Title
Schmidt, Jonathan oral history
Catalog Number
102701976
Type
Document
Description
Jonathan Schmidt was born in 1941 and at the age of 8 contracted polio. While spending time in an iron lung he decided to study radio if he ever got out. When he did, he became a ham radio operator and also developed an interest in teletype. He received a BA in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He had been working with the hospital ship Hope while in college and after graduation he joined them as a radio technician. He later reenrolled at the University of Michigan and very quickly got his Masters and was working on his PhD. when he joined Vic Poor in Frederick, Maryland at Frederick Electronics. There he worked on teletype switching and related products. In 1969 Plantronics purchased Frederick Electronics. Poor, Schmidt and Harry Pyle went to San Antonio where they joined Computer Terminal Corporation. There they helped design the Datapoint 2200, an extremely successful computer terminal. The company later became Datapoint Corporation and it was there that many innovative products were developed. Among them, teletype switching centers, Arcnet, and the architecture for what became the 8008 processor. By 1974 Schmidt had become Datapoint's Vice President for Advanced Development. In 1985 he left to co-found Performance Technology to provide file servers to Datapoint customers. Performance Technology was bought by Bay/Nortel Networks in 1996. He then co founded PerfTech which provides Web services to cable companies.
Date
2004-06-03
Contributor
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McInnis, Dan, Editor
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Saal, Harry J., Cameraperson
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Schmidt, Jonathan, Interviewee
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Shustek, Len, Interviewer
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Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
San Antonio, Texas
Extent
36 p.
Category
Transcription
Subject
Schmidt, Jonathan; Datapoint; Poor, Victor (Vic); Pyle, Harry; Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC); Teletype switching; ARCNET; 8008; Datapoint 2200; Performance Technology; PerfTech; Bay Networks
Collection Title
Oral history collection
