System Industries

The firm was founded in 1968^[1] by Ed Zschau^[4] with backing from Brentwood Associates, a private equity firm.^[5] Corporate earnings were followed by The New York Times.^[6][7] Their focus was to be a third-party provider of DEC-compatible equipment, especially for printers and disk drives (and their controllers).^[8]

In 1992 they acquired Emulex's disk drive business.^[9] By 1993 System Industries was dealing with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[10] That same year they introduced an eraseable optical disc product and an 8mm magnetic tape storage devices.^[11]

System Industries was one of 19 manufacturers of disk drive products that were sued in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Digital Equipment Corporation for alleged patent violations.^[12] Individual settlements were reached.^[13]

System Industries had a subsidiary named Silonics,^[14][15] which made ink-jet printers.^[16][17] By 1980,^[14] System Industries found it more profitable to focus on its disk business.^[18]