Xylogics, Inc., formerly Xylogic Systems, Inc., was an American computer company independently active from 1971 to 1995. Originally headquartered in

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. It is the home of Olin College. History ...

, the company produced a variety of hardware products for

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

s, initially focusing on

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...

and

word processing A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicate ...

workstations based on DEC computers. The company also specialized in the design of

disk controller A disk controller is a controller circuit that enables a CPU to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk or other kind of disk drive. It also provides an interface between the disk drive and the bus connecting it to the rest of the system.{ ...

s and networking hardware and software. The company was acquired by

Bay Networks Bay Networks, Inc., was a network hardware vendor formed through the merger of Santa Clara, California, based SynOptics Communications and Billerica, Massachusetts based Wellfleet Communications on July 6, 1994. SynOptics was an important early ...

in 1995.

History

Xylogics was founded in 1971 by three former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

employees: Laurence Liebson, Robert Bushkoff and Stephen Rotman. The company was originally named Xynetic Systems, but this name was already in use by a California company, so the group in

, changed their name in late 1971 to Xylogic Systems. Their original business was the design and development of computerized newspaper

and editing systems. The first system was developed for the '' Daytona Beach News Journal'', with

Farmington, New Mexico Farmington (Navajo language, Navajo: Tóta') is a city in San Juan County, New Mexico, San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 46,624 people. Farmington (and ...

's ''

Farmington Daily Times The ''Tri-City Record'' is a newspaper in Farmington, New Mexico, United States. It covers northwest New Mexico and Navajo Nation. History The newspaper began in 1890 as the ''Junction City Times''. The paper went through various mergers and ...

'' getting the second system. By 1972, Xylogics had grown to more than 15 people, and moved to

Natick, Massachusetts Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part o ...

. The company used the GRI minicomputer, and custom designed many

circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes and other features (similar to wires on a flat surface) ...

s to support

disk drive Disc or disk may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a two dimensional shape, the interior of a circle * Disk storage * Optical disc * Floppy disk Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other ...

s, paper tape punches and readers, and automatic capture of

newswire A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

service feeds. By 1974, the company had developed a

CRT CRT or Crt most commonly refers to: * Cathode-ray tube, a display * Critical race theory, an academic framework of analysis CRT may also refer to: Law * Charitable remainder trust, United States * Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada * Columbia ...

editing station, and offered systems of up to 4 computers and more than 50 terminals for newspaper or in-plant publishing to perform editing and typesetting. About this time, a second division was created to design and build disk controllers for DEC computers, derived in part from the successful designs and manufacturing capability developed for the newspaper business. In 1976, a major customer of Xylogics, Dymo Graphics Systems, purchased the newspaper product line and hired most of the original developers. Dymo Graphics, of Wilmington, MA was the first company to develop laser technology for typesetting applications. Dymo Graphic Systems combined their typesetting equipment business with the Xylogics editing systems, and by 1978 had over 100

turnkey A turnkey, a turnkey project, or a turnkey operation (also spelled turn-key) is a type of project that is constructed so that it can be sold to any buyer as a completed product. This is contrasted with build to order, where the constructor builds ...

typesetting systems in use worldwide. The Xylogic Systems typesetting capability was the first with

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

(What You See Is What You Get) printing capability for Tabloid size page layout, and later full page layout. Capability included on-line classified ad capture with automated pricing, in addition to full page markup and typesetting. In 1977, Dymo was purchased by Eselte Corporation, who wanted control of the highly successful "Dymo Label Maker" consumer product. Eselte sold the newspaper and typesetting business to ITEK Corporation in 1978, who wanted the laser technology IP. ITEK declined support to the newspaper and typesetting business, and in 1979, the newspaper product development and manufacturing staff of 150 engineers, technicians, assemblers, and field support personnel had dwindled to 2 by January 1980. Xylogics continued building disk and other controllers for DEC hardware. They also built serial

terminal server A terminal server connects devices with a serial port to a local area network (LAN). Products marketed as terminal servers can be very simple devices that do not offer any security functionality, such as data encryption and user authentication. ...

s from 4-port to 72-port units under the product name Annex. Xylogics was acquired by

in December 1995 which in turn was acquired by

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

in June 1998. After Nortel's bankruptcy in 2009, support for the remaining Annex products ended up with Avaya. Xylogics was located in

Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,377 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, York ...

. The

Multibus Multibus is a computer bus standard used in industrial systems. It was developed by Intel Corporation and was adopted as the IEEE 796 bus. The Multibus specification was a robust industry standard with a relatively large form factor, allowing ...

based Xylogics 450 SMD and Xylogics 451 ESMD disk controllers along with Interphase Multibus SMD disk controllers were significant to the

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

and

industry during the 1980s as a low cost interface the low cost, high performance, high capacity SMD and ESMD disk drives available at the time.

Sun-1 Sun-1 was the first generation of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in May 1982. These were based on a CPU board designed by Andy Bechtolsheim while he was a graduate student at Stanford University an ...

Sun-2 The Sun-2 series of UNIX workstations and servers was launched by Sun Microsystems in November 1983. As the name suggests, the Sun-2 represented the second generation of Sun systems, superseding the original Sun-1 series. The Sun-2 series used ...

and

Sun-3 Sun-3 is a series of UNIX computer workstations and servers produced by Sun Microsystems, launched on September 9, 1985. The Sun-3 series are VMEbus-based systems similar to some of the earlier Sun-2 series, but using the Motorola 68020 mic ...

servers and

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

IRIS, HP/

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

HP/APOLLO SYSTEMS INFORMATION all used Xylogics 450 and 451 disk controllers.

References

{{reflist 1971 establishments in Massachusetts 1995 disestablishments in Massachusetts American companies established in 1971 American companies disestablished in 1995 Computer companies established in 1971 Computer companies disestablished in 1995 Computer buses Computer storage devices Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct networking companies Defunct software companies of the United States Minicomputers Networking hardware companies Technology companies based in Massachusetts