Text 61341, 145 rader
Skriven 2010-07-08 08:21:00 av TOM WALKER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JEAN PARROT
Ärende: Commodore Computers   1/2
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JP> EV>> I know that You and Jean know that CBM is taken from the first letters
JP> EV>> in the Company Name ==  Commodore Business Machines ==.

JP> Do not forget that this was a Canadian concern.

He was a Transplant though!!  :-)  :-)
Some CBM Trivia:
*****
 Prehistory: Commodore Computer Jack Tramiel

Around 15, Jack Tramiel (then named Idek Tramielski) and his parents
were shipped with other Jews from Lodz, Poland to Auschwitz in 1939,
though his father perished he and his mother survived the months till
Auschwitz' fall in 1944.

1948

    *

      After emigrating to America, Jack Tramiel enlisted and served four
      years in the U.S. Army. At Fort Dix Jack showed a talent for
      unjamming typewriters.

1952

    *

      When Tramiel left the army, he started work at a typewriter repair
      shop and then later set up his own typewriter repair business in
      the Bronx. To supplement his income, he also moonlighted as a cab
      driver.

1955 - the "Birth of Commodore"

    *

      Jack moves to Toronto, Canada and founds Commodore International
      Limited, with a deal with Czechoslovakia to assemble typewriters
      in Canada.
      [Why Commodore? Because Tramiel wanted a name with a military ring
      and because higher ranks, such as General and Admiral, were
      already taken.]
      To help fund his business, he gets Financier C. Powell Morgan, the
      head of the Atlantic Acceptance Company to back his business.

1962

    *

      Commodore stock goes public at $2.50 a share. By now they
      manufacture typewriters and adding machines.

1965

    *

      Atlantic goes bankrupt and C. Powell Morgan is indicted for "his
      defiance of all accepted business principles" and acts of
      "rapacious and unprincipled manipulation." by the Canadian
      government amid charges of fraudulent financial statements, dummy
      companies, and propped stock prices. Tramiel was considered
      suspect as well, but was never charged.

1966

    *

      To keep the struggling Commodore afloat, Jack gave partial control
      (17%) of Commodore to a new investor, Irving Gould for $400,000.

19??

    *

      After looking for a new market and finding one, Commodore starts
      selling the first pocket calculator using a Bowmar LED Display and
      a Texas Instruments Integrated Circuit.

1975Mos Technlogies, Commodore Computer, Chuck Peddle

    *

      The Chip manufacturers themselves enter the lucrative electronic
      calculator market, including Texas Instruments. Their calculators
      retail for less than commodore can assemble them and are stuck
      with a massive inventory. Commodore went from $60 million in sales
      to $5 million in losses.
    *

      [June] Chuck Peddle designs the 6502 Microprocessor for MOS
      Technologies, styled after the Motorola 6800 the 6502 changes the
      microprocessor market overnight by selling at ony $25 per
      individual unit (previously the lowest price was about $150 for an
      8-bit microprocessor).

1976

    *

      Commodore sets up shop on Palo Alto California
    *

      MOS Technologies release the KIM-1 Microprocessor Trainer, a
      single board computer. Rtail $245.
    *

      [October] In order to stop being the "middle man" Commodore
      purchases MOS Tecnologies for $800,000 as well as Frontier, a Los
      Angeles manufacturer of CMOS chips, and MDSA, a LCD maker. Chuck
      peddle convinces Jack Tramiel that the next market is with
      computers and jack says to build one.

1977 - A "PET" is Born!

    *

      [January] Commodore's Chuck Peddle shows the first PET to Radio
      Shack, hoping to have Radio Shack sell it.
    *

      At the West Coast Computer Faire Commodore unveils the Commodore
      PET microcomputer. That year the Apple ][ and TRS-80 are also
      unveiled. Unlike many of the companies Commodore is able to start
      world wide distribution in months instead of years.
    *

      In order to to gauge demand Commodore runs newspaper ads that
      offer a six-week delivery on a computer priced at $599 with which
      Tramiel thought he could still make a profit. An encouraging
      amount of order returned to the sum of $3 million.

1978

    *

      Chuck Peddle leaves Commodore to work for Apple Computer and
      within months returns back to Commodore.

1979Commodore Mos Technologies

    *
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