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 40 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 Martin Alpert starts Tecmar Scientific Solutions in Cleveland Ohio, the name "Tecmar" being derived from MARty's TEChnology.
In 1972 Dr. Martin Alpert starts
TecMar Scientific Solutions
in his living room
building medical equipment
Dr. Alpert received an M.S. in systems engineering and was in medical school when he started the company. The company was founded to manufacture pulmonary medical equipment Alpert designed while he was a medical student. He became a doctor, but practiced only part time while pursuing his interest in electronics. The products were designed and manufactured at Tecmar Scientific Solutions' first location, Dr. Alpert's living room.
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)
Tecmar Scientific Solutions annual sales reached $1 million, and the Alpert's had 15 engineers working in their living room before they moved to a larger building (Mercantile Road facility) in early 1981.
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 later,
Tecmar Scientific Solutions
introduces 20 PC products at
Comdex Las Vegas 1981
On August 12, 1981, IBM announced the IBM PC with availability in October. On October 7 1981, Tecmar Scientific Solutions engineers flew to the Chicago Sears Business Center and purchased the very first two IBM PCs to be sold. Six weeks after buying these first computers, Tecmar Scientific Solutions had 20 PC products available and for sale at the November 19-22 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 was 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 board with LabPac software | 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 board with LabPac software | 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 board with LabPac software | 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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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, the AD212 S-100 version, this circuit board mounted 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 (2008), 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"
Tecmar Scientific Solutions is MicroSoft's first MS-DOS customer
In 1980, IBM was looking for an operating system for their new "personal computer" design. Microsoft acquired the rights to Seattle Computer Products' (SCP) QDOS (originally authored by Tim Paterson) and renames it MS-DOS. IBM licenses MS-DOS from Microsoft for use on its PC and calls it PC-DOS. Microsoft also starts to license MS-DOS to other computer manufacturers, and their first customer (beyond SCP and IBM) is Tecmar Scientific Solutions.
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 and COMEDI function calls. Scientific Solutions LabPac software was available several years before competing products from other manufacturers.
The Scientific Solutions product line included a range of products to satisfy many data acquisition needs. 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 company actively advertised in all of the leading publications, typically full color, full page adds on the back covers or inside covers. Advertisements can be seen starting with the premier issues of PC Magazine (February-March 1982) and PC World in addition to Byte, PC Tech Journal, Personal Engineering and Instrumentation (PE&I) and many others, continuing for several 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.
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.
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.
By 1983 the company outgrew the Mercantile Road facility, and purchased and moved into a 100,000 sq. ft. facility in Solon Ohio (6225 Cochran Road facility). By the end of the year, the company was valued at $150 million
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 (SSI) keeping the original product line of data acquisition equipment and add-on cards.[7]Tecmar Inc. and Scientific Solutions Inc. were separate incorporated entities and operated as "sister" companies. They 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, and later multi-media products. Both teams worked together on a variety of projects on a daily basis with many people on both teams.
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 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 audio card designed for IBM (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 featured 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. The 320C25 DSP also provided for MIDI music synthesis. 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. IBM decided to market the sound card to the business audio market, and not to the then emerging computer-based game market.
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. The M-Motion product allowed composite baseband video (NTSC or PAL) to be displayed on a fully scalabe window on the computer screen along side other windows programs
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 broadcast video (NTSC or PAL) on a computer screen. The PS/2 TV was marketed by IBM. The PS1 and PCTV were marketed directly by Tecmar.
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 Rexon years
On October 8, 1986, Tecmar and Scientific Solutions were acquired from Dr. Alpert by the technology holding company Rexon Incorporated.[8]
What Happened to Tecmar?
8-OCT-1986: Rexon acquires Tecmar and Scientific Solutions
1991: Rexon acquires WangDAT
1994: Rexon acquires Cal Emeritus Corporation
30-MAY-1995: Rexon sells Scientific Solutions Inc.
28-JULY-1995: Rexon sells Sytron
13-SEPT-1995: Rexon enters Ch. 11 bankruptcy
11-DEC-1995: Rexon sells Tecmar tape products and company to Legacy Storage Systems International. At this time, Rexon ceases as a company as does Tecmar.
2-OCT-1996: Legacy Storage Systems International changes name to Tecmar Technologies
04-MAR-1998: Tecmar Technologies is purchased by Transitional Technology Inc. (TTI) Holdings
22-MAR-1999: Tecmar Technologies (now owned by TTI) acquires Iomega tape brand
24-JAN-2000: Tecmar Technologies Inc (owned by TTI) enters Ch.11 bankrukptcy
23-FEB-2000: Overland Data acquires Tecmar Technologies
2008: Tecmar appears to be a dormant brand owned by Overland.
Rexon already owned Rexon Business Systems, a maker of pc clones, and WangTek, a tape drive manufacturer based in Simi Valley, California. Rexon was an organization primarily interested in creating magnetic tape data storage products and they acquired Tecmar for the tape products and brand name recognition.
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 within Tecmar and Scientific Solutions on IBM multimedia collaborations that were already in discussions prior to the Rexon purchase, but the Rexon management expertise was tape backup oriented and the Tecmar company was now concentrating on tape backup products.
The Rexon acquisitions did not have much impact on Scientific Solutions Incorporated and the company continued to design, manufacture and market its core data acquisition products.
Scientific Solutions Inc. operated as company held by the Rexon organization until 1995 when the SSI business unit was spun-off as a wholly independent corporation in order for Rexon to focus their resources on the tape backup market.
What Happened to Tecmar?
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).
In 1994, Rexon acquired Cal Emeritus Corporation, another taped based storage company.
On July 28, 1995 Rexon sold Sytron to Arcadia, so Rexon could concentrate its resources on the ProServe CX software.
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 Transitional Technology Inc. (TTI) Holdings. TTI was a holding company which desired to use the Tecmar Technologies name as a comprehensive[12] magnetic tape data storage brand.
In 1999, Tecmar Technologies (now owned by TTI) acquired the Iomega tape brand Ditto. 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 2008, Tecmar Technologies appears to be a dormant brand owned by Overland.
Scientific Solutions Incorporated - Solving Problems for Problem Solvers
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.
Award for the world's First
PC Based Instrument Board
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
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.
Scientific Solutions continues to sell and support many of the PC products that were originally introduced in 1981 along side our newer products. 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. The same is true for the BaseBoard, IEEE cards, LabTender and DADIO.
Today, Scientific Solutions continues to innovate and provide data acquisition solutions to a wide variety of customers.
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, February-March 1982, Back Cover PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 2, April-May 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, June-July 1982, Back Cover PC Magazine, Vol 1, No. 4, 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. . |
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Article “Comdex: The Year 1 PC” by Jim Edlin (editor) and David Bunnell (PC Magazine Publisher and Editor in Chief), provide a review of the November 1981 Fall comdex.
From the article: Two years ago, the national trade exposition for computer dealers was held for the first time. About 180 companies set up exhibits in the Ballroom of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, and maybe 4,500 people came to see their wares. Last year the show expanded into the Las Vegas Convention center's two small halls - a space double that of the Hilton ballroom - to accommodate a doulbe number of both exhibitors and asile-walkers. And this year (November '81) COMDEX moved into the Convention Center's big East Hall, which dwarfs the other two halls combined. Six hundred forty-four exhibitors ... and nearly 25,000 people reportedly attended. It was a fitting sign for the year when IBM finally decided to enter the world of the personal computer. 20 Add-ons in Two Months: The pleasant shocker for us was right down at the end of our asile, in the booth of a Cleveland outfit called Tecmar Scientific Solutions. In about the same time it took us to produce our eight pages, Tecmar Scientific Solutions had produce a complete line of 20 Add-on accessories for the PC. They even had an expansion adapter that could pass for the PC Sysstems unit's twin - until you peaked inside and saw a 5-million character Winchester storage disk where the PC has its diskette drives. As for all [the other] COMDEX exhibitors who had nothing to display for the IBM PC, it seemed like more than half of those we asked clamied they were in the process of getting something together. |
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Article “TecMates: Tecmar Scientific Solutions unveils a plug-in smorgasbord” by Jim Edlin (editor), provides a review of the Tecmar Scientific Solutions offerings at the November 1981 Fall comdex.
From the article: The company's ads could almost be headed, "Everything you always wanted to add to your IBM PC," except Tecmar Scientific Solutions didn't leave people time to have wanted anything for very long. The product line, christened "TecMates," includes:
Tecmar Scientific Solutions president Martin Alpert says his company's preparedness was the result of previous work developing scientific and industrial electronics for use in microcomputer systems that are based on the Intel 8086 microcomputer systems that are based on the Intel 8086 processor. The 8086, he says, has the same internal architecture as the 8088 chip used in the PC. When IBM announced the PC, Alpert realized Tecmar Scientific Solutions was well positioned to develop products for it. He began planning immediately. Alpert tells how Tecmar Scientific Solutions people flew to Chicago and "camped on the doorstep" of the Sears Business Systems Center to get two PCs on the first day they were available. "We go our logic analyzer on it and figured out the bus," he says. "It didn't take very long; it's very straight-forward with only a few confusing lines." According to Alpert, between 40 and 50 people took part in getting the products ready for previewing at COMDEX. The Tecmate item that performs the neatest trick is the Device Master module that combines clock, clendar and the sort of device controller that sends signals over electrical wiring to activate lights, appliances and the like. According to Alpert, the module, which has its own battery power, can be used ton control the outlet from which the Personal Computer itself receives power. The Device Master can store a command ordering the computer to be turned on at a certain time, then execute a command to turn the computer off, and then - using its own power - turn the computer back on at a preset time. Whereupon, if appropriate autostart software is in the computer, new times can be set and the whole cycle repeated. |
![[7]: Jim Edlin (1982), TecMates: Tecmar unveils a plug-in smorgasbord, PC Magazine Vol 1 No. 1, February-March 1982, pg. 57](pcmag/article/pcmag_02_03_cover.jpg){kind=link}
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![[7]: David Bunnell ( 1982), Boca Diary, PC Magazine Vol 1 No. 1, February-March 1982](pcmag/article/pcmag_april_may82.jpg){kind=link}
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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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[10] Byte Magazine, Vol 11 No. 93, March 1986, Full page (pg.313) 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.
www.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 (Premier Issue) 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... |
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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 PC Magazine, Vol 3, No. 20, October 16, 1984, Back Cover Full page advertisement for MultiFunction, Graphics Master, Tape, LabMaster |
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PC Tech Journal, Vol 2, No. 2, August 1984, pg. 171 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 Tecmar Scientific Solutions product brands: LabPac, LabMaster, LabTender, DADIO. |
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PC Mag, Vol 5, No. 5, March 11 1986, Back Cover Full page advertisement recalls when IBM introduced its PC, Tecmar Scientific Solutions bought the very first one and created PC add-ons before anyone else..and has been offereing the answers to PC questions ever since. |
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Personal Engineering & Instrumentation (PE&I) PE&I, Vol 4, No. 6, June 1987, pg. 25 PE&I, Vol 4, No. 11, November 1987, pg. 78 PE&I, Vol 4, No. 12, December 1987, Inside back cover PE&I, Vol 5, No. 1, January 1988, Inside back cover PE&I, Vol 5, No. 2, February 1988, Inside back cover PE&I, Vol 5, No. 3, March 1988, Inside back cover Full page advertisement for LabMaster, LabTender, BaseBoard, IEEE-488, Stepper Motor Controller. |
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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.” The article includes details and source code for software that implelments a digital storage oscilloscope using assembly language and the LabMaster data acquisition system. "...is a complete listing of an 8088 assembly language subroutine named DSCOPE1, which, when called by a BASIC program, collects and averages sweeps of analog data on Labmaster channel 0, the collection sweeps are triggered by pulses on labmaster channel 7. In general, this program is used for fast sampling of short-duration signals. In our lab, it is used to collect and average responses of brain cells that have been triggered by electrical simulation. It sets up a clock on the labmaster board to run at the desired sampling rate...[and] permits already-collected waveforms to be plotted..it converts data into appropriate X and Y values and then sends the commands to the digital-to-analog conveters on the Labmaster board. It has met our every need so far, and we have not come close to exploiting all its capacity. During a year of heavy use we have experienced no hardware failures...no software bugs." |
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Article: Laboratory Data Collection with an IBM PC, by Stephen
Gates - This 13 page article features the Tecmar Scientific Solutions
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 Tecmar Scientific Solutions LabMaster board,
purchased in 1982, to the test in this in-depth article. Abstract from the Editorial Index: "The LabMaster board 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 Tecmar Scientific Solutions 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 Scientific Solutions 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 Scientific Solutions IEEE-488 interface for the PC, ..." The article contains same data acquisition programs that includes using the Tecmar Scientific Solutions 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 Tecmar Scientific Solutions Lab Master board 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 Scientific Solutions 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 Scientific Solutions 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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"This September 1991 issue marks the tenth anniversay of T&MW...Test & Measurement World is starting an awards program to recognize companies that have brought significant technical advances to the market. We've selected ten products to receive our Decade of Progress Awards. To give you a chance to get in on the fun, we want you (the readers) to select which one of them should be the Test product of the Decade." In recognition of this publication's 10th year anniversary, the editors selected and awarded “Decade of Progress Awards” products for 10 outstanding products introduced since 1981 including the Scientific Solutions LabMaster. This was the beginning of the T&MW annual awards program which is now known as "Best In test" |
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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. As quoted from the publication:
"Test & Measurement World is pleased to announce the winner of the Test Product of the Decade award. The winner is Tecmar Scientific Solutions' Lab Master, the first IBM PC-based instrument board, which was released in 1981. (Tecmar is now Scientific Solutions). The award is based on the votes of our readers. In our September issue, we honored ten test products as recipients of our Decade of Progress Awards and asked reads to vote for the product they felt contributed the most significant technological advance to testing. Lab Master won by a healthy margin. The recipient of the 1991 John Fluke, Sr., Memorial Award is Dr. Jim Truchard, cofounder, president, and chairman of National Instruments. This award, which is presented by Test & Measurement World, honors a senior manager of a test-equipment maufacturing company whose professionalism has enabled his or her company to achieve success while being a positive influence on the industry." TM&W Award Archives |
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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 (page 137) As quoted from the article: "The PC was unveiled with great fanfare, and it began shipping in October 1981. By the time PC Magazine premiered in February 1982, the PC was a smash hit |
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