Title
Poor, Vic (Victor) oral history
Catalog Number
102658337
Type
Document
Description
Vic Poor discusses his childhood and early interest in radio. Following work at Stromberg-Carlson and Raytheon, Poor formed Frederick Electronics to manufacture radio and telegraphy equipment and later minicomputers for telex and message switching. Poor discusses his association with Gus Roche and Phil Ray, the founders of Datapoint and his suggestion to create a display terminal. Poor designed a more general terminal together with Harry Pyle and both eventually joined Datapoint. Vic Poor discusses the meetings with Intel to create the Datapoint 2200 processor on a single chip and the later lawsuits when Texas Instruments manufactured a version of the processor that Intel sold as the 8008. Poor explains how Datapoint 2200 users started using the terminal as a stand-alone computer and how for the later Datapoint 5500 ARCNET networking was developed. ARCNET was extended and Datapoint also developed video conferencing products. Poor goes over the PC competition Datapoint faced and the hostile takeover that shut down the company. He discusses the proprietary technologies and reflects on the developments of the markets. Vic Poor helped start AirNet to work on cellular phone stations and he discusses their technology. He closes with some views on engineers and managers.
Date
2004-12-08
Contributor
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Bochannek, Alex, Editor
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Hendrie, Gardner, Interviewer
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Poor, Victor, Interviewee
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Shustek, Len, Cameraperson
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Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Melbourne, Florida
Extent
71 p.
Category
Transcription
Subject
Stomberg-Carlson; Charactron; Packard Bell 250 (PB-250); Raytheon Corporation; Frederick Electronics; Telegraphy; Pyle, Harry; Ray, Phil; Roche, Gus; Computer Terminal Corporation; Datapoint; Teletype; Terminal; San Antonio; Time-sharing computer systems.; Datapoint 3300; Terminal emulation; Endianess; Recirculating memory; Intel; Datapoint 2200; Hoff, M. (Ted); Mazor, Stan; Noyce, Robert; DATABUS; Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI); Intel 8008 (Microprocessor); Datapoint 5500; Intel 8080 (Microprocessor); ARCNET; Murphy, John; Edelman, Asher; AirNet; Cellular phone station
Collection Title
Oral history collection
