Archive Corporation
Data storage company active in the 1980s
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archive Corporation was a computer tape drive manufacturer, based in Costa Mesa, California, that was acquired by Conner Peripherals in 1992.
 | |
| Industry | Computer |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 in Costa Mesa, California |
| Defunct | 1993 |
| Fate | Acquired by Conner Peripherals |
| Products | Tape drives |
Number of employees | 3,367 (1990) |
History
The company was founded in 1980 and based out of Costa Mesa, California.[1] The company employed 3,367 in 1990 and reached revenues of US$293 million in that year, up from $79 million in 1986.[2]
Of particular note are the Archive DDS tape drives produced for Silicon Graphics that could also read and write Digital Audio Tapes (DAT): the Archive Python 4320 and the Archive Peregrine 4326 (rebranded under Conner or Seagate).[3] In 1990, Archive established Ardat, Inc., as a subsidiary dedicated to marketing the company's DAT drives.[4]
Prior to this, Archive was a leading vendor of the very popular quarter-inch cartridge (QIC) format which was a popular distribution format for Unix workstations and servers. For example, software for the Sun-3 (running the Motorola 68K family) and the Sun-4 (based on SPARC processors) was most commonly distributed on QIC media before CD-ROMs became more cost-effective. Archive was better known for their QIC drives.[5]
Conner Peripherals acquired Archive in December 1992 for about $151 million.[6][7]
Acquisitions
In 1989, Archive acquired Maynard Electronics.[8] The MaynStream brand of tape drives and software was maintained.[9]
In March 1990, Archive acquired Cipher Data Products for $120 million.[10] This included Cipher's subsidiary Irwin Magnetic Systems.[11]
