AST Research, Inc.
| private | |
| Fate | Acquired by Samsung on 11 August 1996, dissolved in 2001 Intellectual Property sold in 1999 to become AST Computers, LLC |
| Founded | 1980 in Irvine, California, United States |
| Founder | Albert Wong Safi Qureshey Thomas Yuen |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California, United States |
AST Research, Inc. was a personal computer manufacturer, founded in Irvine, California, in 1980 by Albert Wong, Safi Qureshey and Thomas Yuen (the name comes from the initials of their first names: Albert Safi Thomas). In the 1980s AST designed add-on expansion cards, before shifting to a major personal computer manufacturer towards the 90's. By the late 1990s AST was acquired by Samsung, but was forced to close shortly after due to a series of losses.
AST's original business was the manufacture and marketing of a broad range of microcomputer expansion cards, later focusing on higher-density replacements for the standard I/O cards in the IBM PC. A typical AST multifunction card of the mid-1980s would have an RS-232 serial port, a parallel printer port, a battery-backed clock/calendar (the original IBM PC did not have one), a game port, and 384 KB of DRAM (added to the 256 KB on the motherboard to reach the full complement of 640 KB) - marketed under the product name 'SixPakPlus'. A similar expansion card was produced for the 8-bit Apple II, named the AST Multi I/O, which offered a serial and parallel interface, plus a battery-backed clock/calendar.
In 1987 AST produced a pair of expansions cards for the Apple IIGS computer: The RamStakPlus, a dual RAM/ROM memory expansion card, and the AST Vision Plus–a real-time video capture card. The latter card was eventually sold to Silicon & Software and licensed and sold through Virtual Realities (and later LRO and then Alltech Electronics). AST Research also produced for the Macintosh line the Mac286, a pair of NuBus cards containing an Intel 80286 and RAM, allowing a Macintosh to run MS-DOS side by side with its existing operating system. These cards were announced March 1987 alongside Apple's Macintosh II line (AKA, the 'Open Mac'). The product line was eventually sold to Orange Micro, which developed the concept further.
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