| author |
date |
text |
| Kenneth Long (USA) |
Thursday 4th March 2021 |
I worked for Datapoint at two production plans (Waco, TX and Ft. Worth) and the R$D Center in Plano, Texas. I worked on the 8200 line, Card Test/Repair, 1500 and 1800 lines. I liked the code names for them 8200''s were known as Jalepeño, the 1800''s were Tortilla''s. We also produced a version of the 1500 for Honeywell with their nameplate on it. At the R$D center in Plano, TX I worked on the phone switch. More specifically I worked on the Port Regulator Board. That thing was awesome. The switch didn''t work so good, but the Port Regulator was really good. I worked for Datapoint until they burned me out. When we closed the Waco plant and moved everything to the Ft. Worth plant we got so far behind on production. I would work at the R$D center for 8 hours then go put in another 8 or more hours at the production plant. We worked 7 days a week just trying to keep up with production. I was mistaken for a parts expediter because I didn''t wait for stuff to be delivered to our stations. I knew how to operate a forklift so when we needed additional boards to repair I would mount up on the forklift and go get boards waiting for repair and take them to the repair area. I knew field technicians were needing the boards as soon as possible. We would have to wait four or more hours for the expediters to get stuff to us. I wasn''t waiting for that! Man, It was good finding this. Brings back a lot of memories! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Tina (United States) |
Tuesday 9th February 2021 |
Hello All, I am trying to locate an former colleague. Her name is Karen and she worked in Product Management I think. It was awhile back (late 80s, early 90s) and my memory is a little fuzzy now, lol. Does anyone know who I''m talking about? |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Joe (USA) |
Monday 16th November 2020 |
Worked for Datapoint from 1982 fresh out of Tech College til 1995 when Intelogic Trace filed Chapter 11. Remember the old"Wizzie " HDD''s and Cynthia drives, and the Dataproducts drum printers as well as the GE band printer$ Use to love going to training in San Antonio, WangCo school was the best! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Nobilangelo Ceramalus (New Zealand) |
Thursday 23rd July 2020 |
I was MIS manager at the Waitemata Electric Power Board in Auckland New Zealand from 1979 to 1983, which used nothing but Datapoint machines, and had what was then the largest LAN in the country$that was back in the days when Datapoint''s ARC was the only LAN on the planet. I taught myself programming in Databus$literally overnight. Databus was a joy to work with, and spoilt me for working with any other language because it was so easy to write and read, and so intuitive, and compiled so fast. I also did a Systems Engineering course at Datapoint''s HQ in San Antonio in 1982. Good old days. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Bob Dorsett (Brisbane / Australia) |
Wednesday 29th May 2019 |
Hi, I joined Datapoint in July 81, first at Artarmon repair Center, then at Clarence St under Trevor Hodgert. We had a workshop in the back of a business premisis, and serviced sites like the Comodities Clearing House and Australian Cotton marketers Auscott. I worked on various configurations of 2200s. I had been an Ground Radio tech in the RAAF, and worked on computers there. While ''in'' I was so interested in computers I built a S100 Z80 chassis. Big surprise when I got to Datapoint, the 8080 assembler and code I self taught, was 2200 code. But the 2200 had two extra mnemonics beep and click. Also had the ''three finger'' debugger built in. Wanted to move back to Brisbane so I regretfully resigned after nine months. Good times, people and product, just wanted to move nearer home! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Art Stoller (Tucson Az) |
Monday 18th March 2019 |
I worked for Datapoint/ Intellogic trace from 1978 to 1994 in the Tucson area.. Installing and servicing all their products, including the 3300 3600 terminals, 2200 5500 6500 6600 computers,and others, Infoswitch LDCS ACD |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Yubert (California) |
Tuesday 27th November 2018 |
Nice to find this forum on Datapoint. Datapoint was my first job out of college. I worked in the Los Angeles office and was in the college newhire program. The newhire program lasted ~9 months, we spent 3 weeks in San Antonio for technical and sales training, then 3 months back in our field office. This 3 week/3 mth cycle repeated two more times. I supported customers like See''s Candies/Bluechip Stamps, Home Savings, Western Oil $ Gas and Korn Ferry. I joined Datapoint in 1982 and left after ~2 years. I recall there was a new language, DASL and a new OS called RMS, both were very advanced for the time. Datapoint sure was innovative with ARCnet, Lightlink, and all those mainframe emulators. Datapoint sure was fun and a great entry into the Computer Industry. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Paul Longoria (United States) |
Sunday 5th November 2017 |
Wow ! Glad I found this page with so many Datapoint''ers that I remember from my time there. I started in 75 and left in 1990. Best education and exposure to some of the finest minds in the country.\
FYI, there''s a Datapoint Facebook page called "Datapoint Remembered". with lots of photos and some more people. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| PHILIP J SCHWIRIAN (United States) |
Thursday 21st September 2017 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1976 to 1989 in Technical Support in San Antonio, TX starting at the woodcock building. I was hired as a senior Technical Support Engineer and was promoted to be the first and only Support Engineering Specialist (reported to Oscar Gordon a Director). I just ran into this site and decided to leave a comment. Previous to Datapoint I had worked on Main Frame computers. I remember being introduced to the Datapoint 2200 version 1 a the Permian Oil Basin Show in Odessa TX in 1975. I have supported and provided training on CTCs first product the Datapoint 3300 around 1970/1971 when I worked for a small company in Rockville MD call TST Communications. I had attended training on the 3300 in the old Kadak building in downtown San Antonio, TX which was my first introduction to San Antonio where I have resided for over 41 years. I spent almost 50 years in the IT field and am not retired! I remember my 13 years with Datapoint fondly! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Karl Mutch (San Francisco/Sonoma, United States) |
Friday 1st September 2017 |
Worked at Datapoint in New Zealand at the start of my career, mainly Databus/DOS was it ?, and did a stint in Austin TX, working on a communications gateway in DASL/RMS from memory. Now living and working in San Francisco in AI. Pretty much owe it all to Datapoint and the opportunities they gave me. Some of the names here I even recognize! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Darrell Campbell (ATLANTA GA US) |
Tuesday 29th November 2016 |
Worked in Atlanta sales 1980 - 1984. Worked in Communications Div. LDCS and ACD. AWESOME TIME AND PLACE Worked with Rich Pape, Max Wood, Andrew Waite and Mike Tamer. Many more early sales reps and managers under Dan Hosage. Even Survived sales forecasting under John Thornton. What memories. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Jim McKay (Houston, TX) |
Friday 9th September 2016 |
I worked in Engineering at Datapoint from 1979 through 1985. I managed the Design Verification Testing Team so I was involved in testing LightLink, the Laser Printer, Impact Printers, Video and many other products that Datapoint developers and engineers thought up. There were so many products that my team was involved in testing that we rarely had a break between the Information Management products and supporting products. There was a lot of creativity coming from the mind of David Monroe and his engineers. It was a fun time to be involved in the cradle of new technology. You had to love the "can do" attitude of everyone involved in these programs. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| G.Tisher (Houston, TX) |
Friday 12th August 2016 |
I worked for Datapoint/Intelogic Trace for 18 years, beginning in 1975. First as a peripheral final test tech at the 9725 Datapoint Dr. location, then as a field service tech. I still work as a field service tech and owe my career to the experience I gained while working at Datapoint. It is a shame that Datapoint is not adequately credited for much of the innovations that we still see in today''s modern computers. The microprocessor, the desktop PC and the LAN just to name a few. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Shane Bolton (Melbourne / Australia) |
Wednesday 18th November 2015 |
I worked for Datapoint starting in the late ''70s and finishing in the late ''80s. Started out as a Field Engineer fixing the broken ones, ended up as Support Manager in Melbourne. During my time at Datapoint I spent 3 years in San Antonio in software support.
Worked with some great people: Vern Green, Tim Morrow, Harold (Skip) Peterson, Mary Keinarth, Billy Taylor, Ray Tokar, Charlie Colbert, Harry Pyle, Kay Hancock, Graham Patterson and a bunch others.
I will always remember my time at Datapoint very fondly. A time of great innovation, fun, hard work and great people. Fantastic combination. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Stephen Cable (Australia) |
Thursday 6th August 2015 |
I worked on Datapoint equipment for 20 odd years, firstly as a field engineer for the then distributor Sigma Data and then Datapoint Australia directly in varying roles from Field Engineer to service director. Many of the names on here from varying countries I know or recognise, certainly all of those from NZ and Australia. They were certainly the innovative days when the computer industry was fun. Infoswitch, Minx, 2200 through to the 8800, RMS and all the Vista products. Thanks for the posts here they brought back great memories. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Frank Lether (The Netherlands) |
Thursday 4th December 2014 |
How nice to see you guys overhere. Spent almost 10 years as director of Communications (PR) at Datapoint Netherlands with much pleasure. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Robert Clow (New Zealand/Australia/Hong Kong (Australia)) |
Saturday 25th October 2014 |
Wow.. The names. Hi Tim, we had some great times in HK!... Love to get in contact again. I started in NZ with 2200 (yep excitement working with the ''10 over 10s'') and first job was joining a very ambitious software billing project... as a lead... As Tim said Datapoint''s technology was very advanced |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Frank Franzoi (Henderson Nv.) |
Saturday 16th August 2014 |
Hired in 1978, Laid off 1991...... Hired as a system engineer... Hi Bob etc... in Cleveland Oh.... Transfered to Detroit as Head honcho... Then became a sales person for the State of Michigan out of Lansing Mi... Had a Ball and sold over 6 million in equipment... And not a person in San Antonio would listen to us about total internet capability... Any how... got laid off and the company went away... am living off a pension etc but still miss the company and it''s capabilities that couldn''t be done because it was''t allowed by the lawyers .... |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Greg Baker (Spokane Washington / USA) |
Monday 3rd February 2014 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1976 - 1981 From 1976 - 1978 as a Field technician in Mountain View, CA, then 1979 in San Antonio, Texas developing diagnostics, then 1979 - 1980 back in San Mateo, CA as a field tech. Then from 1980 - 1981 Product Support San Antonio Texas. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Daniel E. Chrisman (California) |
Sunday 22nd December 2013 |
I was hired in 1981 to support the Order Tracking System in the Marketing Division. I worked with Linda Peterson, JoAnn Horvath and others. I supported different systems and wrote code for the Canada Order Entry system. I was terminated in the great purge and went to work for Unocal in Chicago. I remember sharing an office with Dean Pierce in an office that looked out over the 7th fairway of the Turtle Creek golf course. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Ron Mitchell |
Friday 4th October 2013 |
Hey Guys , worked in Charlotte NC from 78 until 93.
Just wanted to say hello |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| M. James (NYC NY) |
Thursday 24th January 2013 |
hi,
I worked in the international data center\
at NYC Manufacturers Hanover Bank in 1985,\
at 4 NY Plaza, 19 floor, in Operations.
We had a lot of Datapoint machines, we would start the\
backups up around 4PM, then kick off the batch jobs.\
This system ran TEPS Transcend Electronic Payment\
System, fancy name for remote banking.\
It served our clients from all over the globe,\
UK, Europe, Saudi, Bahrain, Australia, NZ, etc.
Thses machines were great, they always ran,\
unless one of the programmers made an undocumented\
change and that is where the problems start!.
I agree, they killed the goose with the golden eggs\
when the idiots took control of the company.
Regards |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Bill Brownlow (San Antonio) |
Tuesday 18th December 2012 |
Found the site when looking for information on the Convergent hardware. I started with Datapoint in ''78 working in Tech Support at the old Woodcock facility. Before Datapoint I was at Four Phase and before that with Wangco who manufactured the reel to reel tapes Datapoint used. From supporting tape drives in Tech Support I went to Infoswitch at 8410 where I ended up in New Product Support. I was the New Products Support Engineer for LightLink taking that product from preproduction through the Alpha and beta phases to final.
From there I transitioned into International Support doing software support under Les Shafer. Bob Lofgren and I took the problem reports filed from all the international offices and worked those with the developers hanging out on the second floor of 8500. While doing International I ended up with the NGEN product line and handled the software support for that series. When Convergent revised the CTOS operating system and you could no longer do a static memory allocation the product died as we could no longer allocate the hard memory space for the ARCNet adapter. I then ended up with the likes of David Hovel supporting the ARCNet card and drivers in the IBM PC line. All told my time with Datapoint went from Feb. ''78 until July ''88 when my position was eliminated. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Tim Regan (US/Japan/HK) (United States) |
Tuesday 23rd October 2012 |
I worked with Datapoint from 1980 till 1993$ started as a systems programmer for the 2200 and then the 1500/1560, then I did work with 1800, 5500, 6600 and 8000 family. I worked in San Antonio initially as systems developer then moved to Office Automation Group, and in 1984 I worked with CJK (Japanese distributor) to add Asian Language support to OS products. That then landed me in Japan (downtown Tokyo) for 18 months, after which I became in charge of Asian operations and began working from Hong Kong with a staff of 12-15. It was a great time and experience. I recognise so many of the names below. RMS was a great OS, so far ahead of it''s time. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Kaj Granlund (Finland) |
Saturday 28th July 2012 |
After a couple of years with IBM 360/370 mainframes, a Nokia salesman (believe me or not, Nokia was the local DP dealer here) showed me a DP2200 as I was looking for a warehouse solution. We went for a DP2200 with a 2,5 MB Diablo drive in 1973 (ser $ 13).
Since those days I worked with DP all the way to "the bitter end". First as a Nokia emplyee and later as an independent consultant. During my time with DP computers, I wrote the first IBM-3780 emulator in 1973 (DP had only 2780) and a revised version of the Honeywell GRTS-355 emulator. As DP did not come out with an acceptable database solution together with RMS, I wrote one pipeline -based solution for RMS in about 1980. Although I loved (and still do love) assember programming, I spent most of my time writing applications in Databus/Datashare and later also in Cobol.
In 1987 - 1988 I developed the ARCLINK -unit, which was sold by Datapoint for years. I also represented Datapoint in Finland from the early days of 1990''s.
I still have an old DP5500 with a full set of spare parts and a couple of original CTOS and Utility cassettes. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| dave_schummers (california) |
Friday 6th May 2011 |
i had the pleasure of working @the disk works in mt.view,as the equipment maintenance mechanic from aprox 82-87,i maintained the westec single side disk polishers,the strasbaugh 6sr4,the plating lines and all related equipment .,in the end ,our division was absorbed by xebec corp.and i was included in a group that went to "information memories corp",another pilot type plating set up..most colorful character-co worker,Mel Dike |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Richard DesChenes (Florida) |
Monday 4th April 2011 |
I worked at Datapoint in test engineering, and did failure analysis on the production floor. It was a challenge to troubleshoot the 2200''s microprocessor made of discrete components. Working in machine language became second nature. The place was a circus and things changed daily, it was a fun place to work. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Robert J. Stevens (Menomnee Falls, Wisconsin, USA) |
Wednesday 9th March 2011 |
I first became acquainted with Datapoint while working as a Computer Operator arond 1975 in New Jersey when the Boss brought in a Datapoint. I had gone to Programming School and told him that I could Program the Machine. He gave me the Job. It was one of the Machines that used Cassettes for I/O. The manual said "Go have a cup of coffee while the machine copied your work from one Cassette to another". I was writing Software to transfer Hospital Census Data from the Hospital to our Computer Site for Processing. By that time they had a Datapoint System that would write to a Computer Tape and I added a routine that played "Shave $ Haircut Six Bits" when the tape was ready to be transfered to the Univac 9300. Later on I was asked to produce a Program that would allow up to 33 lines of input for a Hospital Admissions Form. Since the Machine only allowed 11 Lines I had to DUMP the 8K of Memory to the Printer then Decode it and reassemble it into a System that Mimic''d DataBus. I even added interrupt control so one could back up fields to re-enter them. It took me 6 months but it ended up on the ROUND file. I worked with Datapoints until 1979 when I left New Jersey and moved to Wisconsin. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Barney Fleetwood (US) |
Friday 18th February 2011 |
I became familiar with Datapoint products as a user in the early 70''s. I worked for a time sharing company and we started replacing our Teletype terminals with 3300''s. When the 2200 was introduced we purchased one mainly to see if a genuine computer could really fit on a desktop. These were the days when our mainframes took up massive amounts of space and resources. I joined Datapoint in early 1979 as a product support engineer in San Antonio. My first products were the 6600 and the Channel Adapter. I saw an earlier post on here by Steve Wolf. He and I traveled around the country supporting the Channel Adapter. He was software support and I was hardware support. Steve definitely got the short end of the stick as the hardware was considerably more stable than the software but he always prevailed. I was laid off from Datapoint in 1985 (thank you Asher Edelman) and came back to Intelogic Trace in 1986 where I stayed until 1994. It was a great ride while it lasted and the people I worked with and for were absolutely incredible. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Stephen Deane (Toronto / Canada) |
Wednesday 16th February 2011 |
I''m an ex-datapoint canada employed\
Just saying HELLO |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Robert Jackson (Australia) |
Wednesday 15th December 2010 |
I worked for Datapoint as a technician in their Australian board repair centre at Artarmon Sydney circa 1981-83. I did chip level debug and repair of the 2200, 5500 and 6600 main circuit boards. It was a great experience to see how a CPU was constructed from TTL gates. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Carl Zettner (US) |
Friday 19th November 2010 |
FYI we are now (trying) to put up the complete history of Datapiont\
and the 2200 at our (still being built) site\
www.Datapoint.org. If you are an ex-Datapointer or just curious\
please join us there. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Igor (North Carolina/USA) |
Thursday 29th July 2010 |
Frank! We did indeed have a great time working in Penn Plaza for Datapoint in those heady days in the early ''80s. Things have never been as great as that ever since. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Frank Rocco (NY) |
Friday 6th November 2009 |
Started out of DeVry in 1979. I worked out of Penn Plaza and covered Manhattan. I wioked on the 1100, but also the 2200. Was a heavy piece of equipment. Also learned Arcnet and printers during my years there. Had a lot of good times but left in 1983. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Steve Parrish (Westminster, SC) |
Friday 6th February 2009 |
Employed at Datapoint from 1978-1989. I really enjoyed reading the forum. I joined Datapoint Corporation in 1978 as a Systems Engineer responsible for pre $ post sales support for customer accounts throughout North Carolina. In 1980, transitioned from SE to sales as an Account Manager for Leggs'' Products (the folks who used to manufacture panty hose $ package them into plastic egg shells). We did a great business there as they owned 5530''s Datashare systems in each of their 5 manufacturing facilities and had a much larger system at their mail order facility. The mail order house moved from 5530 $ 6600 based Datshare systems which were subsequently grown into an ARC network. The ARC had an 8800 file server with MIDs disks and 3800''s replaced the 3600 terminals previously used in the Datashare system. After that, I was transferred to San Antonio in 1980 as the sales plan was to hire 600 professional sales people in the US with computer sales experience to leverage our huge advantages over the competitors. After Sam Walker and me spent a year or so hosting, instructing new hire sales professional from all over the US on our product line from the 5500, 6600, 8800, 8600, 3800, 1800,1500, Light Link, our ARC based resource sharing and all the wonders of the Datapoint developments. I recall at one time during the early 80''s when the stock split twice two-for-one over a 13 month period. While mainframe and other mini-computer competitors were explaining how they grew their systems (forklift model) relative to our ability to simply "clip-on" additional processing power as needed without the need for re-programming absolutely blew the competition away. Incremantal growth as processing requirements demanded was the mantra. We would have a class of around 30 new hires for two weeks before they returned to their respective territories to engage in marketing Datapoints'' product line. During this period, we had all the who''s who of the fortune accounts as customers. Subsequently, after the hiring frenzy of Steve James and G. Millard Allen subsided. I joined the likes of Buck Buchanan, Sal Bruno, Jim Whitehouse and tha cast of others in Product Marketing with an assignment to "Large Systems" Subsequently joined a new division lead by John Tysall and Jim Cogan with a great team in the Small Business Computer Division where we promoted and provided sales support predominantly for the 1560 product line. The part I never could comprehend is that when Asher Adelman and his investors decided to take over the company, they announced that they were going take it over and sell and/or ''spin off'' the parts. This stopped sales dead in their tracks to Citibank, Texaco, Chase Manhatten Bank and a host of other fortune account customers we had as they wanted a "single source provider" e.g. one stop shop for computers peripherals and support. The result was, the arbitrage group crashed the company just as they were taking it over. From my view, this was much more devastating to Datapoint than all the other stuff having to do with accounting issues, shipping equipment to wharehouses, etc. etc..
Anyway, the 12 years I spent were an exciting and fulfilling experience that I''ll never forget.
Cheers to all of you Datapointers! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Kevin Willois (Allentown, N.J. USA) |
Saturday 3rd January 2009 |
Guy! Frank! And all the rest of the NYC techs out there. Datapoint was the first real job I got after graduating from tech school. ''81 to ''86 I think. The 2200 and the line of processors that followed were great for the time, but were really heavy and difficult to work on. Tolerances for the back plane/power supply were tight. Wires tended to short if you were careless (blue smoke generators), but no one could deny the elegance and the impact that ARC had on the computing community.\
I''m a musician/teacher now, would love to know what happend to the intelogic trace guys after the company was sold. Had some really good times before the company lost it''s way. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Bob Stephens (USA) |
Wednesday 15th October 2008 |
I joined Datapoint as a software developer in the early ''70s when its name was Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC). I later went into the field through the Systems Engineering organization and then back into corporate in Software Support.
Pretty amazing. I found this site while searching for information on Infoswitch, a Datapoint LDCS/ACD product in the ''70s. Noted several extremely talented folks on this forum which I had the privilege to work with.
Definitely pioneers in their own right. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Chris Hall (England) |
Tuesday 3rd June 2008 |
Hi, this is note is really aimed at John Sutherland. John I may have met you at Ventek at some point, maybe training courses, I worked out of the Epping branch from 1976 and then out of Centerfile in London till about 79. Your note about those blessed power supllies brought it all back. How many of those went bang in your face the moment they were powered on by the sliding on-off switch. As you recalled one of the biggest users were indeed BR and the recollections of trudging down the line to a signal mans box some at the dead of night seems like yesterday. I worked with a real good bunch of guys, Bob Riddel, Tony Munn, Steve Pyne. They were a good company to work for, I broke my leg in 75 and was of work for a total of 6 months and they paid me full pay for all that time and I'd only been with them 1 week, don't think that would happen today. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Colin Wheeler (Melbourne, Australia) |
Saturday 29th September 2007 |
I also have many fond memories working as a technician (actually receiving the “gold” award) which still sits with pride of place in the study, leaving I think around 1987.\
Many laughs with folks like Joe Nanfro, Brian Mackrill, Dave Westhorpe, Gina on reception and who could forget Jeno Liptak.\
After leaving I had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan Schmidt and Louis Donzis purchasing Performance Technology kit to replace the old DP gear at Jetset Tours. These guys were simply geniuses. Those truly were the days. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Stephen Wolf (Austin, Texas) |
Sunday 19th August 2007 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1977 to 1984. I worked in the field,\
support, and development. The people I worked with were top notch. Had a lot of time and made several long term relationships. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Don Cheeseman (Houston, Texas) |
Wednesday 27th June 2007 |
Wow. I wasn't even aware there was forum for the Datapoint vets. I've still got one of the older slow-scan 2200s (with a Honeywell moniker) and it still works, as well as a old 1560 that I picked up at a warehouse years ago in North Austin. I was a programmer with Datapoint from 1977 until 1986. It's nice to hear that there are still so many ex-Datapointers still out there. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| John (Montreal, Canada) |
Tuesday 5th June 2007 |
Datapoint was my first real job. From 1979 to 1992. I remember opening more 3360 terminals than most surgeons open up people. It was a fantastic experience. 3360,2200,5500,6600, you name it. Don't forget the ARCNET. Loved it. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Tom Orbeck (Austin. Texas) |
Tuesday 10th April 2007 |
After being a Datapoint customer in Minneapolis, I worked for Datapoint in San Antonio as a software developer and later in Software Support. It was a GREAT experience and I learned a lot. Datapoint was ahead of its time for a while and an exciting place to work. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Guy Perrusio (USA) |
Thursday 8th February 2007 |
I was a field service tech for Datapoint in New Jersey from July 1978 til January 1983 and then a District Service Manager in NYC from January 1983 until January 1987. If you talk about Datapoint and CTC, you have to make mention of the old 3300 series terminals. Even in 1978, they were a bear to repair but were very successful in replacing many teletype machines. If there are any Datapoint old timers that would like to talk about the old days, please don't hesitate to reach out. Also, does anyone have a recollection of yet another spinoff - Teknikron/Infoswutch??? |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Paul "Jerry" Scannell (USA) |
Thursday 11th January 2007 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1977-1980 in the Waltham, MA office. I was a "Field Engineer" by trade but had started getting into software because of the Datapoint products.
I installed and serviced the full gamut of Datapoint systems including the 1100/2200/5500/6600, ARC, DataShare, Control Data disk drives, and InfoSwitch!
At some point I had gotten a hold of a "dis-assembler" program from someone gave meand I had decoded the DOS operating system; figured out how it worked; and decided that programming was where I should be.
Now 26 years later, I have programmed in just about every conceivable platform including: hardware diagnostics, repair depot management systems, order entry systems, temperature controller firmware, and most recently web applications.
I owe my career to Datapoint. My time with them was very memorable and feel truly saddened by their demise.
But I am so glad to find this forum! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Murray Downes (Dunedin New Zealand) |
Wednesday 27th September 2006 |
I joined Datapoint NZ in 1985, transferred to London 1987 and worked at Station House, then Neasden, Harefield... back to Neasden - finally to European Operations in Paris. Sales... 8600, 8800 then 7800... finally helped launch the AT&T Definity through European subs. This was a great experience - all of it. Does anyone know what happened to Dale Haire (ex SAT, ex Belgium...) ex Intl? |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Rudolph J. R. Wratten (San Antonio) |
Friday 4th August 2006 |
I worked with Datapoint on an extension of the InfoSwitch, what was later to become known as automated wiretapping. Datapoint exec's decided that this was a "second tier" market, boy were they wrong! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| AJ (London) |
Wednesday 2nd August 2006 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1975 to 1978 as a Hardware Engineer/Superviser repairing PCB's down to component level at the Park Royal, London repair centre. I repaired processors, memory, power supplies - you name it I did it. It was great fun and I was completely fulfilled, financially and emotionally. Opposite to what I feel now. When I joined in 1975 the company was Ventek which was soon taken over by Datapoint. This was my first entry into the world of computers and I haven't looked back, although I feel less satisfied with my position now. It's great to read other peoples experiences here.\
You know what? I still have Datapoint 2200 manuals etc in my garage and I was going to through them out the other day, it must be the memories that stopped me from doing so !!!! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| John J. Doonan (new york ) |
Thursday 13rd July 2006 |
I Started working at when it was known as CTC (Computer Terminal Corp.) Best job i ever. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Paola (Italy) |
Thursday 16th March 2006 |
I made a mistake: I worked in INFOREX first, which then became DTAPOINT..\
Who rimember that?\
Ciao |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Paola (Italy) |
Thursday 16th March 2006 |
Hello to all of you !\
I use to work for DATAPOINT ITALY from 1973 through 1988 at the import dept: so i knew and met lot of people.\
I just would like to say that those years were really wonderful for me. I loved my job and I still remember those days..\
I would like to know where is Linda Fuller, now: if you are here, please write me.\
Hope to hear news soon\
saluti a tutti\
Paola |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Mike Towers (Bandera Texas) |
Wednesday 8th February 2006 |
Joyce and I came to Datapoint 1981 a couple of years after I graduated from UT and she from Rice. The thinking was, unlike the east or left coast, we could walk back to Austin from San Antonio if we had to. DPT had around 10,000 employees then. I left in 1985 and started my own business. Joyce hung on for another couple of years. After several startups and a couple of public offerings (yippee!!!) and 30 years of marriage, we're still around. Joyce takes care of the grandkids and does archeology and birding and I became a cop--go figure. Too bad the senior mangement blew it. Datapoint had THE most reliable systems I've ever used or worked on from mainframes to minis to micros. They weren't as sexy as some of the stuff that was coming our of Xerox PARC at the time, but they WORKED, and kept working and working and working and working...... |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Mike Shaffer (dallas, tx) |
Saturday 14th January 2006 |
What wonderful memories this forum has brought back to me! I was pretty heavily invoved in Datapoint and Databus activities 'back in the day'. It never ceases to amaze me how much Datapoint had within their grasp, only to let it trickle between their fingers and then fade away. Datapoint equipment was generally rock-solid, and the operating system software was always reliable, even under heavy load. No blue screen of death back then, just systems that kept plugging away. Bud Hutchison, who also left a post here, was kind enough to lend me his Databus manuals back in the 80's when I was trying to refresh my skills and get a job. Bud, thank you for that, and to this day I still have those old green manuals! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Brett Cupitt (Sydney) |
Wednesday 21st December 2005 |
I started with Datapoint in 1983 in Auckland (it was here that I met Kevin Woods who has posted an earlier contribution). The NZ subsidiary was progressive with some innovative ideas in management. We were not allowed to have Lightlink as the NZ Post Office claimed they owned the electromagnetic spectrum up to and beyond visible light. Rather innovation was in methods to make us more efficient and productive.
I was transferred to Datapoint in Australia where I knew Brian Smith (also a contributor). Australia was a much larger subsidiary with as many storemen as Datapoint NZ had field engineers.
I had little call to provide support on the 11xx and 22xx series, but had exposure to the later products such as the 88xx, 86xx, etc. I also worked briefly with Minx which was the code name for a video imaging system which was very successful in teh courts. The innovation was also present in Australia with a lot of development going on - the most significant item being a complete library management package which was sold to a number of libraries. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| james (Melbourne, Australia) |
Wednesday 30th November 2005 |
Wow! I worked for this great company at it Melbourne offices. Joined the company in 1989.
I very much regret that the company fell apart. RMS and ARCnet were the most amazing technologies I had ever seen at the time.
I only wish I had a 7800 and a few terminals. Oh... the memories. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| John Love (Houston, Tx) |
Friday 11th November 2005 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1975 to 1989,first as a field tech in Miami then as a Regional Support Spec in Houston. I worked on every product ever made and ended up in the telecomm industry through Datapoint's Infoswitch product. I have run into a lot of ex-datapointers and we still talk about what a great company it was and what great years we spent there. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Frank Rocco (NY) |
Wednesday 26th October 2005 |
Worked at Datapoint from 1979-1983 as a field tech out of the Manhattan office in Penn Plaza. I was right out of DeVry and it proved a good training ground. We had a real close bunch of techs and managers. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Jerry Scannell (North Providence, RI) |
Wednesday 10th August 2005 |
Worked for Datapoint from 1977-1980. Installed/worked on 1100's, 2200's, 5500's, 6600's, 1800's, ARC, DataBus, CDC Disk Drives, you name it! My Datapoint experiences propelled me into the programming career that I have had for 25 years because I used to "unassemble" the old DOS O/S, I also used to help the SE's with DataBus and DataShare issues!!! Haven't been to San Antonio since 1980. Used to go to "Gasoline Alley" every night!! Glad to see there's a forum for this kind of thing. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Ellis Hillinger (Seattle, WA) |
Wednesday 27th July 2005 |
I'm another Datapoint alumni from the Seattle office of the Western Region. I'm particularly amused that Microsoft just announce Longhorn will be called Windows Vista. Once again Datapoint was ahead of everyone else, to no avail. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Linda Peterson (San Antonio, TX) |
Monday 18th July 2005 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1980 to 1986 supporting the order entry system. The Friday Lunch bunch is still alive and well going to lunch at a different place each Friday. I have many fond memories of meeting support folks from all over the world because my ex-husband also worked for Datapoint on the operating systems support team |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Kevin Woods (New Zealand) |
Tuesday 12th July 2005 |
In the early 70's I joined a company called Ventek in the U.K.\
It was a subsidiary of a Canadian company called Venturetech (I think) that marketed Datapoint equipment in England.\
All reference to date has been to the Datapoint 2200.\
There was actually a Datapoint 1100 that preceded the 2200. It was similar architecture with a parallel bus with 4 memory slots each having 1K memory boards. As an engineer I was trained in how to repair this device to a component level. As all the registers and gates were actually discreet TTL logic components, the every day language we used to trace our way around the processor was actually Assembler language. In other words, we could actually identify and replace if necessary the various Registers that will be familiar to any assembler code cutters.\
Load "A" with 303.. Ex Address etc When addressing a parallel Printer? Well we could find the A register on the circuit board and see if octal 303 was actually loaded?\
In those days, when sent to a fault call, I arrived with an oscilloscope, a box of TTL and CMOS chips, and an assortment of transistors, a large book of schematic diagrams and an extender board to extend the failed board out of the machine so you could access it with power on. I would then step my way through the logic until I found the gate that was not functioning as it should and simply replaced it with my trusty soldering iron. In similar circumstances now, we just replace the whole device. The original operating system was CTOS (Cassette Tape Operating System) but this moved to proprietary DOS once the floppy drives and then the Diablo and then Wangco drives were added. It was a brilliant machine, ahead of its time, and using simple emulation programmes loaded from cassette tape, replicated the functionality of IBM and many other systems at a fraction of the cost. I was lucky to cut my teeth on it and thereby truly understand at a bit and byte level how these things actually work. Datapoint eventually bought out Ventek and marketed their products directly in the UK and Europe and was very successful for a period. The company had an amazing youthful, cocky “we can do anything” culture in the early days. Unfortunately the market was not mature enough for what it had to offer. The desktop Computer and the LAN in the 70’s was a solution to set of problems a lot of companies did not know they had at the time |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Don Reid (Redwood City, CA) |
Wednesday 29th June 2005 |
Great times in the Western Region.\
Who can ever forget the State of California EDD project with Peggy Imirie, the shortest project manager in the region, and Jerry Klink with his reading of the daily passage from the Creation Memos. I was fortunate enough to work with some of the brightest people in the business and really enjoyed those times... However, I must admit that I'm enjoying retirement just a little bit more. :) |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Dave Hopkins (Livermore, CA) |
Wednesday 29th June 2005 |
Those were the days, my friends! I remember cutting my teeth on Databus and assembler back when a few bytes were the difference between a program working or not, and coding was eloquent as well as functional (actually, I cut my teeth on the wires I stripped when making cables...)\
I left Datapoint in 1984. Hmmm, that date seems to be significant for some reason... Evonne (my wife whom I met and married during my Datapoint years) and I own a graphics/web design firm, now. After getting out of the programming business entirely, I've come full circle and am programming again; now we're developing web applications.\
I still collect Datapoint memorabilia. Remember the 8 inch floppy drives? Or the RMS belt buckles? We still use the Western Region Datapiont coffee mugs, although all the names were whited out long ago...\
It also seems that a lot of things that are being announced as "new technology" I recall from our Datapoint days. How about IR communicatioins between buildings in a campus environment? or VoIP? Didn't we have those things back in the 80's?\
At ImageSetters we have been around for 20+ years, mainly due to the strong work ethics and desire to do our best job... just like at Datapoint.\
I think we all benefited greatly from our experiences at the big "D" and we are just continuing to get better!\
Thanks, Oscar Rabinowitz, for pointing me to this site! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Patty Fennell (formerly Huhn) (UK (was Denver CO back then)) |
Tuesday 28th June 2005 |
Glory be - names from the past. What a pleasure it is to see so many names I recognise! I was with Datapoint in Denver for a way long time - until 1987. How can you all remember the product numbers - I just remember all those blinking tapes we had to load in that little cassette thingey on the top (yes, I actually was semi-technical once), and lugging around a datascope to prove once again it was IBM's problem - what emulators we had! I went to Tandem in 1987, and am still here 18 years later - via Compaq and now HP. And I'm in the camp with others who say we had a great work ethic and lots of fun then. Thanks to Jim Westveer for the tipoff.\
Cheers! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Jim Westveer (Seattle, WA) |
Tuesday 28th June 2005 |
Howdy! I worked for Datapoint in Seattle from 1979 to 1987. Aaah the good old days. But if Datapoint is now considered old-computer-museum-stuff...what does that make me......oh, ah, never-mind. Thanks to Bill Drozda for pointing this site out to me. Ciao. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| David Graham (Omaha, Nebraska) |
Friday 3rd June 2005 |
I have had the priviledge of working on the old 5500's 6000 series. Had a 1500 and then the 1560. wow what an upgrade of memory does. Had the dual 8" flops and then got the 10mb packs. had 300baud modem and then 1200, then got daring and got an 8800 put it in the basement blew many breakers. Got a hold of an 8600 ran RMS in the basement. Wow all the memories. Finished up on the new 5500's on the ALR chassis and RMS/Open 4. great hardware.
Dave |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Pat LaTouche (Houston) |
Tuesday 31st May 2005 |
I worked for DPT for 14 years and it was fun and I met some of the greatest people in the computer industry. Their work ethic is far better than some of these people that I have been associated with the past several years. I have changed careers, I am now a teacher (teaching middle school since 2001). I first taught computers, but now I am teaching math. The first year of teaching, I put the question ,"Who invented Local Area Networking" on my final exam. Datapoint of course, most students missed that question but that is ok. The kids I teach and what they give me at the end of the year is better than any bonus check, I ever received. Good Luck to all former Datapointers there is Life after Datapoint. Neven, thanks for discovering this web site. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Steve Venable (Tennessee) |
Sunday 29th May 2005 |
Hello everyone. Pleased to see this web site and the forum from the Datapoint Club.
I wrote my first Databus program on a 1100 Series while a senior in high school which led me to an S.E. position in N.C., Onsite S.E. at USAA (San Antonio), Branch S.E. Mgr., Support Mgr and Technical Mgr. What a ride CTOS, DOS, ARCNET, RMS, MINX, and RMS/XA. I had the fortune of meeting many wonderful and talented people while with Datapoint and speak of often of my experiences with Datapoint. I wish all you x-Datapointer's a long and blessed life! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Lothar (Frankfurt GERMANY) |
Friday 13rd May 2005 |
Hi Guys,\
I worked for Datapoint Computers from, 1979 to 1989 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. First as a technical support engineer, second as a technical branch manger, and after that as a software support engineer. I've worked on all the Computers from the tiny 1100 up to the 8800 flagship.
MIDS, anyone remember that?. Yeap, it was a CDC-Harddisk 60MB/60MB like a fridge. And not to forget the amazing ARCNET. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Brian (USA) |
Wednesday 30th March 2005 |
I worked for datapoint/intelogic trace from 1980 to 1988. i had a 2200 system i picked up from a customer and used it to keep inventory contol on. Damn i worked on all of it from the 1500 to the 8800. I also picked up a MIDS system for my own use for the cost of renting a trailer to haul it. I finally left the company in december of 1988. Worked in the corpus christi texas office. Damn what a great company DATAPOINT was. I have never had a job since that even comes close to the experience of DATAPOINT. Miss it |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Brian Smith (Melbourne Australia) |
Sunday 28th November 2004 |
I started life as a Databus programmer in 1981 and worked for the Australian subsidiary of Datapoint from 1985-87. I first worked on a 2200 with 2 x 2.5mb disks. Was amazed at the power of a 5500 and then there was the powerhouse 6600.\
Thanks to Don Wills at dbcsoftware.com I am still a Databus programmer 23 years later on a language that started back in the 60's and my company produces highly successfull commercial software using a Databus derivative. Now that's a lesson in longevity and portability that Microsoft could take note of! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Herb Toeppner (Vancouver, BC) |
Wednesday 10th November 2004 |
I worked on Datapoint computers for eleven years, 1977 to 1988 in Calgary and Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
I worked for four different companies and in four different industries, manufacturing, wholesale parts distributer, retail lumber and a Customs Brokerage firm.
I had the privelege of using the state of the art 5500 with 50 MB of online disk. The drives were the size of a washer and dryer. That was my first two systems. Twins actually, but 90 miles apart.
I then graduated to the 6600's.
Must have written 1,000,000 lines of DATABUS code. CMATCH was my favorite OP Code :)
The Calgary Datapoint office showed us MYNX. Anyone remember that???
Ah, memories... Herb |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| dennis (new york) |
Friday 7th May 2004 |
worked for datapoint and interlogic trace from 1978 to 93.\in stamford ct. remember nando,chris,joe,john singer,paul miles,woods,phil tracy and the rest.good product rotton management.rember some real half ass ones.too bad datapoint fell was a good company to work for good trainingahead of its time products. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Dean Pierce (San Antonio) |
Thursday 25th December 2003 |
I started working for Datapoint in 1980 and stayed with the company and the spinoff company Intelogic Trace until 1992. I supported the home office's user community and am still amazed at the innovation at the company. Datapoint had their own email system years before it became what it is today. They had their own word processor and graphics machine. The first computer I used at Datapoint was a 3600 which had 38K memory. I remember the first machine that boasted 256K of memory, they referred to it as "Godzilla". It's amazing to think how far we have come. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Ian Catchpole (WA, USA) |
Wednesday 12th November 2003 |
I found this page during some nostalgic web-searching - amazing! I worked on a Datapoint system (Buxted Poultry in Norwich England) in the early 80's. My most notable achievement being writing a workable Reversi program in Databus :-)\
Actually I previously worked on a CA Syfa system - and their language was virtually identical to Databus (I seem to recall that CA was created by some Datapoint rebels). Amazing to think that Databus (Datashare as I recall) still continues. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Bud Hutchison (Tyler, Tx) |
Wednesday 22nd October 2003 |
I worked for Datapoint from 1979 to 1996 as a systems consultant in the Marketing Division. I worked primarily in the Dallas area including a two year stint at the Infomart showroom. Datapoint has downsized until there is only a small company left in San Antonio. They continue to support their customer base. The Datapoint name was purchased by a European telecommunications company and that is the owner of www.datapoint.com. Dynacore is what's left of the US company we all knew and loved and is still in San Antonio, Texas.
Datapoint is proof that the best products and technology don't always come in first. So now we're stuck with computers that fail anytime the cover is removed and you have to reboot daily.
Sunbelt was one of the first companies to implement Databus (PL/B) on a non-Datapoint system. We have enhanced the language and tool set quite a bit in the last 20 years. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Christian Cavaleri (USA) |
Thursday 4th September 2003 |
WOW,reading all this is like a time warp . I worked for Datapoint from 1982-1987 out of Stamford Conn. and was a charter member of interlogic Trace when it started. We did field service on the entire line and reading this was interesting.I wont get into specifics but most of your inputs are correct. I can tell you they had a 1100 system before the 2200. the day I went on a service call on a 1500 floppy system and saw everyone in the office crowded around one of the origional IBM pc I knew right then we were doomed as a company we invented ARCNET then fell behind the times. It was a great company to work for .Training in San Antonio was fun,but when I think about head crashes,fixed disk replacements and alighnment packs I realize how far computers have come and how old I've become. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Charles Foreman (Lemasters, PA) |
Wednesday 30th October 2002 |
I have many fond memories of Datapoint. As I was growing up, my dad was moonlighting as a Databus (and even Datapoint assembler) programmer. My first real job was interfacing Datapoint 8600 systems to Intermec bar code printers. I have owned several Datapoint systems, and even ran a multi-user computer bulletin board system through Datashare running on an 8600 many years ago. I also bought a used 8800 system (the washer/dryer combo unit) from Chase Manhattan bank. You had to be careful not to fire up both units at the same time - the circuit breaker would trip every time! RMS was way ahead of its time, and Databus was a very good development environment for business applications. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Peter Walker (UK) |
Monday 6th May 2002 |
Thank you for your piece on the Datapoint 2200. However, I was surprised to read that Datapoint Corporation "ceased to\
exist in the early 1980s". In 1981, I had a career change and joined IT.\
I was trained (partly) at Datapoint's office in London, UK. I worked as\
a Databus programmer from 1982 until 1986, using their DOS and RMS\
operating systems. Older hands told stories about the 2200 and its\
operating system (the abbreviation CTOS appeals to our old-English sense\
of humour). Model numbers were different in my day: the 1800 had 8-inch\
diskette drives; the 3600 and 8600 were discless processors which booted\
from a LAN server; and 3200 and 8200 were dumb VDUs. I understand that Datapoint were moving out of general IT into computer/telecommunications integration, as of the mid-1980's. I lost touch with the company after 1986, but I can testify that the London\
office is still there - I drove past it (complete with a big DATAPOINT\
sign) in April 2002. Indeed, there is now a Datapoint web site\
(www.datapoint.com). |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Marc Desmoulins (France) |
Tuesday 17th April 2012 |
The first distributor of these little systems in Europe was the giant Honeywell-Bull... When the first "machines" came, we did not believe it was possible to make such an intelligent full system... The reliability was not less than the others at that time.\
Then, Datapoint had an agreement with the "Defense giant" MATRA, (now EADS in Europe. An affiliate was biult in common with the name of "Matra Informatique". The success came fast. There were a few divisions developing business and specialized software using the very strange "Databus" language... Probably it was not really conventional... but it was surprisingly efficient.\
$ In 1984, things changed... the arrival of the IBM-PC, PC-Networks of all sorts and UNIX has been a revolution... I must confess that me also, with all my team, have changed in favor of the newcomer.\
The year after, the French affiliate was dissolved, Bye Bye.\
$-\
If Databus had been modernized, converted to the Intel base systems and adapted for Internet, it would still be a leader.\
Those who developed such language, operating system and hardware interfaces can be proud, it has been one of the best thing men''s brain as conceived. "Bravo". |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| David Neale (Guardamar del Segura$ España) |
Wednesday 9th December 2009 |
I worked for the Samsonite Corp (the luggage people) from 1972 until 1982. The European headquarters were located in Oudenaarde, Belgium (they still are). I programmed their order and billing system. For input of customer and sales data in branches outside Belgium (UK, France…) we used Datapoint 1100s. I wrote the little apps for these, too. Customer data and sales information was captured on cassette and transferred to Oudenaarde each evening (initially using a 300 bps acoustic coupler, later going to 1200 bps and then to a massive 2400 bps!). There they were processed on a Honeywell Bull something-or-other (can''t remember the model) and returned the following moring, again captured on cassette, for printing out invoices, error reports, stock reports, etc., at leisure. This all started in about 1976. Not bad for the time, I suppose. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Charles Cotham (Tennessee) |
Monday 1st September 2008 |
Wow.... While looking for info on old systems that I''ve touched, I ran across this site.
Well, a gentleman named Tom Burks and myself installed a Honeywell MTS-7500 (really a Datapoint 2200) in 1971 at National Savings Life Insurance Company in Murfreesboro, TN, programming it without a printer and debugging the code on the 12 line screen.... LOL
We then joined Universal Systems in M''boro and wrote a Escrow and Title Closing System on a four diskette, Diablo printer equipped Datapoint 1100 and eventually migrated the software to Datashare on 2200''s, 5500''s, and 6600''s. We installed the software in various major title companies (the largest installation consisting of over 100 remote terminals in Oakland, CA) which put USI as the Number 1 VAR in the country during the 1970''s.
Remember those days Steve Venable?
The software (and myself) was sold in 1980 to a California company and I moved to Fremont where I met Dave Hopkins and his lovely wife, Evonne.
I''m now retired from my last position at AOL, Reston, VA as Technical Manager - Systems Security but still find time to do consulting with health providers in Phoenix, AZ.
Datapoint was ahead of their time and Tom Burks is still using DBC''s version to carry on the Escrow and Title Closing System. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| peter nelson (Minnesota) |
Friday 21st December 2007 |
My first job (age 15, early 1980's) was for a local bank's mortgage division, running print jobs, xmodem file transfers, and backup jobs on their Datapoint gear - your basic computer operations monkey. After a couple years on the job, for fun, I wrote a font editor, and re-programmed the entire character set, so all letters would be displayed upside down. This was meant to be a private joke, but I forgot to change things back before leaving at 10PM. The next morning when everyone booted their OS from the shared drive, they got upside down letters! In production! Fortunately for all of us, I made that little mistake on March 31st, so this all came to light the next morning, on April Fool's day. I guess they made allowances for youth, because God knows I should have been fired. The head of the department played it off as a joke, otherwise he would have had to explain why he gave "root" access to a high-school kid. Happy memories.
As an aside, I've had an eBay search running for a year, trying to find an old Datapoint workstation. Nothing turned up but one sorry little advertising flier. What happened to all that gear? It can't still be running in production, can it? |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| John Sutherland (Scotland UK) |
Sunday 23rd September 2007 |
Finding this page was an unbelievable experience. Are there really people out there that have an interest in Datapoint 2200. :-) . anyway, my experience was as an employee of Ventek in the Uk as a field Service engineer. I can remember sleppless nights fixing these damn thing at 2am in the morning in the middle of a railway siding shed. They were primarily used by British Rail in a train monitoring system. 100s of them. CTOS, Bad Power Supplies, Tape decks.. Ugh!! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Philip Gaberdiel (United States) |
Monday 15th August 2022 |
During my senior year of high school in 1970 in Hobart, Oklahoma, my math teacher somehow was able to purchase a computer. He and I learned how to program it (machine code, I think). Our first program was to solve quadratic equations. I can''t remember the brand of the computer, but as I recall it looked like the pictures of the CTC computers. If my memory is correct, programs were stored on a magnetic card that you ran through a reader. Can anyone confirm if there was a CTC computer like this that would have been available in the spring of 1970? |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Stefan |
Monday 22nd November 2021 |
I have heard from a collector there will be a 2200 in an online auction in December 2021... I hope that I can bid there. But I''m afraid I can''t afford that |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Achim Baqué |
Sunday 12th September 2021 |
Hi, I am a vintage computer collector. I missed my chance to buy it from David Larsen in 2015. Since then, I couldn''t find it elsewhere. Please contact me (E-Mail via my website) if you have a Datapoint 2200 to offer. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| John Pham (US) |
Wednesday 26th May 2021 |
Does anyone has a CPM boot disk for Datapoint 1560? Thanks |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Frank Slaghuis (Deutschland) |
Thursday 4th March 2021 |
My dad worked as technician for Datapoint in Germany from 1980 until 1998. He died in 2004. Last winter when I visited my mum I ve found an old 2200 (16k version), 6600 and 6640 in their basement. My plan is to "refurbish" them... Is anybody here who can give me technical advise if I have any questions? That would be great! $) (in return, i would provide nice photos of the computer''s inner workings) You can mail contact me by mail: effes@freenet.de |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Richard J (UK) |
Tuesday 2nd March 2021 |
I''e searched many times over the decades for Ventek and similar spellings to try and learn more about a machine I was allowed to try tic-tac-toe on, guessing 1979-1980, located in North West UK. The machine was a sizeable unit built as a desk, keyboard, small B/W screen and twin 8" floppy to to the right at knee height Does anyone have any clues, photos, manuals they''d care to let me see a scan of? I was at secondary school and just getting interested, we only had a single RML380Z |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Henk (Netherlands) |
Wednesday 16th October 2019 |
Hi all,
I am trying to find a copy of CP/M for a DP1550.\
This version of CP/M was developed by Lifeboat Associates.
Can anyone help me with a image copy the 8" diskettes of this very hard to find CPM flavour ?
Thanks !\
Regards Henk Stegeman |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Pete (U.S.A.) |
Wednesday 10th April 2019 |
Just an add-on to Gordon''s comment that he didn''t remember if the Datapoint 1100 came in a cassette only version. It did. I programmed on such a device in the 1975-1977 time frame, and it could do amazing things for its limited hardware specs (at least as compared to the 2200). |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Bob Erwin (Dallas, TX) |
Wednesday 29th July 2015 |
I cut my teath on a Dataoint 2200. My father boght it for his accounting office. His had 4 floppys and a daisy wheel printer for producing all the accounting reports. This was 1976. Still doing IT today. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| JJ Orn (Cincinnati) |
Tuesday 28th October 2014 |
I had an 1100 model. No tape, but did have four 8" disk drives integrated. I still have a box of the disks. These were machines from Uniroyal - they made tires, rubber and plastic. My father wrote the inventory system there. Sadly to this day, I can''t even find a good picture of the machine. It was the size of a desk! I remember a certain sequence on the buttons during POST would put the machine into a memory diagnostic. The language was actually pretty easy to learn considering the age. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| EddieTheWild (Spain) |
Friday 22nd August 2014 |
Hi Datapointers, any of you have technical info about Datapoint 1560? I have one that seems to boot but nothing is shown on the monitor (it and the keyboard light on).
I would like to know the pinout of the conector between the computer and monitor to try to connect the computer to any other third party monitor.
Thanks in advance!! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Michael N. Georgopapadakos (Greece) |
Sunday 8th December 2013 |
I worked from 1981 to 1982 in Piraeus,Greece in a computer service bureau, as an applications programmer with Databus language,DOS operating system in a Datapoint minicomputer with 2 removable disk drives ,around 10 on-line terminals,1 batch terminal and 1 printer.\
I still remember the program-generator we had for generating automaticaly on-line entry programs and the "rollout" command for changing from on-line to batch mode. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Josh H. (USA, Texas) |
Monday 7th January 2013 |
Both my father and my uncle worked for Datapoint in the late-70''s here in San Antonio Texas. As far as I know, my father built computer systems there. I asked a bit about it since I was born a several years after Datapoint closed up shop here in SA and my father went on to work for a company called Phototelesis. (also here in SA) |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Ken Whitehead (USA) |
Tuesday 17th July 2012 |
Other comments re: confusing the 1100/2200/5500/6600 may have arisen from the fact that all of the enclosures for these models started life with 2200 molded into the plastic bezel. The 1100, 5500 and 6600 models had a separate logo that was applied over the existing 2200 logo. Since double-stick foam tapes were used, over time the tape let loose and the ‘new’ logo fell off. We had a few customer complaints re: the instant downgrading of their computers when this happened! Alas, we know that for all of those that complained, many more didn’t, giving possible rise to the confusion of what the machine actually was. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| laurence Orchard (Blackpool, UK) |
Monday 21st May 2012 |
found this page via Wikipedia, boy does this bring back some memories! used to work for an exhaust supply company, part of the TI (Tube Investments) Group. We and a number of other TI companies had these machines. Can''t believe we used to run 8 terminals, 2 printers and communications on what was effectively a calculator with a cassette deck and 2 huge 10 Mb disk drives that looked like a top load washer. I learned to program on this machine, rewrote the whole user system, built in error checking, wrote a report writer, that generated Databus code, in Databus so management could use their batch IBM mainframe reports. Remember some great training courses at Centrefile in Wembley, was there when they were testing the ARCNet IR link from the top of the building to the engineering site at Harlesden. Had problems cos it wouldn''t work in the fog and drizzle! Great times, great fun, BTW Databus is still used, now called PL/B |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Stacy Browning (San Antonio, TX) |
Monday 16th April 2012 |
Holy cow! I was just writting a paper for class and could not remember the name of the first company I worked for when I stumbled onto this site. I worked for Datapoint 1984-1989 in the accounting department. Straight out of highschool, I was the file clerk/copier girl. Now in TN, still in the accounting field. Thanks for the memories! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Caleb Woodland (Canada) |
Monday 30th January 2012 |
My grandpa worked with Harry Pyle and Victor Poor to develop the 2200, and I have a couple of them. I''ve been looking online to see if anyone else still has any or if they mostly just fell off the face of the earth. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Thomas (San Antonio, TX USA) |
Sunday 11th December 2011 |
I worked with Datapoint gear at a large company in the late 70''s. Had to SCREAM at the manager to get smoking BANNED (as it should ALWAYS have been) in the building. I convinced the management (some who were tobacco addicts) that the smoke was RUINING the equipment AND the health of all workers! They took it to heart (and lungs, etc.) and banned all smoking in and around the building just one week later. SMOKE-FRE IS THE WAY TO BE! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Mike Newcomb (London/England) |
Saturday 7th May 2011 |
(hope my recollections are correct)\
In the early 70''s I worked for the Building Research Establishment, and have always remembered being taken (as a junior participant) by Ventek to see a Datapoint System at the Medical Research Council in Mill Hill.\
The thoughts were to replace many ICL punch and verifier machines with a Datapoint network for data entry purposes. I was most impressed with the system, being a huge leap forward, meaning no more punchcards, which had been around for nearly a century then.\
Ventek took us to lunch at a pub in Alperton and even now whenever I go past it, I still taste the excellent steak served.\
Think Ventek''s offices were on the North Circular Road.\
Those were the days! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Wouter (Germany) |
Tuesday 15th March 2011 |
Hi,
Connected to Datapoint in various roles and locations, for over 12 years, I have learned a great deal on the job about frontier information technology and still earn benefits of that today.\
Living the hard days of being confronted with the consequences of poor management and following dissolving of the European subsidiaries, one could also learn a great deal about survival of the fittest and cash collecting cowards (managers bailing out).\
Anyway, best greatings to all friends abnd former colleagues. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| ne12abaa3 |
Friday 11th March 2011 |
please provide manuals , blue print , trouble shooting , you tube presentation , emulators |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Paul McCard (England) |
Monday 4th October 2010 |
A Datapoint 2200 was the first computer I ever used - at school near Liverpool, aged 12, in 1977. The photograph on this site is the first time I have seen a 2200 for about 30 years and brings back very happy memories of after-school sessions keying in BASIC programs and discovering a fascination with computing which has continued throughout my life. Until today, though, I had never realised the significant place the 2200 holds in the progress towards single-chip microprocessor CPUs! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Wayne Osteen (Florida, USA) |
Thursday 30th September 2010 |
My first job out of school was night operator on a network of 4 Datapoint 7810s. I ran all the batch jobs at night and did system backups. After a few years, I moved into programming in Databus. WOW, what an ugly language! LOL I fondly remember the RMS/XA OS however. It was so ahead of its time. We finally retired that system and moved to a complete AS/400 system sometime in 1995 I believe. We definitely got our money''s worth from those systems. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Chris |
Monday 31st May 2010 |
I DO have a Datapoint 1550, incl the dubble 8" drive !!
home.hccnet.nl/c.born/DSC02854.jpg |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| PeriSoft (Ithaca, NY) |
Sunday 16th December 2007 |
This also appears to be the first computer with a 2.35:1 cinemascope display. How innovative! ;) |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Ted Heaton (Derby, UK) |
Sunday 9th December 2007 |
I worked for a company in the UK called CMS which were based in Essex. The company in the early days was made up of ex-datapoint employees. I joined at the age of just seventeen and working my way up from the old 1004, 3600, 8200, 8220 and 8242 terminals. I worked on 1100 processor units upto the 8600 type plus all the 10 over 10 drives, CDC drives and eventually the PC based Powerservers and ARCservers. The times we had were good. The Datapoint computers were the last real items to be fixed by engineers with soldering irons and a bag of components not like now, swap out monkeys. Engineers had respect and there was always coffee on the go for the engineers on site. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Søren Peo Pedersen (Greve, Denmark) |
Friday 20th January 2006 |
This machine is *the* very first computer I ever saw: My father programmed these things, and sometimes brought one home for a weekend to work at home. When he wasn't working on it, I, age 5 or so at the time, had a go with some demo programs. I remember there was this ASCII animation showing a man walking past a light post, followed by a dog - and guess what the dog did when it passed the light post... ;-) |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Mike Altice (USA) |
Tuesday 6th December 2005 |
I had been given a datapoint 1100 in the late 80s. It used to live in a tool sales company for about a decade. This particular one was perched on top of a heavy duty metal desk that included four 8 inch floppy drives and their controllers. There was a modem and a massive power supply that were attatched to the back of the desk. This particular one did not have a casette drive. I made several attempts to get it to work, but all that it ever did was beep and make lots of fan noise. Nothing ever was displayed and it wouldnt boot from any of the drives. Being such a large object, I eneded up taking it to the dump. I did keep most of the boards from the desktop console. If anybody wants them, let me know esp. if someone wants to restore one of these things. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Al Kossow (Silicon Valley) |
Monday 11th July 2005 |
There is some Datapoint scanned documentation up\
now at www.bitsavers.org/pdf/datapoint
I'm interested in finding more, esp the maintanence\
manual for the 2200 I'm restoring. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Rich Frank (Naperville, Illinois) |
Monday 6th September 2004 |
I have a mint condition 1100 and 2200 machine, controller with a bank of 4 diskettes, GE terminet printe, manuals etcr. I bought the 2200 due to a little known fact that it ran editplus like a 5500 and I could use it from home to edit my Databus programs. It served that purpose well. Lots of original stuff at no charge to the enthusiast if anyone is interested in paying shipping to get it out of my basement. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Tony Coleby (UK) |
Tuesday 10th August 2004 |
In 1987 I worked for a pensions company in London that used a Datapoint 8800 system until 1989 I believe (!)\
The terminals were all orange-screen mono with 80x24 or 40x24 characters (if I remember correctly).\
The hard disks were 80MB and around 14 inches or so in diameter. I, as the computer department junior, had the pleasure of lugging 2 of these monsters to the bank after every month's backup. Wow, to think that the average-size Compact Flash card in my several-years-old MP3 player holds more than that!\
I really can't recall whether there was any specialist software running on it but the thing that sticks in my mind is that was a version of the Colossal Cave text adventure game on it that used to keep me occupied during lunch break. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Doug Smith (Houston, TX) |
Saturday 19th June 2004 |
I am a software developer. In 1983 I purchased a Datapoint 1560 - a whopping 128KB of RAM, and two 8" floppies in a suitcase sized box. Only $10,000 offset by my 20% VAR discount. I kept it for years afterwards thinking it might be valuable as a collector item or for a computer museum, but my wife prevailed and I gave it to a friend needing to convert large diskettes. Anyone remember the infrared ARCNET modems that could be used to connect systems where running cable was not practical? If Datapoint had seen the opportunity in sticking a cheap ARCNET card into every IBM PC instead of selling their obsolete boxes, you would never have heard of Novell. Makes me wonder what opportunities I am not seeing due to my own ego. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Al Kossow ((silicon valley)) |
Thursday 27th May 2004 |
I'm in the process of restoring a 2200 series 2 with 16k of memory\
and REALLY need a copy of the maintenance manual. I'm also\
working on archiving any surviving documentation and software\
for these systems. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Roger Heim (New Jersey) |
Wednesday 5th March 2003 |
The Databus language is still with us. It reached ANSI standard status in 1994 and is now officially called PL/B because Datapoint would not relinquish its trademark on the name Databus. Probably the biggest supplier of modern implementations of Databus is DBC Software (www.dbcsoftware.com). I still support a Databus order entry application that originally ran on real Datapoint systems, now runs on a Novell Netware network and soon will run on a Windows 2000 network. |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| Maury Markowitz (Toronto, Canada) |
Saturday 5th October 2002 |
I'm curious about this thread. As I understand it the datapoint in the UK is the logical end of the original company, but I have the feeling that it was originally a branch office involved in a "reverse takeover" as the company spun off parts in the 1980's.
There's another twist as well. From what I can tell a company in the US called Dynacore Holdings bought Datapoint's patent book in order to go after patent cases -- more lawers, yeah! |
|
| author |
date |
text |
| James Dixon (Arizona) |
Wednesday 28th August 2002 |
http://www.datapoint.com\
Fascinating story, and that company is still with us today, with several offices including San Antonio, Texas. Looks like they are seriously into embedded programming markets. |
|
yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
c913d792c4