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Eagle Computer


Eagle Computer of Los Gatos, California, was an early microcomputer manufacturing company. Spun off from Audio-Visual Laboratories (AVL), it first sold a line of popular CP/M computers which were highly praised in the computer magazines of the day. After the IBM PC was launched, Eagle produced the Eagle 1600 series, which ran MS-DOS but were not true clones. When it became evident that the buying public wanted actual clones of the IBM PC, even if a non-clone had better features, Eagle responded with a line of clones, including a portable. The Eagle PCs were always rated highly in computer magazines.

The AVL Eagle I and II had audio-visual connectors on the back. As a separate company, Eagle sold the Eagle I, II, III, IV, and V computer models, and external SCSI/SASI hard-disk boxes called the File 10 and the File 40.

The first Eagle computers were produced by Audio Visual Labs (AVL), a company founded by Chuck Kappenman in New Jersey in the early 1970s to produce proprietary large-format multi-image equipment. Kappenman introduced the world's first microprocessor-controlled multi-image programming computers, the ShowPro III and V, which were dedicated controllers. In 1980, AVL introduced the first non-dedicated controller, the Eagle. This first Eagle computer used a 16 kHz processor and had a 514-inch disk drive for online storage.

The Eagle ran PROCALL (PROgrammable Computer Audio-visual Language Library) software for writing cues to control up to 30 Ektagraphic projectors, five 16 mm film projectors and 20 auxiliary control points. Digital control data was sourced via an RCA or XLR-type audio connector at the rear of the unit. AVL's proprietary "ClockTrak" (a biphase digital timecode similar to, but incompatible with SMPTE timecode) was sourced from the control channel of a multitrack analog audio tape deck. The timed list of events in the Eagle was synchronized to the ClockTrak. Later versions of PROCALL included the option of using SMPTE timecode. Most programmers abandoned ClockTrak for SMPTE, as more multi-image programs began to incorporate video.


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