🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan Mathias wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Where did the company GODBOUT Electronics go? the maker of the famous
> S-100 boards and bus stuff ?

Godbout became Compupro, Compupro was bought up by Viasyn.

Tim.

Tim Shoppa <sho...@trailing-edge.com> writes:

> Dan Mathias wrote:
> > 
> > Where did the company GODBOUT Electronics go? the maker of the famous
> > S-100 boards and bus stuff ?
> 
> Godbout became Compupro, Compupro was bought up by Viasyn.

Hmmm...  actually I think CompuPro BECAME Viasyn.  It was the time
when wacky 2-part greek-derivative synthetic company names were all
the rage.  I believe it was about the time Sperry-Univac became Unisys
for the same reason.  I remember a lot of S-100 people being pissed
off, and wondering why they'd throw away a name with a lot of history,
reputation, and recognition behind it.  As I recall, they paid a set
of name consultants a lot of $$$ and there was a memo from Bill
Godbout to all us customers explaining what the new name meant, a
"merging of the ways to the future" or something similarly stupid.  I
also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought that
aired during a football game, explaining their new name.

Am I right or has there been too much beer damage to the memory
synapses?

At the time I was responsible for several CompuPro S-100 systems
running MP/M 8-16, which was a wacky version of CP/M-86 that was able
to run a dual 80286 CPU & Z-80 CPU board, running multiple 8-bit
programs on the Z-80 along with multiple 16-bit programs on the '286
simultaneously.  The Z-80's copy of "CP/M 2.2" was just a branch table
to hand off control to the '286 that did the OS duties, and returned
the results in CP/M 2.2 fashion.  The company that did the OS design
was Gifford Computers, and they were big in the S-100 world.  They
also did the CP/M ARCNET implementation that I used to network all the
CP/M systems.  Boy, we thought we were just the hottest sh*t.  Look
ma, I can make the other computer's floppy light from across the net
(and the room) 

Gifford had a female engineer with the sexiest voice.  I remember
speaking to her when I was trying to use some weird services they'd
added, allowing you to take control of I/O & interrupts independently
of the OS w/o having to go all the way and write full drivers.  She
designed and implemented it, if the brain cells aren't lying.

I remember loving Televideo 970 terminals, and HATING the WYSE 50 we
had, and remember building my own serial cables.  We also had some
ancient Datapoints & ADM-3As too.

I remember just before leaving the company to go to college, my boss
and I looked at the systems, and there was memory boards in the system
ranging from 16K up to a new absolutely ENOURMOUS!! 16MB board.

I also seem to recall an IBM-PC compatible board that let you run
PC-DOS, and gave you CGA graphics etc.  It was buggy as hell, thrown
together in a hurry, and generally crap.  I don't think many folks
bought them.

Wow, I can't believe I pulled some of these names back out of the air.
"Obi-wan... I haven't heard that name in many years...."

-gc

On Wed, 31 May 2000 00:40:17 -0700, Dan Mathias <fub...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>Where did the company GODBOUT Electronics go? the maker of the famous
>S-100 boards and bus stuff ?

they went under

I don't know what happened to them, but I have a funny story about them.
Way back around 1977 I ordered a digital voltmeter kit from them.

This was a small on-IC, one board kit.  Assembly went okay,
until I looked at the IC socket, which somehow looked peculiar.
-- It was laid out mirror-image.
This was a common beginner's mistake before the days of
CAD programs.

They'd gone ahead and etched the boards with this mistake.
Luckily for them the 40-pin IC had very flexible leads,
so they were able to BEND the leads 180 degrees so you
could plug the IC in upside down!

The voltmeter worked "okay", although it was pretty silly of them to
sell a 4-digit DVM and use 5% resistors in the voltage dividers
for the 10,100, and 1000 volt ranges.  Sorta like making a ruler out of
cheese.

I hope their S-100 boards were more carefully designed!


Dan Mathias wrote in message <3934C1...@bellsouth.net>...
>Hello,
>
>Where did the company GODBOUT Electronics go? the maker of the famous
>S-100 boards and bus stuff ?
>
>Thanks
>--
>Dan Mathias
>--------------------------
>Future-Bot Components         Phone/Fax (561) 575-1487
>106 Commerce way, A8        http://www.futurebots.com
>Jupiter, Fl. 33458  USA         Email: fub...@bellsouth.net
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Robotic and Electronic Components for the Hobbyist and Professional..

gcash wrote:
> 
> Tim Shoppa <sho...@trailing-edge.com> writes:
> 
> > Dan Mathias wrote:
> > >
> > > Where did the company GODBOUT Electronics go? the maker of the famous
> > > S-100 boards and bus stuff ?
> >
> > Godbout became Compupro, Compupro was bought up by Viasyn.
> 
> Hmmm...  actually I think CompuPro BECAME Viasyn.  It was the time
> when wacky 2-part greek-derivative synthetic company names were all
> the rage.  I believe it was about the time Sperry-Univac became Unisys
> for the same reason.  I remember a lot of S-100 people being pissed
> off, and wondering why they'd throw away a name with a lot of history,
> reputation, and recognition behind it.  As I recall, they paid a set
> of name consultants a lot of $$$ and there was a memo from Bill
> Godbout to all us customers explaining what the new name meant, a
> "merging of the ways to the future" or something similarly stupid.  I
> also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought that
> aired during a football game, explaining their new name.
> 
Well, Sperry-Univac changed their name to Unisys because they *merged*
with Burroughs.  Their slogan was "The Power of Two".  I remember
chuckling back in the early '90's when their stock went down to $2 a
share!!! The stock later went up...and I lamented *not* buying any
at $2!!! (I do *not* know where their stock is now, but I do *not*
think it is very high...)

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <rich...@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

The Univac-Burroughs merger may go down as one of the oddest
marriages.  "Let's take two sinking companies, with wildly incompatible
product lines, different market segments, PO-ed customers, and
spin it as a POSITIVE thing to do.  Oh yes, give the top honchos HUGE
profits".  Great idea?  If you're a honcho.

In article <yOsZ4.1682$xM5....@news.flash.net> gr...@flash.net
(George R. Gonzalez) writes:

>The Univac-Burroughs merger may go down as one of the oddest
>marriages.  "Let's take two sinking companies, with wildly incompatible
>product lines, different market segments, PO-ed customers, and
>spin it as a POSITIVE thing to do.  Oh yes, give the top honchos HUGE
>profits".  Great idea?  If you're a honcho.

Heck, it worked for Commodore.  :-(

Besides, this gave them the opportunity to combine Sperry's lousy
software support with Burroughs' lousy hardware support.

--
cgi...@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

George Gonzalez writes:

>The Univac-Burroughs merger may go down as one of the oddest
>marriages.  "Let's take two sinking companies, with wildly incompatible
>product lines, different market segments, PO-ed customers, and
>spin it as a POSITIVE thing to do.  Oh yes, give the top honchos HUGE
>profits".  Great idea?  If you're a honcho.

Galileo said:
 >   Eppure si muove.
      (But still, it moves.)

One of the few examples of the undying faith
that if you tie two stones together they can float.

JKA

--
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is
always one individual who perceives a solution and is
willing to take command. Very often, that individual is
crazy.
 Dave Berry

On 31 May 2000 23:46:23 -0400, gcash <gc...@magicnet.net> wrote:
>I also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought that
>aired during a football game, explaining their new name.

I wish I could remember who said it, but the best comment on the Unisys name
was that it sounded like a birth defect. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but your son was
born with a unisys." "*GASP!*"

Jay Maynard <jmay...@thebrain.conmicro.cx> wrote in message
news:slrn8jc8u1.nid.jmaynard@thebrain.conmicro.cx...
> On 31 May 2000 23:46:23 -0400, gcash <gc...@magicnet.net> wrote:
> >I also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought that
> >aired during a football game, explaining their new name.
>
> I wish I could remember who said it, but the best comment on the Unisys
name
> was that it sounded like a birth defect. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but your son
was
> born with a unisys." "*GASP!*"

It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe another
old
wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". Maybe it's an urban myth, but
the
first time I heard it I almost split!

seeyuzz
river

In article <8h5aj6$ktk$1...@nina.pacific.net.au> ri...@zip.com.au (river)
writes:

>Jay Maynard <jmay...@thebrain.conmicro.cx> wrote in message
>news:slrn8jc8u1.nid.jmaynard@thebrain.conmicro.cx...
>
>> On 31 May 2000 23:46:23 -0400, gcash <gc...@magicnet.net> wrote:
>>
>> >I also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought
>> >that aired during a football game, explaining their new name.
>>
>> I wish I could remember who said it, but the best comment on the
>> Unisys name was that it sounded like a birth defect. "I'm sorry,
>> ma'am, but your son was born with a unisys." "*GASP!*"
>
>It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe
>another old wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". Maybe it's
>an urban myth, but the first time I heard it I almost split!

It's not an urban myth.  I might have even posted the original
message myself.  We had it happen using WordPerfect.

--
cgi...@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

river wrote:
> 
>
> 
> It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe another
> old
> wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". 

That explains something.  I used to think that "The Tower of Poo" was a
Spoonerism for their post-merger adverstising slogan "The Power of Two".

--brian

On 01 Jun 00 08:31:25 -0800, "Charlie Gibbs" <cgi...@sky.bus.com>
wrote:

>In article <8h5aj6$ktk$1...@nina.pacific.net.au> ri...@zip.com.au (river)
>writes:

>>It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe
>>another old wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". Maybe it's
>>an urban myth, but the first time I heard it I almost split!
>
>It's not an urban myth.  I might have even posted the original
>message myself.  We had it happen using WordPerfect.

Then there's Word 95. In English text, write "zzzz", use the spell
checker, and the silly thing offers "sex" as the correct spelling.
BTW, it also offers "anuses" as an alternative spelling for "Unisys".

river wrote:
> 
> Jay Maynard <jmay...@thebrain.conmicro.cx> wrote in message
> news:slrn8jc8u1.nid.jmaynard@thebrain.conmicro.cx...
> > On 31 May 2000 23:46:23 -0400, gcash <gc...@magicnet.net> wrote:
> > >I also seem to remember laughing at a pompous TV ad Unisys bought that
> > >aired during a football game, explaining their new name.
> >
> > I wish I could remember who said it, but the best comment on the Unisys
> name
> > was that it sounded like a birth defect. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but your son
> was
> > born with a unisys." "*GASP!*"
> 
> It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe another
> old
> wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". Maybe it's an urban myth, but
> the
> first time I heard it I almost split!
> 
> seeyuzz
> river

I was working for Sperry at the time that Burroughs took over, and came
up with the new name.  I remember the staff meeting when the new name
was going to be announced (with layoff notices shortly after, as I
recall...*painfully*) - there was a lot of "Hmmm..." and "I guess it's
OK..." but I think most of us were disappointed that it wasn't something
better.

I think we even felt that the names that some of our employees came up
with were much better, but unfortunately I don't recall any of the
alternative suggestions!

Bart
Canada

In article <3936380C...@dallas.net>,
Charles Richmond <rich...@dallas.net> wrote:

 > share!!! The stock later went up...and I lamented *not* buying any
 > at $2!!! (I do *not* know where their stock is now, but I do *not*
 > think it is very high...)

Check:

   http://quote.yahoo.com/q?s=UIS&d=5y

On Fri, 02 Jun 2000 14:19:49 GMT
sim...@evitech.fi (Simo Tuominen) wrote:

> On 01 Jun 00 08:31:25 -0800, "Charlie Gibbs" <cgi...@sky.bus.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >In article <8h5aj6$ktk$1...@nina.pacific.net.au> ri...@zip.com.au (river)
> >writes:
> 
> >>It was rumoured, that if you ran "Unisys" through Wordstar (or maybe
> >>another old wp) spellcheck it would come up with "anuses". Maybe it's
> >>an urban myth, but the first time I heard it I almost split!
> >
> >It's not an urban myth.  I might have even posted the original
> >message myself.  We had it happen using WordPerfect.
> 
> Then there's Word 95. In English text, write "zzzz", use the spell
> checker, and the silly thing offers "sex" as the correct spelling.
> BTW, it also offers "anuses" as an alternative spelling for "Unisys".

	This has to be one of the shortest time to thread revival I have
yet seen round here :)

-- 
C:>WIN                                      |   Directable Mirror Arrays
The computer obeys and wins.                | A better way to focus the sun
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    licences available see
                                            |    http://www.sohara.org/

On 7/27/18 8:49 PM, Michael Black wrote:
> they were talking about a computer using the National 16bit CPU in the fall of 1975, but despite a
> contest, that computer never came to market.

it was Morrow's design. you can see some info at http://bitsavers.org/pdf/morrow under schematics and artwork
as "Pace Kit"