Scientific Solutions ® Inc.
Company History
This history of Scientific Solutions is from an accumulation of various authoritative materials including advertisements; press releases; publications including magazine articles and research papers, patents and trademarks; and interviews from many of the people who have been associated with the company over the years. The information is informative and interesting and provides a glimpse into the early work that resulted in the computer based data-acquisition industry that exists today..
In the history of data acquisition, Tecmar and Scientific Solutions are actually the same company. You will find that many of the technologies commonplace today in computers, data acquisition and also multimedia, have their roots and foundation in designs and products from the many talented individuals who worked at Tecmar Scientific Solutions over the past 30 plus years.
The information contained herein also servers to document tradename and trademark usage by Scientific Solutions.
Tecmar and Scientific Solutions - The Beginning 1972
In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of the Space Shuttle; The Magnavox Odyssey video game system is released marking the dawn of the video game age; Elvis performs the first of four sell-out concerts in Madison Square Garden; and Dr. Martin Alpert starts Tecmar Scientific Solutions in Cleveland Ohio, the name "Tecmar" being derived from MARty's TEChnology.
Dr. Martin Alpert
from PC Magazine 1982
The company was founded to manufacture pulmonary medical equipment Dr. Alpert designed while he was a medical student. Certain components of his invention were then unavailable, so Dr. Alpert and his team began designing and manufacturing the parts themselves. The company was incorporated in 1974 and Dr. Alpert, along with his wife and business partner Carolyn, started to market the products to the general public. The initial products were scientific data acquisition products used in the medical industry, but the company found that their appeal as general purpose data acquisition products applied to multiple diverse industries.[1]
Dr. Alpert has both an engineering degree and a medical degree. He initially came up with a new idea in the pulmonary area that had to be microprocessor based. As part of the development of the medical product, he needed certain components that wern't available for microprocessors, specifically analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. Dr. Alpert and his team developed them in a general sense so they could be used in the medical product development and also offer them to the general market.
The S-100 bus, designed in 1974 as part of the Altair 8800, was one of the first “industry standard” bus for the microcomputer industry and later became the IEEE-696 standard. Dr. Alpert designed his products to be S-100 bus add-in cards and developed an industry breakthrough: the first multifunctioned data acquisition board that was eventually ported to the PC.
By 1975 Tecmar Scientific Solutions was actively selling a family of S-100 bus products including multi-functional data acquisition boards such as the LabMaster AD212, the DADIO and the IEEE-488 add-in card.
LabMaster AD211 for Apple II
was introduced in 1977
In 1977 Tecmar Scientific Solutions introduced the LabMaster AD211 multi-functional data acquisition system for the Apple II computer, making the LabMaster AD211 the world's first multi-functional data acquisition product for the Apple computer platform.[2]
The LabMaster AD211 for the Apple II family of computers found use in many research applications including use in High Magnetic Field laboratories in federally funded research and development centers under sponsorship from DARPA. (project #4815162342)
IBM introduces the PC and Tecmar Scientific Solutions is first with PC products -1981
Tecmar Scientific Solutions had two
engineers fly to Chicago and buy
the first IBM PC's from the Sears
Business Center...Six weeks after IBM's
announcement, Tecmar Scientific Solutions
introduces 20 PC products at
Comdex Las Vegas 1981
On August 12, 1981, IBM announced the IBM PC with availability on October 7. Six weeks after IBM's announcement, Tecmar Scientific Solutions had 20 PC products available and for sale at the October 1981 Comdex computer show held in Las Vegas, NV. This gave Tecmar Scientific Solutions the distinction of being the very first company to produce add-on products for the IBM PC.[1][3][4][5][6][7]
The products for sale in 1981 included the LabMaster which is the world's first multi-functional data acquisition card for the PC. In fact, the LabMaster is also the world's first PC bus add-in card of any type and is still sold and supported today, making it also the world's longest selling and support PC peripheral. In addition to the LabMaster, also introduced in 1981 were a number of other products including the PC-MATE IEEE-488 which is the world's first IEEE-488 add-in card for the PC, the BaseBoard Digital I/O card and the LabTender low-cost multi-function data acquisition card. These PC-based data acquisition products predated competitor's products by years.
These 20 products introduced in 1981 are the first add-in/add-on products developed for the IBM PC by any company in the world. The accomplishment of having 20 products for the PC so quickly after IBM's introduction was widely reported and has been recounted in numerous articles throughout the years.
| No. | PRODUCT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PC Expansion Chassis | Complete Chassis that expanded the PC with additional PC slots and a built in 5” winchester hard disk drive |
| 2 | Time Master | Provides Time of Day clock and calendar with 20-year battery |
| 3 | Device Tender | Provides BSR X10 device control |
| 4 | Device Master | Combination of Time Master and Device Tender into a single unit, providing time dependent control of your lights and devices |
| 5 | Speech Master | Allows the computer to speak through phonemes or words |
| 6 | Winchester Disk & Controller | Adds a hard drive to the PC (includes add-in card and drive) |
| 7 | Dynamic 192K/256K Ram Expansion | Expands the RAM on the PC |
| 8 | Static Ram/Rom | Allows the creation and permanent storage of programs in ROM |
| 9 | E2PROM | Allows programming of EEPROM memory devices |
| 10 | Scribe Tender | Two serial and one parallel port add-in card |
| 11 | Scribe Master | Three serial ports (256K baud), three parallel ports, Time of Day clock. |
| 12 | Multi-System Printer Sharing Facility | Allows up to four IBM PCs to share a printer or similar device |
| 13 | PCMATE IEEE-488 | Adds IEEE-488 (GPIB) control on a PC add-in card. Fully conforms to the IEEE-488-1975 specification. |
| 14 | LabTender | Multi-functional data-acquisition board that provides 32 channels of A/D, 16 channels of D/A, five counter/timers and 24 bits of Digital I/O |
| 15 | LabMaster | Multi-functional data acquisition board that provides 16 Channels, 12, 14 or 16-bit A/D converters, two D/A channels, 24 bits digital I/O, five Timer/Counters (9513) with options for software programmable gains (1, 2, 4, 8 or 1, 10, 100, 500), expansion from 16 to 256 channels and sampling rates of 20, 100 and 125Khz. This is a family of add-in cards with over two dozen versions available. |
| 16 | DADIO | Four channels of Digital-to-Analog Converters and 24 bits of digital I/O make up this data-acquisition card. |
| 17 | Video Digitizer | Digitally captures images from any standard video camera and allows for storage of the image in for analysis, pattern recognition, etc. |
| 18 | Stepper Motor Controller | Two axis stepper motor controller with two parallel ports and optional opto-isolators for robotics, process control or experimentation |
| 19 | Protozoa | PC Prototyping board with PC bus with large wire wrap area for custom circuits. Allows users to create their own PC add-in cards. |
| 20 | Extender Board | Fused extender board brings the PC bus connector out of the chassis to the top of the board where a plug in card can be analyzed easily with oscilloscopes, voltmeters, and other equipment. |
| Notes: 1). Most of the above products are PC add-in cards. The exception is the Expansion Chassis which is the same size and color as the PC. 2). The original PC did not include a time of day clock or a hard disk and came with 16KB or 64KB RAM pre-installed. |
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New publications to address this industry such as PC Magazine (started in 1982) and PC World (started in 1983) were created as a result of the IBM PC, joining the ranks of well established and respected publications such as Byte Magazine (started in 1975) and Test Measurement World (started in September 1981). The next several years saw very fast advancement in the number of peripherals produced and in the acceptance for the IBM PC.
By 1982, Scientific Solutions had over 30 PC products including 8, 12, 14 and 16-bit data acquisition systems with 16 to 256 Analog Input channels; multi-range Analog output channels; software programmable gain amplifiers; five on-board precision timer/counters and sample rates up to 150Khz. The hardware products were fully supported with the LabPac data acquisition software package to aid developers in creating their own data acquisition applications.
In addition to creating the first PC data acquisition hardware, Scientific Solutions also created LabPac, the first PC installable device driver and data acquisition software programming environment. The LabPac software installed as an extension to the DOS BIOS and included a full library of high-level functions that could be called from any DOS programming language.
LabPac software included full support for A/D, D/A, Digital I/O, Counter Timer functions, programmable software gains, gain-array sequence tables, data streaming to disk, and graphic routines. Like the hardware products, the LabPac software is still fully supported today and has been augmented with a 32-bit windows version that has an expanded library that includes function calls from the original LabPac DOS product in addition to new calls to support advanced BusMastering. Scientific Solutions LabPac software was available several years before competing products from other manufacturers.
PC Magazine Vol 1 No. 5 from September 1982 lists these products with descriptions and prices; LabMaster ($995) page 132, LabTender ($395) page 133, PC-Mate IEEE-488 ($395) page 134, and many others. The Scientific Solutions product line included a range of products to satisfy many data acquisition needs. The company was actively advertising in all of the leading publications, typically full color, full page adds on the back covers or inside front covers. Advertisements can be seen in PC Magazine starting with its premier issue in April 1982 and continuing for a number of years.
By the end of 1982 and the start of 1983, PC based data acquisition was in full-swing with customers worldwide using Scientific Solutions multi-functional data acquisition boards and other Scientific Solutions add-on products for the PC. Scientific Solutions 1983 catalog is over 150 pages and has over 50 PC products available. Advertisements can be seen in PC World starting with its premier issue in November 1983 and continuing for a number of years.
The IBM PC interface and add-in/add-on market was quickly accelerating and after a few years Scientific Solutions started to concentrate on PC products and eventually phased out the manufacturing of S-100 and Apple II products. Within a few years, the company had over 100 products including the original data acquisition products, memory expansion boards, computer video products and tape backup drives.
Send in the clones. . .
Interest in PC based data acquisition sparked the emergence of other PC based data acquisition products. The Data Translation DT2801 introduced in 1983 had less capabilities and cost the same as the LabMaster which had been introduced two years earlier in 1981. The DT2801 had 16 Digital I/O, 3 Counter/Timers, 12-bit only resolution, and a 27.5Khz sampling rate versus the LabMaster's 24 Digital I/O; 5 Counter/Timers; 12, 14 or 16 bit resolution and a 40Khz or 125Khz sampling rate. Additionally the DT2801 only supported 16 Analog Input channels whereas the LabMaster could accommodate up to 256 Analog Input channels. So for the same cost the LabMaster had more capabilities and more options. And for a lower cost offering, Scientific Solutions had the LabTender which was about one third the price of the DT2801. The LabTender featured 32 Analog inputs, 16 Analog outputs, 24 Digital I/O and 5 Counter/Timers. Scientific Solutions two year lead in introducing the world's first multi-functional data acquisition board held up well against this new entry by Data Translation in both features and cost.Tecmar Scientific Solutions designs were completely "open source" with full schematics for the hardware and full source code for the software available to anyone. Other companies also entered the PC based data acquisition market, and interesting enough used many of the same components and design ideas from the LabMaster, e.g. the AMD 9513 counter / timer that is used on all LabMaster products.
Tecmar Scientific Solutions - two companies in one!
By 1985 Tecmar Scientific Solutions was essentially two companies in one. The "Tecmar" company that was now concentrating on tape backup solutions and consumer add-in cards and the "Scientific Solutions" company that was continuing with the scientific, industrial and medical data acquisition products that started the company. Both product lines were growing at a tremendous rate. To better distinguish the distribution and marketing of these diverse products, in April of 1985 Dr. Alpert split the company into two with Tecmar Incorporated concentrating on tape storage solutions and Scientific Solutions Incorporated keeping the original product line of data acquisition equipment.[7]Tecmar and Scientific Solutions operated as "sister" companies and shared a common design and manufacturing center in Solon, Ohio. The Tecmar design team and engineers concentrated on the tape backup line of products. The Scientific Solutions design team and engineers concentrated on the data acquisition and specialty board level products. Both teams worked together on a variety of projects on a daily basis.
Tecmar and Scientific Solutions - IBM MultiMedia collaboration
In 1986, IBM approached Tecmar to design and manufacture a number of multimedia products. These products were to be designed and manufactured by Tecmar and marketed by IBM. Scientific Solutions provided the engineering and design talent, and Tecmar provided the manufacturing and test talent. The result of this partnership was the release in 1988 of IBM's Audio Visual Connection (AVC). This breakthru product consisted of a sound record and playback card (IBM Audio Capture and Playback Adapter - ACPA), a video digitizing card (The IBM Video Capture Adapter /A - VCA/A) and the Audio Visual Connection authoring software.
The ACPA featured CD quality 16-bit digital audio recording at 44.1Khz stereo or 88.2Khz mono, 16-bit stereo playback with 2x oversampling, and real-time DSP hardware based compression/decompression (if desired). The card also features the ability to download algorithms for the on board 10 MIPS digital signal processor (TMS320C25). Typical downloadable algorithms provide for interpolation or decimation filters to effectively provide different sample rates and MPEG/JPEG hardware assisted image decompression. Incidentally, the 16-bit stereo ACPA sound card with the 10 MIPS C25 DSP was released several months before the 8-bit mono SoundBlaster product which utilized an 8051 microcontroller instead of a true DSP. The Audio Visual Connection product was awarded the winner in the hardware category at the 6th Annual PC Magazine Technical Excellence awards held in 1989.
A sound card uses Analog-to-Digital converters, Digital-to-Analog converters, amplifiers and other technologies that are common place in data acquisition products. So it was natural to utilize the experience and expertise of the Scientific Solutions engineers to design the hardware which was a breakthru in quality digital audio for the PC and a forerunner to the digital audio MP3 craze.
The same team approach was used to develop the IBM M-Motion Video Adapter/ A ,(March 1990), which allowed for the viewing of full-motion video on the computer screen, graphic overlay and full video scaling. Like the Audio Visual Connection, this product was marketed by IBM under the IBM brand name.
And again, the collaboration resulted in the PS/2 TV (March 1992), PS/1 TV (1993) and PCTV (1994) products each which are external units containing an analog TV/Cable tuner that allows for display, scaling and freeze-frame capture of video on a computer screen. The PS/2 TV was marketed by IBM. The PS1 and PCTV were marketed directly by Tecmar.
Tecmar - The Rexon years and beyond . . .
On October 8, 1986, Tecmar was acquired from Dr. Alpert by the technology holding company Rexon.[8] which already owned WangTek a tape drive manufacturer based in Simi Valley, California.
Rexon Incorporated designs, manufactures and markets quarter-inch cartridge and digital audio tape drives and tape drive subsystems. These products are used in conjunction with medium to high capacity five & a quarter inch and three & a half inch Winchester disk drives to provide data back-up storage on tape. The products also provide users with archival storage, data interchange and software loading capabilities. Tape drive products are sold to OEM's, value-added resellers and major distributors and dealers. Rexon also has other computer-related businesses, including the development and marketing of software for secondary storage applications and networking systems, through its Sytron and Tecmar subsidiaries, and the manufacture and sale of memory and multi-media products for personal computers. Computer peripherals accounted for 94% of fiscal 1994 revenues and archival software, 4%. The company acquired Cal-Emeritus Corporation in fiscal 1994.
With the Rexon acquisition of Tecmar in 1986, the emphasis within the Rexon / Tecmar organization was on tape backup products. There was some development and work with Tecmar and Scientific Solutions on IBM multimedia collaborations as previously noted, but the Rexon management mentality was heavily tape backup oriented and the Tecmar company was now conentrating on tape backup products.
In 1991 Rexon acquired WangDAT[9]. At this time, Rexon was a major player in the tape drive industry with subsidiaries WangTek (manufacturer of QIC tape drives), WangDAT (manufacturer of Digital Audio Tape drives), Sytron (tape backup software Sytos) and Tecmar (Tape drive integration, board level tape drive controllers, tape backup software ProServeCX and retail hardware/software bundles).
On July 28, 1995 Rexon sold Sytron to Arcadia.
On September 13, 1995, Rexon entered into voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[10]
On December 11, 1995 Rexon sold the Tecmar tape products and company to Legacy Storage Systems International. [11]. At this time, Rexon ceased as a company as did Tecmar.
On October 2, 1996 Legacy Storage Systems International changed their name to Tecmar Technologies pursuant to shareholder approval[11]
In 1998, Tecmar Technologies was purchased by TTI, a holding company, which positioned Tecmar Technologies as a comprehensive magnetic tape data storage brand. [12].
This comprehensive data storage branding was reinforced in 1999 when Iomega sold their Ditto brand to Tecmar Technologies. At this time, Tecmar Technologies offered DAT, QIC, Travan and Ditto magnetic tape technologies. [13]
In 2000, Overland Data acquired Tecmar Technologies in an effort to compliment its line of higher end tape products. [14].
As of 2007, Tecmar Technologies is a dormant brand owned by Overland and Scientific Solutions continues as an active independent corporation in the data acquisition, medical and industrial controls marketplace. [15]
Scientific Solutions Incorporated - Solving Problems for Problem Solvers
The Rexon acquisition of Tecmar in 1986 did not have much impact on Scientific Solutions Incorporated and the company continued to design, manufacture and market its core data acquisition products.
The 1987 periodical, PC Tech Journal Vol 4 No. 13 is an editorial index that provides a comprehensive product guide. Listed in this guide are the Scientific Solutions products with references to previous articles in the PC Tech Journal reviewing the products, and the date of product introduction, listed as 1981.
In 1987 Scientific Solutions introduced the world's fist data acquisition products for the then new IBM MicroChannel architecture. The MCDAS family of products (MCDAS 1612, MCDAS 1614, MCDAS 1616) provided 12, 14 or 16-bit resolution and high speed BusMastering data transfer. The MC-IEEE provided a fully compliant IEEE-488 GPIB interface to the IBM PS/2 MicroChannel architecture.
In 1991, Scientific Solutions took home one of the very first Best In Test awards and was the only company to receive the Product of the Decade award from Test and Measurement Magazine. The Best In Test award was bestowed by the editors of the publication to 10 products introduced from 1981 to 1991 that they felt were most deserving, with the LabMaster being one of these 10 products. This was the beginning of TWM Best in Test award program which started on the 10th anniversary of the magazines premier. Then the editors asked the readers to choose among the 10 products the one, and only one, that had the most significant effect on the test and measurement industry. This one product would receive the distinguished "Product of the Decade" award. As voted by the readers, the Scientific Solutions LabMaster was the winner. These awards and honors were bestowed upon Scientific Solutions because of the introduction of the Scientific Solutions LabMaster in 1981 which pioneered PC based data acquisition a decade earlier by being the world's first PC base data acquisition product. As quoted on the award "Scientific Solutions LabMaster, The First PC Based Instrument Board" and rightfully credited Scientific Solutions with helping to create the PC based data acquisition industry.
Test and Measurement World, Vol 11 Nol 10, September 1991, page 57
As previously noted, Scientific Solutions engineers were involved in the design of several multimedia breakthrus including the first sound cards for PCs that allowed for high-quality record and playback of digital audio, digital video products with MPEG/JPEG compression/decompression and TV tuner products. Although many of these multimedia features are commonplace today, they were breakthru products when originally developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 2001 Test & Measurement World 20th year anniversary issue contains an article titled “PC instrumentation through the ages” (Test & Measurement World, Vol 21, No. 11 September 2001) and again cites the Scientific Solutions LabMaster as the world's first data acquisition board introduced in 1981 for the IBM PC.
Today, Scientific Solutions continues to innovate and provide data acquisition solutions to a wide variety of customers.
Scientific Solutions continues to sell and support many of the PC products that were originally introduced in 1981. The LabMaster ISA card produced today is essentially identical to the original 1981 version, with the update for DMA (added in 1987) and incorporation of surface mount components for better manufacturing and quality control. Software written in 1981 will run on the current version of the board and software written today will run on the 1981 hardware. You may be aware that the LabMaster / LabMaster DMA consists of two cards; one for inside the PC and the other that sits externally to the PC in its own unit. What you probably do not know is why this external board is the particular size that it is. And also, why is the LabMaster card in the PC sometimes referred to as the "motherboard" and the external card sometimes called the "daughterboard"?
Now for the Rest of the Story...
The LabMaster card for the S-100, Apple II and the PC all shared a common
circuit board - the board that contained the Analog-to-Digital module. On
the first version made, theAD212 S-100 version, this circuit board mounted
(aka "daughter board") to the main S-100 board that plugged into the
computer slot. This daughter board was the dimensions of a standard S-100
board without the gold finger connections. When Scientific Solutions
introduced the Apple and PC versions of the LabMaster, this same "daughter
board" was used, but instead of mounting on the card in the computer (there
was no room inside the Apple II/II+ or PC), it was placed in an external unit
with a ribbon cable connecting the computer interface card to the external
A/D card. Even today, the external A/D card of the LabMaster is the same
S-100 board size and some of our more "seasoned" customers still refer to
this as the "daughterboard"
References:
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Article “Tecmar's Triumph” by David Bunnell ,PC Magazine Publisher & Editor in Chief, is a retrospective article about the one year anniversary of the IBM PC. David Bunnell's article discusses the founding of Tecmar in 1972, the release 20 new products for the PC in 1981, and the use of the companies products for the NASA Space Shuttle Robotic Arm. Includes interview with Dr. Martin Alpert. |
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Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 1, January 1982, pg.243 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 2, February 1982, pg. 157 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 6, June 1982, pg. 383 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 7, July 1982, pg. 337 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 8, August 1982, pg. 369 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 9, September 1982, pg. 415 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 10, October 1982, pg. 355 |
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Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 3, March1982, pg. 275 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 4, April 1982, pg. 345 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 5, May 1982, pg. 251 |
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Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 1, January 1982, pg. 63 Tecmar advertorial “congratulating”IBM for the personal computer...”Personal Computer is Great! - and now, it is even better with TecMate series of Add-in and Add-on Products” which includes IEEE-488 interface, Analog to Digital Converter 8, 12, 14, 16 bit, Digital to Analog Converter 8 and 12-bit, Video Digitizer, Stepper motor controller, etc. |
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Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 2, January1982, pg. 113 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 3, March 1982, pg. 83 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 4, April 1982, pg. 161 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 5, May 1982, pg. 175 PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 1, April / May 1982, Back Cover PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 2, June / July 1982, Back Cover Full page advertisement titled "The IBM Personal Computer. . . Personal, Professional, Technical - or something in between. . . PC-Mate makes the IBM Personal Computer a perfect match." Discusses various products including making the computer an Intelligent Laboratory Tool with IEEE-488 instrumentation, Analog to Digital Converter - 8, 12, 14, 16 bit, stepper motor controller, BSR X-10 device control, etc. . . |
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Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 6, June 1982, pg. 299 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 7, July 1982, pg. 71 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 8, August 1982, pg. 263 Byte Magazine, Vol 7, No. 9, September 1982, pg. 39 PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 3, August 1982, Back Cover PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 5, September 1982, Back Cover Numerous products mentioned including IEEE-488, LabTender,LabMaster,Stepper Motor Controller, BaseBoard, Video VanGogh, etc. . |
![[6]: Full page advertisement titled "First, the IBM Personal Computer, The Next Step. . . Tecmar"](add/add_tecpc3_150dpi.jpg){kind=link}
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Article “Boca Diary” by David Bunnell, PC Magazine Publisher & Editor in Chief, discusses that in 1981 members of the IBM PC design team “were particularly intrigued by Tecmar, the Cleveland engineering company which, at that time, had already developed more than 20 options, including a PC expansion box” including interviews with IBM personnel. This article is by David Bunnell, the PC Magazine publisher about his visit to Boca Raton in December 1981 "to visit the birthplace of what could turn out to be the most dynamic electronic product of the decade - the IBM Personal Computer" Following excerpt from the article: "Our first two visitor were Bill Syndes, Engineering Manager, Entry Systems Business and David Bradley, Manager of Entry Systems Business Architecture. I (David Bunnell) asked them about the open-bus structure of the Personal Computer and how they felt about third-party companies selling such things as IBM PC-compatible memory boards. Sydnes told me that the PC was definitely "designed to be open." He and Bradley were very interested in hearing about these products and they were fascinated that so many were already available. They were particularly intrigued by Tecmar (Scientific Solutions), the Cleveland engineering company which, at the time, had already developed more than 20 options, including a PC expansion box." |
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1981 Comdex Handout |
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Article "10th Anniversary" by C.G. Masi, Editor - Test & Measurement World. In recognition of this publication's 10th year anniversary, the editors selected and awarded “Best In Test” products for 10 outstanding products introduced since 1981 including the Scientific Solutions LabMaster. Additionally, the LabMaster was the only product awarded “Product of the Decade” for being (as quoted on the award ) “The first PC based Instrument Board” and was credited with creating the PC data acquisition industry and having the greatest impact on the data acquisition industry from 1981 to 1991. |
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Dr. Martin Alpert full page announcement of Scientific Solutions as the exclusive source for PC Data Acquisition and Control for the Laboratory and Industry. |
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Rexon Acquires Tecmar |
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Wangdat is being acquired by Rexon for stock and five-year notes in a deal valued at $12 million, according to a definitive agreement reached October 28, 1991. |
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Rexon Inc. Wednesday announced that it has filed a voluntary petition for relief under the provisions of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. |
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Rexon Inc. Monday announced that the company has entered into a definitive purchase agreement with Legacy Storage Systems International Inc. . . under which Legacy acquires the business of Rexon and its subsidiaries. . . The transaction is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. |
Legacy changes name to Tecmar Technologies
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TTI Holdings Inc., . . . Wednesday announced that it has completed an initial public offering generating US$16.77 million to fund company operations and the acquisition of Tecmar Technologies Inc., a Longmont, Colo.-based provider of high-performance tape storage solutions. |
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Iomega Corp. last week said it has sold certain assets of its Ditto and Ditto Max tape backup products line to Tecmar Technologies Inc. for $3 million. |
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In a move expected to accelerate its entry into the $2 billion low-cost, entry-level data storage backup market, Overland Data, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVRL) today announced that it has signed an asset purchase agreement with Tecmar Technologies International, Inc. and related entities, under which Overland will acquire from Tecmar substantially all inventories, fixed assets, supplies, intellectual property, trademarks (including Tecmar(1), Ditto(1) and WangDAT(1)) and Internet addresses for approximately $3 million in cash. |
[15] Scientific Solutions, Inc.
Scientific-Solutions.com
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LabPac User's Guide, Reference Manual and Software Printout at the
Library of Congress TX-1-211-386, Txu-137-971 Scientific Solutions
LabPac data acquisition software copyright registration and reference
location at the Library of Congress: Application Title: LabPac User's Guide and Reference Manual Type of Work: Text Registration Number / Date: TX0001211386 / 1983-07-05 Title: Labpac Publication: 1982-10-19 Application Title: LabPac software version 3.1 Type of Work: Computer File Registration Number / Date: TXu000137971 / 1983-07-05 Date of Creation: 1982 |
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Survey of expansion cards for the PC including the Tecmar (Scientific Solutions) Graphics Master, Time Master, Speech Master, PC Master, Stepper Motor Controller, LabMaster, LabTender, Distance Tender, Device Master, BaseBoard and others |
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PC World Issue 1, No. 1, April 1983, pg. 70 PC Tech Journal, Vol 1, No. 5, February 1984, pg. 42 PC Tech Journal, Vol 1, No. 6, March 1984, pg. 18 Full page advertisement for IEEE488 and software, LabMaster, LabTender, Baseboard and others... |
Check if PC world 1, 1 is pg. 70 or back cover.
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PC Tech Journal, Vol 1, No. 6, March 1984, pg. 19 Full page advertisement for DADIO, Video VanGogh, Video Cassette recorder controller, E+PROM programmer, SpeechMaster voice synthesizer, Device Master BSR X-10 controller, Stepper Motor Controller and TimeMaster. |
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PC Tech Journal, Vol 3, No. 2, February 1985, pg. 68 Full page advertisement for MultiFunction, Graphics Master, Tape, LabMaster |
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PC Tech Journal, Vol 2, No. 2, August 1984, pg. 117 PC Tech Journal, Vol 2, No. 5, November 1984, pg. 183 PC Tech Journal, Vol 2, No. 6 December 1984, pg. 203 Full page advertisement for LabPac, LabMaster, LabTender, DADIO. |
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Cover Article “PC In the Lab” by Peter Aitken, PH.D, Duke Medical Center In this article (pg74-84), Dr. Aitken relates his own experience of using a PC with a LabMaster purchased in 1982 for data collection and analysis in the Integrative Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Duke University Medical Center. The article relates Dr. Aitken's's search for data acquisition hardware for the IBM PC. . . ”The next step was to find an analog interfacing board for the PC that would meet the laboratory's needs. . . .At the time of our search (fall, 1982), only one firm, Tecmar (Scientific Solutions) was marketing such boards. Fortunately one of their models, the LabMaster, offered all the features we needed: 6 to 12 bit A/D channels (with optional expansion to 256), 5 clock/counters, 24 digital input/output lines, and A/D conversion speeds to 40Khz.” |
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Article: Laboratory Data Collection with an IBM PC, by Stephen Gates - This 13 page article features the Scientific Solutions/Tecmar LabMaster Data Acquisition board. "The system described here represents a hardware and software solution to the problem of data collection and analysis in a wide variety of commonly encountered laboratory situations.:" This article explains many aspects of data acquisition, such as: digital to analog, analog to digital and digital I/O.Using the LabMaster card's channel array for channel switching and gain control and the timer and counter functions are also explored. |
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Cover Article “Tecmar's Lab Master and the PC: Laboratory
Efficiency” By Peter Aitken Cover story with an in-depth article
titled "Digital-To-Analog, Analog-To-Digital". Scientist Peter G.
Aitken from Duke University Medical Center puts the LabMaster board,
purchased in 1982, to the test in this in-depth article. Abstract from the Editorial Index: "The LabMaster provides a powerful and flexible interface for the IBM PC. The board has 16 single ended or 8 differential A/D channels, two D/A channels, five 16-bit counter/timers, and 24 digital I/O lines. The LabMaster performs very well in a lab. A photo shows the LabMaster board. The motherboard and the register access for the 9513 timer are shown in figures. A table gives port assignments for the LabMaster." |
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Article: Laboratory Interfacing, by Lincoln E. Ford, M.D. This article (pg. 263) features the Scientific Solutions/Tecmar LabMaster Data Acquisition board. "There are several commercially available devices that will perform at least four of the five functions required for the laboratory applications described... Several of my colleagues and I bought the LabMaster board made by Tecmar because it provides all five functions and because it was the first one available" |
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Article: Interfacing For Data Acquisition, by Thomas Clune. This article (pg. 269) is a comparison of three different interfaces for using computers in the laboratory. Mr Clune explains "Since I find the IEEE-488 to be the most versatile option for laboratory data acquisition, I will devote a fair amount of time to explaining that interface." He further explains "The equipment used in the experiment includes an IBM PC with 128K bytes of memory, a Tecmar IEEE-488 interface for the PC, ..." The article contains same data acquisition programs that includes using the Tecmar IEEE-488 software ver. 3, which is a version of the Route-488 library. |
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Article (pg 123): Plotting Data by Scientist Peter G. Aitken from Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) Electrical signals can be digitized using the Scientific Solutions/Tecmar Lab Master and then displayed as waveforms on the computer screen or in hard-copy. "Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, has two PCs, equipped with Tecmar Lab Master boards, that are used to digitize and store waveforms from biomedical experiments." |
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Article: SALT, by Samuel D. Fenster and Lincoln E. Ford, M.D. This article (pg. 147) discusses SALT - a threaded interpretive language interfaced to BASIC for research laboratory applications. As quoted from the article: "Research laboratories such as ours have become increasingly dependent on computers...we developed a method of combining compiled and interpretive higher-level languages for general use in a diversity of laboratory applications......The software described here was written specifically for an IBM PC equipped with a Tecmar Lab Master board...The Lab Master board has four discrete functions required for laboratory application: an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter with 16 channels of input; two digital-to-analog (D/A) converters; a 24-channel digital input/output (I/O) device; and a chip with five programmable counters and an internal 1-Mhz clock, whose basic frequency can be divided either by powers of 10 or powers of 16." |
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Article: Five Laboratory Interfacing Packages (pg. 303), Patricia Wirth and Lincoln E. Ford - This article is a review of five commercial laboratory interfacing software packages. The reviewers used the Tecmar / Scientific Solutions Lab Master card to test and evaluate the various functions of the software. Also included as one of the five packages is Tecmar / Scientific Solutions LabPac. |
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In recognition of this publication's 10th year
anniversary, the editors selected and awarded “Best In Test”
products for 10 outstanding products introduced since 1981 including
the Scientific Solutions LabMaster. Test&Measurement World, Vol 11 No. 11, November 1991. Selected overwhelmingly by the editor's and reader's of T&MW, LabMaster is awarded “Product of the Decade” for being (as quoted on the award ) “The first PC based Instrument Board” and was credited with creating the PC data acquisition industry and having the greatest impact on the data acquisition industry from 1981 to 1991. |
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In recognition of this publication's 10th year
anniversary, the editors selected and awarded “Best In Test”
products for 10 outstanding products introduced since 1981 including
the Scientific Solutions LabMaster. Test&Measurement World, Vol 11 No. 11, November 1991. Selected overwhelmingly by the editor's and reader's of T&MW, LabMaster is awarded “Product of the Decade” for being (as quoted on the award ) “The first PC based Instrument Board” and was credited with creating the PC data acquisition industry and having the greatest impact on the data acquisition industry from 1981 to 1991. |
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Test & Measurement World, Vol 21 No 11 September 2001 Cover Article: “PC Instrumentation through the Ages” by Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor A historical article about PC based data acquisition with Scientific Solutions' LabMaster product again being recognized as the first PC based data acquisition product. |
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Article “Living History, retracing the evolution of the PC and PC
Magazine” by Michael Miller As quoted from the article: The PC was unveiled with great fanfare, and it began shipping in October 1981. The first article looked at all the new PC products and accessories introduced at the third annual Comdex show. (Las Vegas, October 1981) Tecmar ..introduced 20 PC accessories.” The following tables list various publications that contain advertisements for our products. Our goal is to update this to include all publications with links to images of the actual advertisements and also PDF versions of the articles. |
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