based in

San Diego, California 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 ...

, founded in 1976. The company was an early developer of microcomputers and one of the first—if not first—to license the

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...

operating system from

Digital Research Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a privately held American software company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser ...

. They released various computer hardware, including two microcomputer systems, before they were acquired by business partner Data Technology Industries, Inc., in 1983.

History

Gnat Computers was founded in early 1976 and formally incorporated in San Diego, California, in August 1976. Thomas Lafleur was among the company's co-founders. Gnat's first product was the Gnat MC80 (also known as the Gnat 8080 System), a

single-board computer A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonst ...

. Released in early 1976, the MC80 runs off an

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 is Intel's second 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor. Introduced in April 1974, the 8080 was an enhanced successor to the earlier Intel 8008 microprocessor, although without binary compatibility.'' Electronic News'' was a week ...

microprocessor and features 256 bytes of

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, expandable to 512 bytes; the system board also has spots for up to 2 KB worth of

programmable ROM A programmable read-only memory (PROM) is a form of digital memory where the contents can be changed once after manufacture of the device. The data is then permanent and cannot be changed. It is one type of read-only memory (ROM). PROMs are used i ...

s. It was delivered as either bare assembled circuit boards or with an optional chassis containing a front panel for input and maintenance. Gnat recommended their MC80 for

industrial process Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical, or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy ...

applications. To this end, they also sold a communications-control expansion board, which hooks up to the main board via a socket-and-ribbon-cable arrangement. In mid-1976, the company delivered pre-assembled hardware multiply–divide operator modules for several other early 8080-based microcomputers, including the

Altair 8800 The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer introduced in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) based on the Intel 8080 CPU. It was the first commercially successful personal computer. Interest in the Altair 8800 grew quickly after i ...

and

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

's MDS and

Intellec The Intellec computers were a series of early microcomputers Intel produced in the 1970s as a development platform for their processors. The Intellec computers were among the first microcomputers ever sold, predating the Altair 8800 by at leas ...

8 Mod 80, as well as for their own MC80. Each module was available in a 2.5-μs and 5-μs variant, the latter being $50 cheaper. The Southern California Computer Society measured Gnat's 2.5μs modules as performing multiplication and division between 100 and 160 times faster than common software approaches for such arithmetic at the time; in fact, they said the modules were so fast that they completed their operations quicker than the 8080 microprocessor can access the result. Gnat released the first of their 8080-based Gnat-Pac family of microcomputers in 1977, starting with the System 8. The System 8 featured optional built-in dual 5.25-inch floppy disk drives capable of writing 80-KB-formatted disks. The computer featured 16 KB of RAM, eight PROM modules (one 2-KB PROM included, featuring the

bootstrap loader In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via Computer hardware, hardware such as a physical button on the computer or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) h ...

and memory monitor), serial and parallel I/O ports. Gnat followed up with the Gnat-Pac System 9 in 1978, which bumped the floppy disk capacity to 500 KB, expandable to 1 MB. The computer came shipped with a

disk operating system A disk operating system (DOS) is a computer operating system that requires a disk or other direct-access storage device as secondary storage. A DOS provides a file system and a means for loading and running computer program, programs stored on th ...

. Gnat was perhaps the first company to license CP/M for a microcomputer, the purchase mediated between developer

and Gnat's Lafleur. Lafleur managed to secure perpetual rights to use the operating system for a bargain $90 in 1977. Within the year, the price of a corporate CP/M license had skyrocketed to tens of thousands of dollars. In 1979, Gnat teamed up with Data Technology Industries (DTI) of

San Leandro, California San Leandro (Spanish language, Spanish for "Leander of Seville, St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland, California, Oakland to the northwe ...

, to develop the Gnat System 10, an all-in-one microcomputer based on the

Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...

microprocessor. The System 10 featured 65 KB of RAM; a built-in

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supported by a video card that could output 80-column-by-25-row text; two 700-KB 5.25-inch floppy drives; a

Selectric The IBM Selectric (a portmanteau of "selective" and "electric") was a highly successful line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961. Instead of the "basket" of individual typebars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page ...

-style keyboard; and a hard drive interface. The company sold 2,000 units of the System 10 between 1979 and 1980. In 1981 Gnat signed an agreement with the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

-based American Peripheral Systems to supply the latter with $12 million of Gnat's microcomputers in exchange for dealership representation in 20 states and

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, over a five-year contract. DTI acquired Gnat in 1983 and continued selling the System 10 into the mid-1980s. The company subsumed Gnat's computer manufacturing, rebranding the System 10 as "The Associate".

Citations

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend 1983 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1976 American companies disestablished in 1983 Computer companies established in 1976 Computer companies disestablished in 1983 CP/M Defunct computer companies based in California Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer systems companies Early microcomputers