Columbia Data Products

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Columbia Data Products

Columbia Data Products (CDP) introduced the MPC 1600 "Multi Personal Computer" in June 1982. It was an exact functional copy of the IBM PC

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform ....
model 5150 except for the BIOS

BIOS

In computing, the Basic Input/Output System , also known as the System BIOS, is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface for IBM PC Compatible computers....
which was clean roomed

Clean room design

Clean room design is the method of copying a design by reverse engineering and then recreating it without infringing any of the copyrights and trade secrets associated with the original design....
. IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
had published the bus

Industry Standard Architecture

Industry Standard Architecture was a computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers....
and BIOS specifications, wrongly assuming that this would be enough to encourage the add-on market and prevent unlicensed copying of the design.

As the first IBM PC clone, the MPC was actually superior to the IBM original.

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Columbia Data Products (CDP) introduced the MPC 1600 "Multi Personal Computer" in June 1982. It was an exact functional copy of the IBM PC

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform ....
model 5150 except for the BIOS

BIOS

In computing, the Basic Input/Output System , also known as the System BIOS, is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface for IBM PC Compatible computers....
which was clean roomed

Clean room design

IBM

Industry Standard Architecture

**MPC specifications**.
Marketed	June 1982
Price	US$2.995,00
CPU 8088	4.77 MHz 16 bit registers
RAM	128 KiB, 1 MiB max
Video	16 colors 320 × 200 CGA
Audio	Simple tones
OS	MS-DOS MS-DOS MS-DOS is an operating system commercialized by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems and was the main operating system for personal computers during the 1980s.... , CP/M-86 CP/M-86 CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The commands are those of CP/M-80.... , MP/M-86 MP/M MP/M was the multi-user version of the CP/M operating system, created by Digital Research developer Tom Rolander in 1979. It allowed multiple users to connect to a single computer, each using a separate computer terminal.... , OASIS, Xenix Xenix Xenix is a version of the Unix operating system, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually began distributing it as SCO UNIX....
Interface	2 × RS232, parallel, monitor, keyboard
Storage	5.25" FDD

As the first IBM PC clone, the MPC was actually superior to the IBM original. It came with 128 KiB

Kibibyte

A kibibyte is a unit of information or computer storage, established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 2000. Its symbol is KiB....
RAM

Ram

Ram, ram, or RAM as a non-acronymic wordAs a non-acronymic word Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:...
standard, compared to the IBM's 64 KiB maximum. The MPC had eight PC expansion slots, with one filled by its video card. Its floppy disk

Floppy disk

A floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangle plastic shell....
drive interface was built into the motherboard. The IBM PC, in contrast, had only five expansion slots, with the video card and floppy disk controller taking two of them. The MPC also included two floppy disk drives, one parallel and two serial ports, which were all optional on the original IBM PC. The MPC was followed up with a portable PC, the 32 pound (15 kg) "luggable" Columbia VP in 1983.

The success of the MPC and its successors built CDP revenue from US$9.4 million in 1982 to US$56 million in 1983, with an IPO

Initial public offering

Initial public offering , also referred to simply as a "public offering" or "flotation," is when a company issues common stock or Share to the public for the first time....
at US$11 in January, 1983. In February 1984 IBM announced the introduction of their first portable PC. By August 1984 the CDP sales were faltering and CDP announced layoffs of 114 employees at its Maryland headquarters and 189 employees at a second factory in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
. By 1985 their stock had dropped to US$0.50 and was delisted.

In 1987 CDP shifted emphasis from hardware to software. They developed and licensed Small Computer System Interface (SCSI

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface, or SCSI , is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices....
) software to Western Digital

Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation is a manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, and has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company....
(WD), the leading supplier of hard drive controllers at the time. In 1991 WD sold their SCSI business to Future Domain, where it languished.

Columbia Data Products was founded in 1976 in Columbia, Maryland

Columbia, Maryland

Columbia is a new town that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore and, to a lesser degree, Washington, DC....
. It changed ownership, was taken private in 1986, and continues to operate under that name. CDP is now headquartered in Altamonte Springs, Florida

Altamonte Springs, Florida

Altamonte Springs is a city in Orange County, Florida and Seminole County, Florida counties in the U.S. state of Florida. Located primarily in Seminole County, the city is a northern suburb of the Orlando, Florida–Kissimmee, Florida, Florida Greater Orlando, which the United States Census Bureau estimated had a population of 2,032,496 i...
. The company currently specializes in data security

Data security

Data security is the means of ensuring that data is kept safe from Data corruption and that access to it is suitably controlled. Thus data security helps to ensure Data privacy....
. No mention of the MPC can be found on the company's history page.

External links

website
from Old-computers.com
of CDP luggable computer
Portable PC – picture and specifications
(JPEG
JPEG

In computing, JPEG is a commonly used method of for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality....
's) of CDP advertising and November 1983 brochure with price comparisons to IBM and Compaq portable
Compaq Portable

The Compaq Portable was the first product in the Compaq portable series to be commercially available under the Compaq brand . It was the first "100%" IBM PC compatible personal computer not manufactured by IBM, and also the first IBM PC compatible portable computer....
of VP Portable advertising from 1984