Radius (hardware company)

Radius was an American computer hardware firm founded in May 1986 by Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Mike Boich, Matt Carter, Alain Rossmann and other members of the original Mac team. The company specialized in Macintosh peripherals and accessory equipment. It completed its IPO in 1990.

Their products ranged from processor upgrade cards (Radius Accelerator) bringing Motorola 68020 processors to earlier Macintosh systems; graphics accelerators (Radius QuickColor); television tuners (RadiusTV); video capture cards (VideoVision); color calibrators (PrecisionColor); multi-processor systems (Radius Rocket) for 3D rendering and multiple OS sessions; high-end video adapters and monitors.

The first Radius product was the Radius Full Page Display, the first large screen available for any personal computer. First available for the Macintosh Plus, it pioneered the concept of putting multiple screens in a single coordinate space, allowing users to drag windows between multiple screens. This was a concept that Apple later incorporated into the Macintosh II.

The second Radius product was the Radius Accelerator, an add-on card that quadrupled the speed of the Macintosh by adding a Motorola 68020 processor.

Another product was the Pivot Display: a full-page display that rotated between landscape and portrait orientation with real-time remapping of the menus, mouse and screen drawing. The award-winning product design was by Terry Oyama, former ID lead at Apple Computer.

By late 1992, the company faced hard times. It faced multiple shareholder lawsuits, accusing senior managers of extensive insider trading weeks before announcing the company's first unprofitable quarter; several failed R&D projects; a black eye from its bug-ridden Radius Rocket product; and a lack of market focus.