Future Domain

{{Infobox company

| name=Future Domain Corporation

| former_name=Pacific Management & Engineering Company

| logo=Future Domain logo.svg

| num_employees=97 (1995, peak)

| founded={{start date|1982}} in Tustin, California, United States

| hq_location=Irvine, California, United States

| defunct={{end date and age|1995|07}}

| fate=Acquired by Adaptec

| industry=Computer

| type=Private

| founder=Jack A. Allweiss

}}

Future Domain Corporation was a privately held American computer hardware company active from 1982 to 1995 and based in Orange County, California. The company was among the first to produce Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) device controller expansion cards, later controller ICs. It was acquired by Adaptec in 1995 for US$25 million.

History

=Foundation (1982–1990)=

Future Domain was founded in 1982 as the Pacific Management & Engineering Company (PM&E) in Tustin, California by Jack A. Allweiss.{{cite news | author= | date=February 20, 1992 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/272559693/ | title=Product line sold | work=Orange County Register | page=D3 | via=ProQuest}} Before founding Future Domain, Allweiss previously worked for the Burroughs Corporation, designing some of the company's Large Systems mainframes.{{cite magazine | date=April 1981 | url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_datamation_57114897/page/n193/ | title=Jack A. Allweiss | magazine=Datamation | publisher=Reed Business Information | volume=27 | issue=4 | page=192 | via=the Internet Archive}} PM&E spent the first four years of its existence as a one-man design consultancy firm to large computer hardware companies, before pivoting to producing their own hardware in the mid-1980s.{{cite book | date=1988 | title=IEEE Membership Directory | publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | page=294 | via=Google Books}}{{cite magazine | author= | date=April 21, 1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I6yzAAAAIAAJ | title=SCSI Controller Comes Ready to Run | magazine=Electronics | publisher=McGraw-Hill | volume=59 | page=76 | via=Google Books}}

The company's first product, marketed under its new name Future Domain, was the TMC-820, an inexpensive, 8-bit SCSI host adapter for the IBM Personal Computer. Introduced in early 1986, the TMC-820 was marketed on the merit of its ease of use, omitting any jumpers on board, configuration instead being done in firmware as well as drivers on floppy disk. Future Domain was one of the first SCSI host adapter manufacturers on the market, at a time when Adaptec and NCR had dominated the field as early pioneers.{{cite book | last=Pilgrim | first=Aubrey | date=1995 | url=https://archive.org/details/upgradeorrepairy00pilg_1/page/196/ | title=Upgrade or Repair Your PC | publisher=McGraw-Hill | page=196 | isbn=9780070501140 | via=Google Books}} The built-in firmware supported Seagate and Rodime's SCSI hard disk drives introduced in the same year, as well as graphical laser printers (being one of the first plug-and-play SCSI host adapters with native support for printers).{{cite magazine | last=Warren | first=Carl | date=February 1987 | url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_MiniMicroS_70067601/page/49/ | title=SCSI Extends Beyond Data Storage Devices | magazine=Mini-Micro Systems | publisher=Cahners Publishing | volume=XX | issue=2 | pages=49–56 | via=the Internet Archive}}{{rp|55}} It also supported the first CD-ROM drives on the market at the time. The fastest data transfer rate the TMC-820 supported, in terms of bandwidth, was 32 MHz.{{rp|55}} Future Domain followed this up with the TMC-870 in late 1986, which added support for 360-KB and 1.2-MB 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, allowing users to consolidate their expansion cards by negating the need for a separate floppy controller.{{cite magazine | author= | date=November 1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_QaAQAAMAAJ | title=Future Domain TMC-870 | magazine=Personal Computing | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=10 | issue=11 | page=180 | via=Google Books}}

Succeeding host adapters by Future Domain spanned both 8-bit and 16-bit ISA cards, as well as 16-bit MCA cards under the MSC line.{{cite book | last=Minasi | first=Mark | date=1992 | url=https://archive.org/details/windowsproblemso0000mina/page/132/ | title=The Windows Problem Solver | publisher=Sybex | page=133 | isbn=0782111920 | via=Google Books}}{{cite journal | last=Martin | first=S. Louis | date=June 15, 1988 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A6835943/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Peripheral Controller ICs Gain Speed and Flexibility | journal=Computer Design | publisher=PennWell Publishing | volume=27 | issue=12 | page=41 et seq | via=Gale}} Unlike the ISA-based cards, MSC-prefixed host adapters from Future Domain were bus-mastered.{{cite journal | last=Phillips | first=Barry W. | date=July 28, 1988 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A6643890/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Bevy of SCSI Adapters Bolster PC Systems | journal=Electronic Design | publisher= Endeavor Business Media | volume=36 | issue=17 | page=67 et seq | via=Gale}}

By 1988, Future Domain was offering its own custom-designed LSI chips for the PC that were host adapters in and of themselves. The company supplied their chips to third-party peripheral makers, motherboard manufacturers and systems builders. Setting Future Domain apart from their competition was their emphasis on working with developers of device drivers and operating systems to ensure both software and hardware compatibility with their chips. According to Allweiss, their competitors tended towards a hands-off approach, leaving vendors to write their own drivers and software compatible with their chips, despite the relative complexity of SCSI imposing a steep learning curve (especially in the late 1980s when the technology was still fresh). In 1990, the company introduced the first single-chip SCSI-2 host adapter chip, compatible with both MCA and ISA buses.{{cite magazine | last=Brownstein | first=Mark | date=September 10, 1990 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT33 | title=Future Domain Ships Trio of Single-Chip SCSI-II Adapters | magazine=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=12 | issue=37 | page=34 | via=Google Books}}

=Growth and acquisition (1990–1995)=

File:Future Domain TMC-850IBM 8-bit ISA SCSI controller.jpg computer]]

Future Domain moved from Tustin to Irvine, California, sometime around 1990. That year, Future Domain was ranked the 187th fastest-grown private company according to an Inc. survey.{{cite news | author= | date=March 5, 1991 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/272493906/ | title=Advocacy group targets Pacific Bell | newspaper=Orange County Register | page=D2 | via=ProQuest}} Around 40 percent of the company's clientele were overseas; this had the side-effect of cushioning the company amid the early 1990s recession.{{cite news | last=McQueeny | first=Tom | date=January 10, 1993 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-10-fi-1700-story.html | title=What business leaders forsee for Orange County, the nation | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | page=1 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240217041732/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-10-fi-1700-story.html | archivedate=February 17, 2024}} The company had a projected revenue of $15 million in 1992 and shipped 1.5 million SCSI host adapters by 1993.{{cite magazine | last=Schroeder | first=Erica | date=April 26, 1993 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A13765111/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Future Domain Kits Simplify SCSI Setup | magazine=PC Week | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=10 | issue=16 | page=28 | via=Gale}} In early 1992, the company acquired Western Digital's SCSI host adapter patents, technologies, and trademarks for an undisclosed sum. As well, they inherited Western Digital's customer base and remaining inventory of SCSI products.

In 1993, Future Domain entered a relationship with IBM to be their exclusive supplier of SCSI host adpater cards across their multimedia systems; they saw extensive use in IBM's PS/2, PS/1, and PS/ValuePoint lines.{{cite journal | date=June 3, 1993 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A14622150/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Future Domain forced to change SCSIworks! name | journal=CD-ROM News Extra | publisher=Information Today | volume=1 | issue=3 | page=4 | via=Gale}} By the mid-1990s, Future Domain's SCSI host adapter chips were nearly ubiquitous among vendors of multimedia PCs and CD-ROM kits. Many vendors opted to package their wares with Future Domain's TMC-840 card, among their most inexpensive offerings but also antiquated and slow by the standards of the mid-1990s, owing to its 8-bit data path.{{cite book | last=Minasi | first=Mark | date=1994 | url=https://archive.org/details/completepcupgra100mina/page/404/ | title=The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide | publisher=Sybex | pages=404–405 | via=the Interne Archive | isbn=9780782114980}} In 1993, Future Domain began supplying their each of their cards with the PowerSCSI! driver utility (also available for free on their BBS).{{cite magazine | last=Karney | first=James | date=June 29, 1993 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCfzPMoPJWgC&pg=PA50 | title=Future Domain PowerSCSI Connects Peripherals | magazine=PC Magazine | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=12 | issue=12 | page=50 | via=Google Books}}{{cite magazine | last=Smith | first=Jan | date=August 8, 1993 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A14032617/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Finally—Future Domain makes SCSI simple | magazine=Computer Shopper | publisher=SX2 Media Labs | volume=13 | issue=8 | page=722 | via=Gale}} It was lauded for its ease of use, with Jan Smith of Computer Shopper arguing that it "makes SCSI what the standard has always promised to be—a plug-and-play connection for a variety of PC peripherals".

In 1994, Future Domain led a consortium of companies including Western Digital, Seagate, and Sony, to develop ATA Software Programming Interface (ATASPI; not to be confused with ATAPI), a proposed API specification for Windows that aimed to extend Windows' file system support for EIDE drives to include parallel tape drives.{{cite magazine | last=DiCarlo | first=Lisa | date=November 21, 1994 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A16270821/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Proposed IDE specification aims to simplify backup | magazine=PC Week | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=11 | issue=46 | page=41 et seq | via=Gale}} The proposal fizzled after several years.{{cite web | date=n.d. | url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/ataspi | title=Definition of ATASPI | work=PC Magazine | publisher=Ziff-Davis | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117002942/https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/ataspi | archivedate=January 17, 2021}}

In July 1995, by which point the company had 77 permanent workers and 20 freelancers, Future Domain was acquired by its chief rival Adaptec for $25 million.{{cite news | last=Williams | first=Elisa | date=July 14, 1995 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/272814070/ | title=Adaptec acquires Irvine-based Future Domain for $25 million | work=Orange County Register | page=C2 | via=ProQuest}}