What Alpha micro is to me...

Kodom0336

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Jan 16, 2003, 9:04:43 PM1/16/03

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I worked for Alpha Micro from 1980 until it's demise. I still work for a
company in which bought Alpha Micro. I sat down and start writing about the
first years at AM. I will post some of it; if anyone is interested I will
continue.

My Alpha Micro Story

I moved out to Southern California after a getting married to my first wife
looking for fame and fortune. After looking for work for weeks I got an
interview with a gentlemen named Fred. He took me through and showed me a host
of big garage like rooms with people building and testing computer equipment.
The next day a lady from personnel called me and offered me a job. Personnel
took the time to tell me the Alpha Micro story of how Bob Hichcock and Dick
Wilcox started in a garage with John Glade building the first AMOS machine.

So I showed up that next Monday ready to work. I was introduced to two people
named Fong and Kimche. I understood every forth word they spoke for the next
few weeks as I was trained. I learned by watching. We would take a "cherry
picker" and crank a Phoenix disk drive (a CDC machine that had four fixed
platters and one removable platter) and put it on a cart where we would wheel
it into a room where we would hook it up to a computer (AM100 set system) then
put a bootable cartridge (platter) in the unit then turn on the system and many
words would come up on a Lear Siglear terminal. Then we would align the heads
then test the unit with a disk exerciser for forty-eight hours. Then the disk
drive would get boxed back up then sent back to the stockroom.

This was a fun place and a fun time. Alpha Micro provided all the soda pop,
coffee, juices and instant soups you could drink. Alpha Micro had a pizza party
at least once a month. When it was really hot they would bring up ice cream. I
recall the first million-dollar month in September of 1980. Alpha Micro had a
big pizza party with a add keg of beer.

I remember moving from the 100 set and 100t's to the first 100l systems. That
would be from the wd20 processer to the M68000 processer. I remember going from
CDC Hawk and Phoenix drive to sealed Winchester drives, 8.5 and 30 MB Priam
drives. With this Alpha Micro developed the VCR Backup as a low cost backup to
backup sealed which did not have removable platters.

Alpha Micro got bigger and move to two larger buildings about two miles apart,
Corperate and Manufacturing. Alpha Micro grew from about one hundred employees
to about two hundred.

news.state.ak.us

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Jan 17, 2003, 4:19:01 PM1/17/03

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I have a web site for the AM100 emulator I'm working on
(www.otterway.com/am100) and I'd be happy to put up a section on Alpha Micro
stories and to post your reminiscences there if you want...

"Kodom0336" <kodo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030116210443...@mb-mp.aol.com...

Mike Talbutt

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Jan 22, 2003, 4:10:43 PM1/22/03

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Hey Kenny,

Nice to see long-time Alpha Micro employees and customers posting. But
Kenny, "until it's demise." is very untrue.

Alpha Micro has continued selling AMOS systems through our value added
resellers. We are now located in Irvine, CA, near our original
location. The company that started as "Alpha Microsystems" was split
into three parts in earily 2001. For a while the name "Alpha
Microsystems" was not used by any of the parts, probably to reduce
confusion. Our group kept the AMOS software and hardware lines and
uses the name Alpha Micro Products to signify the changes. (But most
people just called us Alpha Micro.) Now we are again using Alpha
Microsystems along with Alpha Micro and Alpha Micro Products. Even the
Internet domain AlphaMicro.com is again under our control.

Two of the original people you mentioned, Dick Wilcox and John Glade,
are working for Alpha Micro today, designing, developing, and
manufacturing AMOS based products. Dick Wilcox did much of the AMPC
5.0 and 6.0 software upgrades and the SuperFalcon. He is now deeply
involved in writing much of our next "AMOS" for our new hardware.

Many others here have been associated with Alpha Micro for over 20
years. So, Kenny, watch the language, please! Being old does not mean
dead!!!

Sage

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Jan 28, 2003, 10:11:18 AM1/28/03

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I "started with AM" in about 1977. We were loaned an AM-100, AM-200, AM-300
board set that had been loaned to some Houston people ("Starship
Enterprises") by AM for software development purposes demo purposes.

Starship had the greatest animated menu you have ever seen, and no software
behind the menu. Canibis seemed to obstruct actual functional software
development.

We became an AM dealer, (Diversa Systems) sold several decent systems,
finally couldn't cope with no capital and lack of financing when interest
rates hit 22% in the late '70s and went out of business. Our then demo
machine moved to another city, where over the next 3 years our "shop system"
with Hawk, became the mainstay of a built from scratch $12 million dollar a
year business with the addition of a Dravac 30? meg drive and a few other
parts.

If it hadn't been for the AM system, that business wouldn't have been 1/4
that size.

AM had its growing pains like every new small computer business I have seen
since then. They found they couldn't give for free what they had promised.
Support had to cost money, and 90 day software releases seemed to take about
a year.

IBM came out with the PC, a lousy little computer with one floppy disk, when
the Alpha could run 1200 Meg Calcomp Tridents for not much more money (for
the Alpha part). And the rest is well known history.

Always wondered what happened to Dick Wilcox. Glad he is back messin' with
Alpha's. I wish I was.

Cary Fitch