Sirjang Lal Tandon also known as "Jugi" Tandon, was born in India . He is chairman and CEO of Celetronix, Inc. He is known for leading his company,

Tandon Corporation The Tandon Corporation was an American disk drive and Personal computer, PC manufacturer founded in 1975 (incorporated in 1976 as Tandon Magnetics Corp.) by Sirjang Lal Tandon, a former mechanical engineer. The company originally produced magneti ...

(originally Tandon Magnetics) in the disk drive industry, creating what became the industry-standard double-sided floppy drive

disk read-and-write head A disk read-and-write head is the small part of a disk drive that moves above the disk platter and transforms the platter's magnetic field into electric current (reads the disk) or, vice versa, transforms electric current into magnetic field ...

Education and early career

Tandon grew up in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. In 1960, he moved to the United States with $3,000, earning a BS at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

, master's degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

and an MBA at the

University of Santa Clara Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...

. He worked as an engineer from 1970 to mid 1975 at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and

Memorex Memorex Corp. began as a magnetic tape, computer tape producer and expanded to become both a consumer media supplier and a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after 1996 other than as a consumer el ...

. In late 1975, he left IBM for

Pertec Pertec Computer Corporation (PCC), formerly Peripheral Equipment Corporation (PEC), was a computer company based in Chatsworth, California which originally designed and manufactured peripherals such as floppy drives, tape drives, instrumentation ...

Inc. in Chatsworth, but left that same year to start Tandon Magnetics in his Chatsworth garage with $7,000.

Tandon Corporation

Tandon invented the double-sided

floppy A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

drive used by IBM in the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

and worked as OEM manufacturer for

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for Automated teller machine, ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, 911 systems, and other similar commercial transaction proc ...

and

Prime Computer Prime Computer, Inc. was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. With the advent of Personal computer, PCs and the decline of the minicomputer industry, Prime was forced out of the market in the early 1990s, ...

. In late 1982, Tandon was #1 in the disk-drive industry, and his company was named ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' magazine's "Up and Comer of the Year". The $150-million value of his stock placed "Jugi", at age 41, on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. With this wealth, he built a 30-room home on 20 acres in Chatsworth. In 1996, Sirjang created

JT Storage JTS Corporation was a maker of inexpensive IDE hard drives for personal computers based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1994 by "Jugi" Tandon—the inventor of the double-sided floppy disk drive and founder of Tandon Corporation& ...

(Jugi Tandon Storage), back in Chatsworth, CA.

References

*Los Angeles Times
25 August 1992 - JAMES F. PELTZ article
*Los Angeles Times

*Computer Business Review : 14 February 1996 - "JUGI TANDON'S CARTRIDGE DISK FIRM JTS TO REVERSE INTO ATARI" *Dataquest
21 December 2002 - The IT Indians article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tandon, Sirjang Lal 1940s births Living people Indian computer scientists 20th-century Indian engineers Engineers from Punjab, India 20th-century Indian inventors Indian mechanical engineers Year of birth missing (living people)