Computer Chronicles Revisited 113 — AST Rampage/2-286, Paradise VGA Plus, Intel Inboard 386/PC, and Quadram JT Fax

Mel Brooks famously observed in his 1987 film Spaceballs that merchandising was “where the real money from the movie was made.” A similar credo might be applied to the tech industry of the time. Add-on boards and peripherals were where the real money from the PC industry was made. Not that selling the actual computers was unprofitable, mind you, but even the major players like IBM and Apple understood that the success of their hardware was largely due to the ability of third parties to provide a wide range of (relatively) easy-to-install expansions.

Both the original IBM PC and the Apple II contained multiple expansion slots to accommodate such add-on boards. Of course, both companies then tried to retreat from this “open” architecture approach with their subsequent machines. Apple’s original Macintosh provided zero expansion slots–a decision reversed with the Macintosh II–while most of IBM’s PS/2 line used a proprietary architecture that was incompatible older IBM PC expansion cards.

But as this next Computer Chronicles episode from May 1988 demonstrates, the add-on board industry was mature enough at this point to adjust to these architectural changes. Stewart Cheifet opened the program by showing Gary Kildall a ChargeCard II, a small add-on board made ALL Computer Inc., which made it possible to access extended memory in an Intel 286-based PC.

Cheifet noted there were basically two strategies when it came to marketing add-on boards. The first was the IBM approach where you had open machines that easily accepted such boards. The second was the closed-box approach of the original Macintosh, where the user couldn’t make changes to the system. Was either of these strategies better in the long run?

Kildall said both approaches worked. In Apple’s case, the tightly controlled environment allowed an application writer to assume a standard configuration with respect to options like high-resolution graphics and a mouse. In the IBM PC’s case, software might have to account for 4 different display adapters and 4 or 5 different mouse types–or no mouse at all–which made it more difficult for the writer. But for the consumer, the advantage of the PC approach was that they could build their own computer system out of add-on boards and customize it to their needs.

Jameco’s Board Business Booming

Wendy Woods presented her first remote segment from Jameco Electronics, a Belmont, California-based company that sold add-on boards through its mail order catalog. Woods noted that Jameco was a mature company in Silicon Valley terms. It was founded in a garage in 1974 and grew up with the computer industry, providing components, boards, and parts for what was then a very different market.

Ray Avanzino, Jameco’s marketing manager, told Woods that before about 1984, people would simply buy PC systems and stick with the stock configurations. But as their needs grew–and the computer craze grew–they saw a need for expansions, such as additional memory, multi-function cards, or a hard disk drive controller card.

Woods said that add-on boards were among the most popular items in Jameco’s catalog, with sales sometimes increasing ten-fold in a year. This was especially true when it came to color graphics cards. Overall, the seemingly insatiable desire for more memory and speed made board sales an important part of Jameco’s income.

As for the introduction of new technology such as the IBM PS/2, that was not as much of a concern to Jameco, at least for now. Avanzino said in the short term, it was actually helping their business. The more expensive PS/2 machines came with a lot more features standard. This, in turn, led to increased demand for add-on boards to upgrade the abilities of less expensive earlier models such as the IBM PC/XT.

Indeed, Woods added that at least part of the reason for the success of add-on cards were the drops in price. She noted that one of Jameco’s first products was an add-on board that made it possible to display up to 80 columns of text on an Apple II monitor. Originally priced at $395, Jameco now sold that same board for just $40.

Expanded Memory and Graphics for Your PC

Richard Rohlf and Buz Roberts joined Cheifet and Kildall back in the studio for the next segment. Rohlf was a product marketing manager with AST Research, Inc. Roberts was a product manager with Paradise Systems, Inc.

Kildall opened by noting that AST had been in the add-on board business for a number of years. What were customers asking for in terms of add-ons? Rohlf said memory expansion and multifunction boards, such as AST’s SixPak Plus, were among the most popular types of add-ons they sold. Lately, there had been more requests for things like communication boards. AST was also now moving beyond expansion boards to build fully assembled PC-compatible computers such as the AST Premium/286, which was in the studio for today’s demonstration.

Specifically, Rohlf was there to demonstrate AST’s expanded memory board. Cheifet interjected, asking Rohlf to explain the difference between “extended” and “expanded” memory in a PC. Rohlf said extended memory was a type of memory available in a 286- or 386-based PC, which had a larger address space than the original Intel 8088-based PC. This extended memory was only addressable in a special “protected” mode on the 286 or 386. Expanded memory, in contrast, was additional memory that could be swapped into the conventional memory space of the computer–including 8088, 286, and 386 machines–to get around the normal 640 KB memory limit. Expanded memory effectively “fooled” the computer into accepting additional memory.

Rohlf then showed off AST’s line of Rampage/2 expanded memory boards. He noted that AST sold boards that supported a full range of processors and bus types. For example, the Rampage/2 supported 8088-based machines, the Rampage/286 supported 286-based PCs and compatibles, and the Rampage/2-286 supported the IBM PS/2 Model 50 and Model 60. All three boards provided an additional 2 MB of memory.

Next, Rohlf conducted a “before and after” demonstration using the AST Premium/286 equipped with a Rampage/2-286 board. He loaded Lotus’ Sidekick Plus, a popular personal information manager application. Without any expanded memory available, Sidekick Plus used 258 KB of hard disk space as “virtual” memory. This meant that when Rohlf then opened a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, he received an error message, as there was only 14 bytes of actual memory left.

Rohlf then rebooted the computer using the expanded memory board. This effectively replaced the virtual memory on the hard disk with actual memory. So now when Rohlf booted Sidekick Plus, the program used 800 KB of expanded memory. And not only was there no error message, but th computer still had 315 KB of conventional memory and 276 KB of expanded memory available. This provided a very rudimentary form of multi-tasking, as Sidekick Plus continued to run in memory even when another program, such as 1-2-3, was active on the screen.

Cheifet asked about compatibility problems with respect to software. Rohlf said there really weren’t any such issues. AST’s boards were designed to run under most DOS systems and there were very few programs that caused any problems when it came to expanded memory. He noted the industry was moving towards a new Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) to address that issue.

Rohlf got a bit technical here, so to briefly summarize: Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft developed the first widely adopted expanded memory standard, EMS 3.2. Meanwhile, AST, Quadram, and Ashton-Tate came up with a competing standard called EEMS. The two standards eventually converged into a unified EMS 4.0 standard, which released in 1987. When this episode was recorded in April 1988, hardware supporting EMS 4.0 was just starting to come out. Rohlf noted that some vendors had made 4.0-compatible drivers available for older EMS 3.2 and EEMS boards, but they still couldn’t handle all of the functions of native EMS 4.0 hardware, so a customer had to keep that in mind when purchasing an expanded memory board.

Switching from memory expansion to graphics cards, Cheifet asked Roberts to discuss his company’s latest product, the Paradise VGA Plus. Roberts said this card was designed to be compatible with the new video standard introduced on the IBM PS/2 line–i.e., the Video Graphics Array (VGA) standard. He noted the VGA standard offered higher resolution and more colors on-screen than the previous EGA standard.

To demonstrate the capabilities of the Paradise VGA Plus, Roberts opened Microsoft Windows/286 on the AST Premium/286. Several windows opened to illustrate the 800-by-600 graphics resolution. This was actually higher than the standard 640-by-480 resolution available with the IBM PS/2’s native VGA card.

Switching from Windows to MS-DOS, Roberts ran AutoCAD, a popular computer-aided design application, and pulled up a 3D color image of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 800-by-600 resolution. Next, Roberts opened WordStar Professional, a word processing application, to show that the VGA Plus card displayed 132 columns of text on screen at a time. He added the VGA display made the application font more readable. Finally, Roberts ran Venutra Publisher, a desktop publishing application built on top of Digital Research’s GEM desktop, which displayed both text and graphics on the screen.

Cheifet asked for some demonstrations of “pretty pictures” using the VGA Plus. Roberts showed a few slides, including an image of two birds sitting on a tree limb, a bridge, and a man standing in front of a bridge. Roberts noted that these images were lower-resolution–just 320-by-200 pixels–but this allowed for displaying up to 256 colors on-screen at a time (out of a possible 256,000).

Mac Add-On Helping to Design Safer Airplanes

Wendy Woods’ second and final remote segment focused on an add-on board for the Macintosh II. She reported from Radar Data Systems (RDS), a company based in San Mateo, California, which used Macintosh computers to develop a new collision avoidance system for aircraft. Woods explained that the United States Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration recently adopted new safety rules requiring most commercial aircraft to have such systems installed within the next five years.

But collision avoidance systems were expensive, Woods noted, costing up to $200,000 per plane, so there was a need for a cheaper alternative. That is where an add-on board for the Macintosh II called TV Producer came into play. RDS used TV Producer to design a visual system that displayed current air traffic around an airplane along with an aeronautical chart of the ground. TV Producer, which was manufactured by Portland, Oregon-based Computer Friends, allowed the two displays to be superimposed. (The ground map actually came from a video cassette.)

The actual RDS technology was proprietary and would not involve the use of TV Producer, Woods clarified, but the add-on card made it possible to create a demonstration of the ultimate product. It also enabled the programmers to choose colors and an on-screen design before committing the final version to silicon. Art Shulenberger, the president of RDS, told Woods that TV Producer helped them to get a good feel for these elements early on in the project, as opposed to after doing extensive programming and finding there was a problem.

Woods added that Shulenberger hoped to have RDS’ first low-cost collision avoidance system on the market within the next two years.

Intel Offers 386 Power for Under $1,000

Rich Bader, the general manager of Intel’s Oregon-based PC Enhancement Operation, joined Cheifet and Kildall in the studio for the next segment. Kildall opened by noting the recent success of Intel’s 386 processor. Bader was there to demonstrate the Intel Inboard 386/PC, a $995 add-on board that effectively turned an Intel 8088-based IBM PC XT into a 386 machine. (Intel also made an Inboard 386/AT to upgrade 286-based PC AT machines.)

Bader briefly explained the Inboard’s specs. The add-on board came with a 16 MHz 80386 microprocessor, a socket for a separate 80387 math co-processor, and 1 MB of 32-bit dynamic RAM (DRAM), with an option to add up to an additional 2 MB, thus allowing the user to add up to 3 MB of RAM to a PC XT. (For reference, a base XT came with 128 KB of RAM, expandable up to 640 KB under its original 8088-based configuration.) Additionally, Bader said the Inboard came with several software utilities to handle functions like EGA caching, disk caching, and provide EMS capability.

Kildall asked if there were any hardware or software compatibilities with the Inboard that people should watch out for. Bader said Intel did a tremendous amount of compatibility testing with known DOS software and everything ran great.

This led Bader into his demonstration of the Inboard running on an upgraded PC XT. He began by running a standard DOS DIR command, which displayed the contents of the disk drive’s directory. First, Bader ran the command under standard XT speed, then he pressed a key to activate the Inboard, which made the directory display significantly faster.

Next, Bader ran the same AutoCAD demo that Buz Roberts did in the prior segment. (I assume that Bader used the same AST Premium/286 as well, although this was not stated on-air.) Again, the program drew the 3D image of the Space Shuttle faster when it ran with the Inboard, in particular one equipped the 80387 math co-processor to handle the additional calculations.

Bader then opened a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet that contained about 2,000 random numbers. Running in the slower XT mode, it took about 10 seconds for Lotus to regenerate all of those numbers. In the high-speed 386 mode, however, it only took about 2 seconds. Finally, Bader ran Microsoft Word 4.0 to show how 386 mode allowed for faster scrolling within a long document.

Kildall asked about new add-on boards being developed at Intel. Bader said there would be some new products in the PC communications area introduced in the not-too-distant future.

Your Computer Is Now Your Fax Machine!

For the final segment, Jan L. Ozer joined Cheifet and Killdall. Ozer was the general manager of Georgia-based Quadram Corporation’s fax division. As you can probably guess, he was there to demonstrate his company’s add-on fax board, which was called JT Fax.

Kildall asked Ozer how using a PC with the a fax board like the JT Fax differed from simply using a dedicated fax machine. Ozer said the fax board saved you a lot of time. Most documents were created on a PC before they were faxed. So rather than printing out a document and walking it down to the fax machine, a user could just send the document directly from their PC. This not only saved time but provided a clearer result at the other end.

Ozer then demonstrated the JT Fax by–wait for it–sending a fax from the on-set PC to a fax machine on the other side of the studio. Kildall noted this was a terminate and stay resident program, which meant it could remain active in memory while another application ran on the machine. Ozer emphasized the fax software was easy to use and compatible with most word processing programs. The software could actually transform word processing files into fax files automatically. All the user had to do was select a filename and the fax number.

Kildall noted that JT Fax used the Group 3 protocol, which was a common standard for facsimile transmissions. Kildall asked about the baud rate on the transmission. Ozer said for this version of JT Fax, the rate was 4800 baud. This was a $395 fax board, which was cheaper than most 9600 baud fax boards on the market that cost around $600. Kildall asked about the average transmission time using a 4800 baud fax board. Ozer said for a page of text it took about one minute.

Cheifet interjected, noting that the fax machine at the other end of the studio had now received the fax. Ozer explained the sample fax was a letter confirming a purchase order. Computer Chronicles producer Sara O’Brien, sitting at the fax machine, then signed the confirmation and used the fax machine to send it back to Ozer’s computer.

Ozer explained that even though WordPerfect was running on his machine, the JT Fax software in memory would automatically store the image of the return fax and save it to disk. He emphasized, however, that you could not actually use WordPerfect while the fax was being received. You could view the file from WordPerfect once the transmission completed. Kildlal asked if you could print out the received fax. Ozer said you could print to any laser printer and most dot-matrix printers.

Kildall noted there was no scanner that came with JT Fax. Ozer said the fax board was compatible with a number of third-party scanners, such as those made by Hewlett-Packard. But for most transmissions you wouldn’t need a scanner. You would send files directly from your word processing software.

As the conversation continued, the PC received the return fax. Kildall asked if you could do any work on the computer while the fax was being received. Ozer said no, the computer was currently locked up while handling the fax. Quadram did have a 9600 baud fax board with a separate microprocessor, which allowed the fax process to run completely in the background. That product would be on the market shortly.

With the return fax finally completed, Ozer opened the file on the computer. Cheifet noted the file appeared as a bitmap graphic rather than text. You could see the digitized signatures of both Ozer and O’Brien on the screen.

Paradise, Quadram Early Acquisitions That Faded Away

The story of AST Research is fairly comprehensive, especially as the company evolved from a simple add-on board maker to one of the largest PC clone makers, so I’ll reserve that discussion for a future post. Here, I’ll look at two of the other add-on board companies featured in this episode, Paradise Systems and Quadram Corporation, both of which were already subsidiaries of other companies by mid-1988.

Paradise Passed to Philips

Paul Jain founded Universal Electronics, Inc., in 1982, later changing the name to Pacific Universal Research, Inc., and finally to Paradise Systems, Inc. The company’s first major product was the Paradise MultiDisplay Card (MDC), which basically combined the two display modes available on the IBM PC XT–monochrome text and color graphics–into a single add-on card. This eliminated the need to install separate cards for each mode.

Paradise continued to focus on graphics cards with its 1986 release of an add-on board that emulated IBM’s Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA). That same year, disk drive manufacturer Western Digital Corporation acquired Paradise Systems in a stock swap initially valued at $35.4 million. Western Digital continued to operate Paradise as a wholly owned subsidiary.

The next year, 1987, IBM introduced its PS/2 line with the new VGA graphics card. Paradise quickly managed to create its own VGA chip and add-on board–the Paradise VGA Plus seen in this episode–which solidified the company’s position as “one of the biggest players in the graphics adapter market,” according to an October 1988 report in Wendy Woods’ NewsBytes. Woods added that there was a “rush to fill in the graphics voids created when IBM kept its VGA card prices high.”

Indeed, demand was so strong that in August 1989, Western Digital discovered that between 500,000 and 1 million Paradise VGA chips and boards that had been rejected and scheduled for scrapping were stolen and sold on the “gray market” in Taiwan. Western Digital later filed a civil lawsuit against three former employees accused being the ringleaders in the theft.

It was also in 1989 that Paradise Systems ceased operating as an independent subsidiary. That June, Western Digital merged Paradise into another subsidiary, Western Digital Imaging, which continued to release graphics boards under the “Paradise” label. In 1991, Western Digital merged Western Digital Imaging back into the parent company, which now operated as its multimedia unit. Western Digital subsequently sold the multimedia unit to Philips Electronics in September 1995.

Philips restored the “Paradise” name to its newly acquired unit. But that only lasted a short time. In August 1996, Philips quietly shut down the Paradise unit and laid off its remaining employees.

Quadram Parent Becomes Major Tech Incubator

Timothy Farris and J. Leland Strange founded Quadram Corporation in August 1981. Based in Norcross, Georgia, Quadram’s earliest products were add-on boards for the IBM PC and compatibles, including the Quadlink, which enabled PC users to run Apple II software. Quadram only existed for a brief period as an independent company, however, as it was purchased by another Norcross-based company, Intelligent Systems Corporation (ISC), in December 1982.

Charles Muench and Terrance Hughey founded ISC nine years earlier, in September 1973. ISC’s initial focus was manufacturing color computer readout terminals. The company later put out its own line of early microcomputers, known as CompuColor.

After the Quadram acquisition, Farris and Strange both remained with their new parent company ISC. In April 1983, ISC chairman Charles Muench promoted Strange to president and chief operating officer. (ISC co-founder Terrance Hughey left in 1976 to start another company.) Strange later became chairman and CEO.

Under Strange’s leadership, ISC acquired several other tech companies, including Princeton Graphic Systems, Intercolor Corporation, Peachtree Software, Video Seven, and Asher Technologies. It was Asher that originally developed the JT Fax board. (The name was reportedly a play on “just the facts,” the catchphrase of fictional Los Angeles police detective Joe Friday from Dragnet.) But as ISC’s stock price languished, Strange started looking to sell off parts of the company. In 1988, ISC sold its controlling stake in Video Seven, which ironically was founded by Paul Jain after he sold Paradise Systems. That same year, ISC also sold Princeton Graphics, which produced monitors as a subsidiary of Quadram. Strange also sold ISC’s original color terminals division back to company founder Charles Muench.

Strange also attempted to sell Asher Technologies in 1986, but the buyer backed out at the last minute, prompting ISC to pursue a successful breach of contract lawsuit. It appears that ISC ended up closing Asher Technologies in 1991.

Even Leland Strange’s original company was shown no mercy. In May 1989, ISC announced the breakup and sale of Quadram Corporation. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., a leading manufacturer of modems, acquired the JT Fax line. National Semiconductor purchased the remaining Quadram assets, including the company’s name and associated intellectual property.

In November 1988, ISC’s director of planning, Bonnie Herron, told NewsBytes that this mass subsidiary sell-off was part of Strange’s vision for the company moving forward. ISC would now be a “computer industry venture fund with teeth,” focusing on making investments in promising technology companies.

To that end, ISC created the Shared Resource Technology Center (SRTC), which Strange appointed Herron to run. Over the next decade, the SRTC’s “technology incubator” supported up to two dozen companies at a time, according to a 1998 report in the Atlanta Jounal-Constitution, most of which were based near ISC’s home base of Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Perhaps ISC’s most important investment, however, was CoreCard Software, a credit card processing software company spun off from PaySys International in 2001. By 2005, ISC had acquired 85 percent of CoreCard and Strange assumed day-to-day control of the company while retaining his position as ISC’s CEO.

Over the next two decades, CoreCard grew to become ISC’s principal business. In 2021, ISC officially changed its name to CoreCard Corporation. Leland Strange remains chairman and CEO as of this writing in December 2024. According to CoreCard’s most recent annual report, the company had what Strange called a “blah” year in 2023, largely due to uncertainty surrounding CoreCard’s largest customer, Goldman Sachs, and its money-losing partnership with Apple to market the Apple Card.

Notes from the Random Access File