Computer Automation
| Industry | Computer manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Richardson, Texas, United States |
|
Key people
|
David H Methvin (founder) |
| Products |
Naked Mini minicomputers Naked Milli minicomputers Marathon Automatic Test Systems (Functional Board Testers - In-Circuit Board Testers) |
Computer Automation Inc. was a computer manufacturer founded by David H Methvin in 1968, based originally in Irvine, California, United States.
In 1981 they moved to Boulder, Colorado, and in 1985 moved back to Irvine, California and finally in 1990 moved to Richardson, Texas, where they had opened a manufacturing and engineering development facility in 1978 as a way to escape high California tax and labor rates.
Computer Automation opened a sales, support and repair arm in the UK in 1972, based at Hertford House, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Herts. Later relocated to Suite 2 Milfield House, Croxley Centre, Croxley Green, Watford, Herts.
The first products seen there were the 404, 808 and 816 minicomputers or process controllers.
Chronologically the next machine dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s was the Alpha 8, an eight bit machine, and Alpha 16 which merely doubled up this concept to make a 16-bit machine. Both were built using DTL and TTL devices. The processor for the Alpha 8 and Alpha 16 each comprised three full sized circuit boards about 18 inches square, then there were the memory options, 4k, 8k and rarely 16k magnetic core full cards. There were number of options for data input, paper tape via a board called the utility controller which could also be used to drive other devices such as printers, etc. There was a magnetic tape controller which was a full card and a Winchester interface disk controller which was two full cards with a circuit board jumper which interlinked the two cards. The programmers console had a row of toggle switches for data entry of bootstrap routines, etc. Two chassis were available, standard and jumbo with separate power supplies. There was a variety of other cards are available for various forms of input output and process control, relay cards, dual teletype cards, etc.
During the very early 1970s, the LSI-1 was developed, a single board low-cost 16-bit computer. To achieve the ambitious goals, the company ventured into development of full-custom LSI chips: a 4-bit slice arithmetic logic unit and 3-chip control unit. The control unit was based on programmable logic arrays (PLA). The control unit PLA transformed the machine instructions and events into series of microinstructions to operate the ALU and related functions. The concept was conceived by Ken Gorman and was designed by Gorman and Roy Blacksher. Although the design was proven in the lab using first iteration chips, a disastrous processing error by chip foundry National Semiconductor during a bug-fix iteration caused a six-month schedule slip from which the project could not recover. Therefore, the LSI-1 never entered the marketplace. Gorman subsequently became manager of the Processor Development department and oversaw computer processor engineering through 1975. For one project, Gorman worked with AMD in the conceptualization of the Am2900 4-bit slice chip that was employed in Computer Automation's high-end processors and gained widespread acceptance in the marketplace.
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