Digico (computer company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Digico was a British computer company founded in 1965. Digico was best known for its 16-bit minicomputer series, the Micro 16. Later Digico started manufacturing a networked CP/M based microcomputer system with business software options, named Digico Prince.
| |
| digico, DIGICO Computers | |
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founders | Keith Trickett and Avo Hiiemae |
| Defunct | January 30, 1984 (as independent company) |
| Fate | acquired from the receiver by Centreway Industries plc |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Eric Lubbock (chairman) |
| Products | data loggers, minicomputers, microcomputers |
Company history
Digico was founded in 1965 by Keith Trickett and Avo Hiiemae, two ex-ICL electronics engineers. Former MP Eric Lubbock was chairman from 1969 to 1983.[1] The company was based in Letchworth initially, moving to a new factory in Stevenage in 1973[2] and employing about 90 staff.[3]
Digico's first product was a laboratory data-logging and spectrum analyser hardware system named DIGIAC. A prototype had been developed before Digico was formed, by the founders in a garage, so became an immediate source of income.[1] Digico soon developed a 16-bit minicomputer series, the Micro 16, for which it was best known for.[4]
In 1974 Digico had a turnover of over £1 million (equivalent to £9 million in 2023) and in 1977 well over £1 million.[5][6]
Spanverne Investments raised a large private capital investment into Digico in 1981, while the new Prince product was being developed.[7]
In October 1982, Digico announced it would close its Stevenage factory with the loss of 130 jobs within six months. This was part of a rationalisation plan to concentrate manufacturing at its large Leeds site. It would retain its Letchworth site primarily as a south England office.[8]
On 1 February 1984, the Financial Times reported that after a weekend of failed negotiation between British computer company Optim and Midland Bank, Digico went into receivership on 30 January 1984. Digico owed more that £400,000 to Midland Bank and over £1 million to other creditors. In 1983 debts to the bank had reached about £1.4 million, but were reduced when Optim bought Digico's maintenance contracts with about 1,500 customers for £750,000 in autumn 1983. The company had lost £2.5 million over the previous two years on an annual turnover of about £4 million (equivalent to £13,000,000 in 2023), and had closed its Letchworth factory retaining about 50 employees.[9]
Digico was acquired from the receiver by Centreway Industries plc for £265,000 in March 1984 and merged into its computer group.[10]
Digico Micro 16
Digico quickly started developing a general purpose 16-bit minicomputer, the Micro 16, which became available in 1966. Digico was assisted by the Ministry of Technology and the National Research Development Corporation in this development.[1][2][11] The first version produced was the Digico Micro 16S (1968), followed by the 16P (1970), then the 16V in 1972.[4][12]
| Example applications available for Micro 16V[13] |
|---|
| Animal feed mix control |
| Car park control |
| Census analysis |
| Electroencephalography |
| Gas chromatography |
| ICL 1900 front ending |
| Invoicing |
| Machine tool control |
| Mass spectrometry |
| Stock control |
| Typesetting |
The Digico Micro 16V had a standard memory of 4k words with 950 nano second cycle time, expandable to 64k words, and able to support up to 64 external interfaces. It had an optional microprogrammed floating-point unit.[13] The Micro 16V was supported by a simple and flexibly sized executive that could optionally support multiprogramming, disc files and teletypes.[14] The Micro 16V used semiconductor memory, rather than magnetic-core memory as in the previous models.[15]
The instruction set architecture is single accumulator based with instructions generally having a consistent 12-bit address field. A direct address thus limits memory size to 4k (4096) words in the current selected memory region, named a "stack". Three instructions (load, store, add) permit indirect addressing where the direct address contains the 16-bit address of the operand. A carry register supports multi-word arithmetic; there is no integer multiply or divide instruction. One instruction uses the address field to specify a variety of non-addressing sub-instructions such as shift, carry manipulation and input-output. Floating-point arithmetic is handled by software or an optional floating-point unit with its own registers that can work in 32, 48 or 80-bit modes.[13]
The Micro 16 sold primarily into the data logging market until 1969, when it expanded into areas like process control, stock control and front-end processors for the ICL 1900 mainframe.[1][16]
In 1978 the Digico Micro 16E stackable minicomputer, which was well suited to an office environment, won a Design Council Award for Engineering Products.[17][18]
Digico Prince
In 1981,[19] Digico started manufacturing a CP/M based microcomputer with business software options, named Digico Prince, with a claimed unique seven year maintenance guarantee.[20][21]
A more sophisticated multi-user Digico Prince II system was also available. The Digico 3800 user terminal had three Zilog Z80A processors, 64 kilo-bytes of memory and optionally two floppy disk drives. Up to three Digico 3800s could be connected to a 3810, 3820 or 3830 master workstation with a shared 5 MB Winchester disk drive. Up to 32 of these clusters could further be connected locally or remotely to a Digico 7800 server based on a Digico Micro 16E, providing more shared disc capacity and remote access to IBM, ICL and Honeywell mainframe computers.[22]