Ithaca InterSystems

File:Ithaca DPS.jpg.]]

Ithaca InterSystems was founded in Ithaca, New York, in March 1977 and formally incorporated in April 1978.{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=October 16, 1982 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-electronics-firm-gets/129232550/ | title=Electronics firm gets $1.5 million computer order | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}} Steven Edelman, the company's principal founder, incorporated it with two of his friends.{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=January 23, 1980 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-mini-computers-new-k/129232438/ | title=Mini-computers: New kid on the block | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=26 | via=Newspapers.com}} For the first two years of its existence, the company was named Ithaca Audio—an homage to Edelman's original business of reselling Hi-Fi audio gear to his fellow peers at his alma mater of Cornell University in the early 1970s.{{cite journal | last=Fowler | first=Robert Z. | date=January 26, 1979 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-electronics-industry/129232416/ | title=Electronics industry will continue to grow | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=4 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite journal | last=Ahl | first=David H. | date=December 1979 | url=https://archive.org/details/CreativeComputingbetterScan197912/page/n51/ | title=Ithaca InterSystems, Inc. | journal=Creative Computing | volume=5 | issue=12 | pages=48–53 | via=the Internet Archive}}{{rp|48}} After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1976, he briefly worked as an engineer at NCR Corporation, working at the latter company's microcomputer research and development laboratory before quitting, citing disagreement with his managers.{{rp|48}}{{cite journal | last=Markoff | first=John | date=January 17, 1999 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/17/business/saying-goodbye-good-riddance-to-silicon-valley.html | title=Saying Goodbye, Good Riddance to Silicon Valley | journal=The New York Times | page=C1 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122124724/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/17/business/saying-goodbye-good-riddance-to-silicon-valley.html | archivedate=November 22, 2022}} Edelmen and two others founded InterSystems with $6,000 in startup capital; its initial headquarters was a small rented space in Sheldon Court, within the Collegetown neighborhood adjacent to Cornell University's main campus.{{cite journal | last=Leone | first=Matt | date=August 19, 1980 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-heights-school-eyed-b/129232457/ | title=Heights school eyed by firm | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}} In the summer of 1979, the company leased a 8,300-square-foot building off Hanshaw Road, quickly filling it with manufacturing equipment. By the end of 1979, InterSystems had 34 full-time employees on its payroll.

InterSystems' first complete computer system was the DPS-1, a Z80-based, S-100 bus microcomputer, released in 1979.{{cite journal | last=Stark | first=William | date=December 1979 | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_microcomputing_1979-12_36/page/n25/ | title=A Front Panel Computer for the S-100 Bus | journal=Kilobaud Microcomputing | publisher=1001001 | issue=36 | pages=26–30 | via=the Internet Archive}} The computer sold very well, the company soon earning big-name customers such as Bank of America, CBS, General Electric, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and NASA. Its success threatened to overload the company's sole manufacturing facility, and in mid-1980 the company began eyeing real estate elsewhere in the city before getting a grant from the local government to expand their presence on Hanshaw Road.{{cite journal | last=Schwartz | first=Joseph | date=October 15, 1980 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-dryden-town-services/129232480/ | title=Dryden town services to be cut and taxes to increase, Cotterill says | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=9 | via=Newspapers.com}} The year 1981 saw the company's workforce grow to 75 employees.{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=February 6, 1981 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-in-search-of-technici/129232531/ | title=In search of technicians, capital, space | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=14 | via=Newspapers.com}}

Struggling with cash flow in 1980, InterSystems was able to raise venture capital in multiple rounds, with Olivetti S.p.A. of Italy and Oak Management of Connecticut.{{cite journal | last=Borrell | first=Jerry | date=August 1989 | url=https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_8908_August_1989/page/n84/ | title=Verbatim | journal=MacWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume= | issue= | pages=81–97 | via=the Internet Archive}}{{rp|81}}{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=January 20, 1983 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-ithaca-electronics-fi/129232663/ | title=Ithaca electronics firm to get $1 million funding | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}} However, Edelman soon found himself fighting with management in these companies, who demanded an increasingly controlling stake in InterSystems. He left the company on amicable terms in early 1981, taking a sabbatical for the next three years before founding SuperMac Technology, a hardware vendor for Macintosh computers, in 1984.{{rp|81}}{{cite journal | date= 2 March 1987| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/02/business/vying-to-enhance-the-macintosh.html | title=Vying to Enhance the Macintosh | journal=The New York Times | page=D5 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524203447/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/02/business/vying-to-enhance-the-macintosh.html | archivedate=May 24, 2015}} {{ProQuest|426454538}}. Meanwhile, immediately following his leave, InterSystems began developing a larger minicomputer, eventually released as the DPS-8000 in September 1981. The DPS-8000 was based on Zilog's 16-bit Z8002 processor and used the Coherent Unix-like operating system from the Mark Williams Company.{{cite journal | date=September 28, 1981 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kj0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA27 | title=Ithaca Offers Pascal Multiuser System | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=CW Communications | volume=3 | issue=19 | page=27 | via=Newspapers.com}} In June 1982, InterSystems laid off 20 of their 90 employees, or 22 percent of the total workforce, management citing effects of the early 1980s recession.{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=June 24, 1982 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-one-electronics-firm/129232569/ | title=One electronics firm rehiring as another lays off 20 workers | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}}

The year 1983 started off promising for InterSystems, the company receiving $1 million in their latest round of venture capital from Olivetti and Oak Management in February 1983. The company's management and engineering team also moved from Hanshaw Road to the fourth and fifth floor of 200 East Buffalo Street; the Hanshaw Road building was kept around as a manufacturing facility.{{cite journal | last=Mundell | first=Helen | date=April 28, 1983 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-200-east-buffalo-st/129232689/ | title=200 East Buffalo St. | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=8 | via=Newspapers.com}} The company had recently released the Graphos graphical terminal in late 1982, which was a commercial success for the company.{{cite journal | date=August 23, 1983 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-intersystems-introduc/129232717/ | title=InterSystems introduces new computer system | journal=The Ithaca Journal | page=24 | via=Newspapers.com}} In August 1983, InterSystems introduced the Encore workstation, intended for scientific research, industrial process control, and business accounting.

As with many other companies manufacturing computers based on the S-100 bus, it soon found itself struggling to compete against the rising domination of the IBM Personal Computer and its many clones in the mid-1980s.{{rp|81}}{{cite journal | last=Dvorak | first=John C. | date=August 1997 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A19604301/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=What ever happened to... Pre-PC? | journal=Computer Shopper | publisher=SX2 Media Labs | volume=17 | issue=8 | page=584 | via=Gale}} By 1986, InterSystems had folded. Reflecting on the end of his first company, Edelman said in 1989: "It's sad. Recently the last S-100 company, Cromemco, took down the sign in front of its building. It's the passing of an era. IMSAI, Vector Graphic, Godbout, MITS—all gone now."{{rp|81}}

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• [https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=574 Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1] at Old-Computers.com
• [https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/d_ithaca.html Ithaca Audio, Ithaca InterSystems history] by Herbert R. Johnson at RetroTechnology.com

Category:1978 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1986 disestablishments in New York (state)

Category:American companies established in 1978

Category:American companies disestablished in 1986

Category:Computer companies established in 1978

Category:Computer companies disestablished in 1986

Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States

Category:Defunct computer companies based in New York (state)

Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state)

Category:Defunct computer hardware companies

Category:Defunct computer systems companies

Category:Ithaca, New York

Category:S-100 machines