The American Dream Machine
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| Developer | Lear Siegler |
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The ADM-3A was one of the first video display terminals. First shipped in 1976 it was manufactured by Lear Siegler and had a 12 inch screen displaying 12 or 24 lines of 80 characters. It set a new industry low single unit price of $995. Its "dumb terminal" nickname came from some of the original trade publication advertisements. It quickly became commercially successful because of the rapid increase of computer communications speeds, and because of new minicomputer systems released to the market which required inexpensive operator consoles.
Lear Siegler, Inc. (LSI) manufactured its first video display terminal in 1972 - the 7700A. In 1973 LSI hired a new head of engineering, Jim Placak. He and his team created the ADM-1 in late '73. It set a new pricing low in the industry at $1,500. Its lower cost was primarily due to a unique single printed circuit board design. The ADM-1 was quickly followed by the ADM-2 in early '74. It had expanded functionality and a detached keyboard.
The famous clam shell ADM-3 quickly followed and the first manufactured units were shipped in mid 1974. It set another new industry low single unit price of $1,195. Its innovative wave soldered single board design, which included the keyboard and all connectors, was packaged in an original clam shell enclosure.
In early 1973 the LSI division in Anaheim, California that manufactured these and other products hired a dedicated management team for this product line - a VP, national sales manager, and one regional sales manager - for the western region. This regional manager was Dennis Cagan who came from an LSI competitor. Within weeks of the launch of the ADM-3, Cagan started to book very large orders. Its 'Dumb Terminal' nickname came from some of the original trade publication ads, and quickly caught on industry wide. Due to two emerging trends the device immediately became the best selling in the industry. Computer communications speeds were rapidly increasing, and a wave of general purpose and dedicated single application minicomputer systems were hitting the market from dozens of manufacturers. These required inexpensive operator consoles that could match the speeds. With no fast low cost printers available, the ADM-3 (painted in a variety of custom colors for the OEMs) became the de facto standard.
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