ECD Corporation

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ECD Corporation
Company typePrivate
Industry
  • Computer
  • Electronics
Founded1974; 50 years ago (1974) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Founders
  • Ronald Todd
  • Jerry Roberts
  • Richard Eckhardt
Defunct1983; 41 years ago (1983)
FateDissolved
Products
  • Electronic test equipment
  • Microcomputers
  • Computer terminals

ECD Corporation was a small, privately owned[1] American computer and electronics company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and active from 1974 to 1983. During its lifespan, the company manufactured a couple pieces of electronic test equipment, the MicroMind microcomputer system, and the Smart ASCII terminal.

History[edit]

ECD was founded in late 1974 by Ronald Todd, Jerry Roberts, and Richard Eckhardt, three graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[2] Todd was named company president.[3] Eckhardt had taken entrepreneurial courses alongside his main studies at MIT, which he cited as helping the company get a head start in the electronics industry.[4] All three were later joined by Edward W. Costello, who became the company's marketing manager.[5] ECD was founded with $5,000 of capital; its first product was the C-meter, a capacitance meter with a liquid-crystal readout,[6] released in spring 1975.[7] The C-meter sold well and allowed the company to move onto their second project, a portable digital thermometer that ran on batteries.[6] Called the T-meter, it was a ruggedized thermometer allowing it to withstand extreme shock in day-to-day industrial transport. The T-meter had a system of thermistor probes, each of which plugged into the base of the unit and able to accurately measure a variety of temperature ranges.[8] The T-meter found widespread acceptance in scientific laboratories and industrial plants.[6] In 1976, ECD earned over US$200,000 in sales and had a backlog of orders worth $1,500,000.[4]

In late 1976,[9] the company announced the MicroMind, a microcomputer system that sold for a little over $980 (equivalent to $4,667 in 2021).[1] The MicroMind was a three-board system, including the central processor board, the display processor board, and the input/output board. The central processor board sports a MOS Technology's 6512 microprocessor that runs the computer's operating system and software; it also features 8 KB of RAM stock.[10] The display processor board contains 2.6 KB of display memory and a RF modulator, allowing a conventional television to be used as a monitor for the computer.[11] The input/output board meanwhile houses the MicroMind's power supply, which has power rails of +5 V and +12 V. The central processing board supports up to 16 KB of RAM; expansion cards were available allowing the computer's RAM to be upgraded in 32 KB intervals.[10]

The MicroMind additionally came shipped with an 80-key ASCII keyboard and various software. Such software packages included a BASIC interpreter with extended functionality (called notsoBASIC[12]), an interactive line editor, a machine code monitor, an assembler, and a cassette file browser. The computer also came packaged with two games: Conway's Game of Life and a "space war" game.[10] Much of ECD's software was written in BASIC by Bob Frankston, a software developer who worked with ECD on a freelance basis. Frankston would later join with Dan Bricklin to found Software Arts in 1979, developers of VisiCalc.[13] In May 1977, ECD won a $1.38 million contract to supply 1,000 MicroMinds across the nation for public schools. The deal was mediated through Avakian System Corporation, a computer consulting business of Glastonbury, Connecticut.[14] The MicroMind may or may not have been followed up with a MicroMind II.[12]

In July 1978, the company released the Smart ASCII, one of the first intelligent video terminals with a 132-column display.[15] A month later, they released a dialect of BASIC that was an extension of Dartmouth BASIC oriented toward small businesses, called ECD Business Basic.[16] Later in 1978, the company developed a bespoke physical specification of floppy disk. Called the Biflex, each disk had a diameter of 4.5 inches and could store up to 512 KB of data.[17]

ECD went defunct in 1983.[18]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b Staff writer 1977b, p. 38.
  2. ^ Staff writer 1977b, p. 38; Staff writer 1977d, p. 15.
  3. ^ Schindler 1978, p. 24.
  4. ^ a b United States Congress 1979, p. 282.
  5. ^ Staff writer 1977b, p. 40.
  6. ^ a b c Staff writer 1977d, p. 15.
  7. ^ Staff writer 1975, p. 97.
  8. ^ Staff writer 1977c, p. 148.
  9. ^ Staff writer 1977a, p. 57.
  10. ^ a b c Staff writer 1977b, p. 42.
  11. ^ Staff writer 1977b, pp. 38, 42.
  12. ^ a b Nadeau 2002, p. 57.
  13. ^ Bricklin 1986, p. 8.
  14. ^ Staff writer 1977e, p. 36.
  15. ^ Staff writer 1978a, p. 32.
  16. ^ Staff writer 1978b, p. 34.
  17. ^ Staff writer 1978c, p. 61.
  18. ^ OpenCorporates n.d.

References[edit]

  • Bricklin, Daniel (1986). "VisiCalc and Software Arts: Genesis to Exodus" (PDF). The Computer Museum Report. 16 (Summer ed.). The Computer Museum, Boston: 8–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2022.
  • "ECD Corp". OpenCorporates. n.d. Archived from the original on February 8, 2023.
  • Nadeau, Michael (2002). Collectible Microcomputers. Schiffer Book for Collectors (Illustrated ed.). Schiffer Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 9780764316005 – via Google Books.
  • National Technology Innovation Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States, Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, First Session, on S. 1250. United States Congress. 1979 – via Google Books.
  • Schindler, Max J. (January 18, 1978). "Time was when a mini was a mini, a micro was a micro, and the picking was easy. Not any more" (PDF). Electronic Design. 26 (2). Hayden Publishing: 24–28 – via World Radio History.
  • Staff writer (May 12, 1975). "Automatic 'C' meter fits in hand". Electronic Design. 23 (8). Hayden Publishing: 97 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (January 6, 1977a). "Orders & Installations". Computerworld. 11 (23). IDG Publications: 57 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (February 17, 1977b). "Personal computer adds to bare bones". Electronics. 50 (4). McGraw-Hill: 38–42 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (February 17, 1977c). "Thermometer sells for $189". Electronics. 50 (4). McGraw-Hill: 148 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (May 16, 1977d). "2 year success story for Cambridge firm". The Boston Globe: 15 – via Newspapers.com. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  • Staff writer (May 18, 1977e). "Get $1 M contract". The Lowell Sun: 36 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Staff writer (July 24, 1978a). "CRT Handles 132 Char./Line". Computerworld. 12 (30). IDG Publications: 32 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (August 28, 1978b). "A Business Basic Bows". Computerworld. 12 (35). IDG Publications: 34 – via the Internet Archive.
  • Staff writer (December 4, 1978c). "Floppy Bows". Computerworld. 12 (49). IDG Publications: 61 – via the Internet Archive.
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