Details

Type

Text

Title

Iftikar, Syed oral history

Contributor

Gardner, Tom, Interviewer

Iftikar, Syed, Interviewee

Rosenshteyn, Yan, Cameraperson

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Date

2006-11-01; 2006-12-14

Place of Publication

Mountain View, California

Extent

65 p.

Description

After coming to the U.S. from India in the 1960's, Syed Iftikar obtained a master's degree in mechanical engineering at U.C. Berkeley, and started at Memorex in 1970. He stayed at Memorex for ten years, providing critical development achievements in several generations of magnetic disk drives, and in 1980 became a co-founder of the company now known as Seagate Technology, as a key designer of the first 5.25" HDD. In 1982, he founded SyQuest, which became a pioneer manufacturer of small magnetic disk drives using removable disk cartridges. Syed Iftikar reviews his triumphs and problems while CEO of SyQuest, a pioneer manufacturer of small magnetic disk drives using removable disk cartridges. After initial market success for its products, SyQuest was impacted by more successful competitive disk drive products from Iomega, and Syed resigned from SyQuest in 1996. He then formed Castlewood Systems, in order to produce a higher capacity disk cartridge drive, which was initially successful in the market. However, after an unexpected quality problem severely impacted sales, he closed the company.

Category

Transcription

Subject

Iftikar, Syed; Memorex Corporation; Shugart Technology; Seagate Technology; ST-506; SyQuest; Iomega; Castlewood Systems; Storage history

Collection Title

Oral Histories Online

Accession Number

102658066