Tecmar

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Tecmar logo.png

Tecmar was an American manufacturer of PC enhancement products based in Solon, OH. The company was founded in 1974 by Dr. Martin and Carolyn Alpert and their first products were data acquisition boards for the first generation of microcomputers. Popular products included the Scientific Solutions LabMaster series of boards for S-100 and Apple computers.[1]

Scientific Solutions[]

Scientific Solutions Inc.png

In 1981, at the COMDEX show, Tecmar introduced 20 expansion cards for the new IBM Personal Computer (PC) announced three months earlier. Using experience in developing scientific and industrial products for Intel 8086 microcomputers, the company purchased two PCs on the first day and up to 50 employees worked on the peripherals;[2] Tecmar's speed surprised even IBM.[3] These products included the Scientific Solutions LabMaster, LabTender, IEEE-488, BaseBoard, TimeMaster, GraphicsMaster, memory expansion boards, external hard disk drives and tape drives. In 1985, Tecmar incorporated Scientific Solutions Inc. and used this new company to design and distribute the data acquisition products. Their early achievements are now well known and expressed by their corporate saying: Scientific Solutions First in PC Data Acquisition.

Scientific Solutions has been an independent company since 1995 and is still active as of 2019.[4]

Repositioning as a tape brand[]

In 1986, Tecmar was acquired by the technology holding company Rexon. While Scientific Solutions continued to design and market scientific and multimedia products, Tecmar concentrated on data storage. In 1991, Rexon purchased two other tape drive manufacturers, and to add to the Tecmar product line. Then in 1995, while Rexon was having financial difficulties, Tecmar was sold to Legacy Storage Systems and Scientific Solutions continued as an independent company focused on the original Tecmar product line of data acquisition equipment.

Three years later, in 1998, Tecmar was sold to a new holding company, TTI,[5] which positioned Tecmar as a comprehensive magnetic tape data storage brand. This was reinforced in 1999 when Iomega sold their Ditto brand to Tecmar.[6] At this time, Tecmar offered DAT, QIC, Travan and Ditto magnetic tape technologies. In 2000, Overland Data saw this and acquired Tecmar[7] in an effort to complement its line of higher end tape products. This did not last long.

As of 2007, Tecmar is a dormant corporation owned by Overland.

References[]

  1. ^ Origins of Tecmar
  2. ^ Edlin, Jim (February–March 1982). "TecMates / Tecmar unveils a plug-in smorgasbord". PC Magazine. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  3. ^ Bunnell, David (April–May 1982). "Boca Diary". PC Magazine. p. 22. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  4. ^ Scientific Solutions, Inc.
  5. ^ Acquisition by TTI
  6. ^ Acquisition of Ditto brand
  7. ^ Acquisition by Overland
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