Kaypro Computer History

I apologize for the length of this, but felt that some items of fact needed clarification. I also have a news article from the San Diego Union-Tribune of June 10, 1992 when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge said that he would convert Kaypro's Chapter 11 inti Chapter 7 and liquidate any remaining assets. If I develop enough ambition to re-key it - can't get it electronically from U-T archives - I'll make it available. - don ============================ Phil Clayton <philclayton(a)mindspring.com> wrote: After Adam Osborne came out with the O-1, it was immediately set up as a target. Every company started shooting at the magic price of $1800. Among the people to set their sights at this figure was Andy Kay. Andy ^^^^ ^^^^ had originally started a company which sold oscilloscopes called ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * It was founded in 1953 to make digital voltmeters. Non-Linear Systems. He decided Osborne had the right idea, but needed a little tweaking on the case. He envisioned a computer which would not only be rugged enough to be carried around, but would be tough enough to be carried out in the field by engineers. With this idea in mind, he designed the Kaypro Computer. The case was made of aluminum which allowed it to be extremely rugged, but still save a little weight. These are sometimes nicknamed "Darth Vader's lunch box." Needless to say, this case passed the test for ruggedness. Except for the Robie and later DOS machines, all Kaypros had the same case and varying shades of gray paint. * The Robie was the one called "Darth Vader's lunch box" because of its shape and black color. The Kaypro II and some 2s had a blue keyboard case. All the computers came bundled with software, originally the Perfect Series, but later WordStar and SuperCalc. * Wordstar, Calcstar, Datastar, & Reportstar. Kay originally sold his computers under the company name of Kaypro, but * I think that the original computers were named KayComp, and that was the name already taken. it turned out this name had already been taken. He then sold the computers under the Non-Linear name, but was able to keep the Kaypro name on the computers. Somewhere along the way, he did manage to acquire the rights to Kaypro Company, but it was late in the company's life. * To my knowledge, the computers were then always sold as Kaypro, but the manufacturer was shown as Non-Linear Systems until the 1984 versions came out. The Kaypro II is the oldest computer Kaypro made. It has SSDD disks and the screen is green and it has the standard 64 K of RAM. After Kaypro left Chapter 11, they came out with several DOS * Kaypro filed for Chapter 11 in 1990 and never emerged. In June of 1992, the courts forced them into Chapter 7 and moved to liquidate Kaypro's remaining assets. compatibles, but were no longer considered a force in the industry. There were several unique units that came out including some extremely compact units that were designed to be desktop computers but were light enough to be carried from place to place. Kaypro II In the beginning there was the Kaypro II (aka II'83 later). It came with 2 SS/DD full-height floppies, a 2.5 MHz Z-80, one serial port, and bundled software from Perfect Software. Introduced late 82. * June 1982. Kaypro 10 Next was the original Kaypro 10. It came with 1 DS/DD floppy drive, a 10 meg HD, a 4.0 MHz Z-80A, two serial ports, light pen port, rudimentary graphics, a real time clock, and software from Perfect Software and dBase II. Introduced mid-83. Kaypro IV Then there was a Kaypro IV (aka IV'83 later). It was a II, but with DS/DD full-height floppy drives. Wordstar started being included in addition to the Perfect Software suite. Introduced in mid-83. (Same goes for the II'83, late versions included Wordstar also.) 1984 rolls around, and some changes made. Kaypro 4 The 4 (aka 4'84) is introduced. It now has two DS/DD half-height floppy drives, a Z-80A at 4.0 MHz, 2 serial ports, internal 300 baud modem, a real-time clock, rudimentary graphics. Software is from Micropro (Wordstar, Calcstar, etc.) Early 1984. Kaypro 2 The 2 (aka 2'83) is introduced. It has two SS/DD half-height floppy * 2/84 ? drives, a Z-80A at 4.0 MHz, 2 serial ports, rudimentary graphics. Software is from Micropro. Slightly later in 84. Kaypro 2X The 2X is introduced. This is closer to an old IV, or a 2 with DS/DD half-height drives. Again a Z-80A running at 4.0 MHz, 2 serial ports, rudimentary graphics, software from Micropro. Kaypro Robie Early 84. The Kaypro Robie is introduced. This is the first non-portable machine, a black desktop. This has 2 2.6 Megabyte (not a typo) floppy drives. Motherboard is basically the same as a 4, with the 300 baud modem, rough graphics, etc. (late 84?) 1985 arrives. Kaypro upgrades most of the machines to the "Universal ROM", so a boot disk for one can be used in another. The 4'84 is renamed the 2X (sometimes known as 2X MTC). Old 2X, 2'84, 4'84 are all dropped. Kaypro New 2 The "New 2" is introduced. This is basically an old 2X motherboard, but with just one DS/DD floppy drive. It comes with just CP/M and Wordstar for software. (early 85?) Kaypro starts producing the II'83 again, with Perfect software as opposed to Micropro software. (early 85). * I question whether they used an /83 motherboard - with single parallel and serial ports and RJ-11 jack. Kaypro 4X The Kaypro 4X is announced. It's a Robie but in the standard portable case. I also have seen reference to the 12X, which was going to be a Kaypro 10 but with a Robie floppy drive. (I've never actually seen a 4X or a 12X. The store where I worked might have sold only one or two Robies, so it wasn't a big seller.) 1986 or so arrives. Kaypro 1 The Kaypro 1 (yes one) is introduced. It's equivalent to the old 2X, with 2 DS/DD floppies, 4.0 MHz Z-80A, 2 serial ports, etc. The floppies are vertical as opposed to horizontal. It comes with CP/M and Perfect Writer for software. At this point, Kaypro is producing just the 1, 2X MTC, 10 and Robie basically. This continued until they got out of the CP/M machines. There were also a few variations on some of these machines, such as the 4+88, which had a SWP (?) co-processor board with an 8088, 256K of memory (which could be a ramdisk under CP/M), and could run some MS/Dos software. ========================= John Lawson <jpl15(a)netcom.com> wrote: On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, Phil Clayton wrote: Ummmmm.... a different view of Recent History: snippage I had an NLS Digital DC Voltmeter from 1955, and I *think* the company was started in the year 1952... my NLS Docs are buried right now and it's too late to go digging. The scopes came much later in the company's history. Non Linear Systems made just that.. digital sub-systems and test equipment. And I might add, hugely succesful test equipment. Allison, you recall any of this? snippage I believe it was the son, (David??) Kay, who convinced the company to get into the computer market, as NLS was looking around for ways to shore up it's eroding core markets. * The son, David, certainly was heavily involved in later years and may well have been the 'trigger' for computers. snippage I sold Kaypros in the early 80's.. lots of them. The 'fit and finish' was fair to lousy, and it got worse as the company got in deeper and deeper over it's head. * Pretty typical for any company in that position, I'd say. The motherboard was right beneath the top cover, and one good ding wiped it out... airlines were hell on them. Then there was the brilliance of having the keyboard connector on the rear panel where, of course, it belonged. * There was about 1/2" clearance. That is a pretty good 'ding'. snippage And nicely-done system documentation for the time... I always liked the Kaypro books... not full of bafflegab like many companies'. [snipola] 10 This, IMHO, was the beginning of the end for the Kays. They made a deal with Lal Tandon to put Tandon HDs (made in Mother India) in the 10s... and we experienced a nearly %80 DOA/infant mortality on them. * I never saw a K-10 with a Tandon drive (perhaps they didn't last that long) and the tech manual only lists Microscience, Shugart, and Seagate. Kaypro, at that time, had production lines under big tents in the parking lots down in Solana Beach, trying to keep up with demand. If a customer walked in the lobby with a dead 10, they were given another, often with no questions asked... I sent dozens of folks down there and drove many units down (from Los Angeles) myself. It was a nightmare and we soon dropped the line. Thay had a promotion where, upon ordering, the customer could have his/her name engraved on the back beneath the handle... what actually happened was that the final inspection person took one of those vibrating carbide-tip engraver-tools and scrawled the name longhand, right thru the paint... It really impressed someone who had just dropped a Lot Of Money on one of these things.. :) As I wrote, I haven't time now to actually get out the docs and give you dates and pages, but my experience/recollections seem to be a little divergent... And I remember that NLS DVM... it had three digits and a manual range switch.. it was a pot-nulling design that used a bank of multi-pole stepping switches to balance the bridge... it was called (oddly enough) the Box-of-Snakes Meter... even though the inside of the case was lined with dense felt padding, you could still hear it across the room, and with every change in voltage, it re-nulled all over again. The readout was made of clear Lucite rectangles with a digit engraved on each one, 0-9. These stacks were then edge-lit by tiny #327 lamps driven from a bank on the stepper switches, so that the readout was wierdly three-dimensional looking. A clever design during the time when digital displays were usually a column of digits side-by-side, using neon lamps. Mine was made in '55, BTW. I had it in Jr. High. * In that same era, Electro Instruments in San Diego was going head to head with NLS in the same field. I have a big NLS catalog from the 60's, full of the wonderful stuff they made... when it's found I'll post some more info if appropriate. I *do* love the Kaypro II and the 10 I have... the II was the machine I learned CP/M and Wordstar on.. and the 10 was the machine I couldn't afford back then... 10 Whole Megabytes... who could possibly ever use all that? Cheers John ============================ Jim <DD950(a)prodigy.net> wrote: Here is an article on the disposition of some KayPro property in 1995: http://www.sddt.com/files/library/oldbriefs/00000069.html Former Kaypro Property Sells For $2.7 Million - Tue 24-Jan-1995 * This is more than they expected to get, but still represented only about 10 cents on the dollar (after attorney fees) to the claimants. I am enjoying reading and saving all the KayPro info for our Web page. I hope you fellows don't mind your posts being posted again on a Web site? I do need some of you proud KayPro owners to scan some of the books and send me the KayPro Logo for the page atleast. Please send all the photos of KayPro you can! Regards, Jim DD950(a)prodigy.net * finis!