PolyMorphic Systems

Website Url | http://www.polymorphic-computers.com/ |
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Company Email | [email protected] |
Founding Date | Jan 1976 (45 years ago) |
Number of Employees | 100 |
Website Url | http://www.polymorphic-computers.com/ |
---|---|
Company Email | [email protected] |
Founding Date | Jan 1976 (45 years ago) |
Number of Employees | 100 |
PolyMorphic Systems was a manufacturer of microcomputer boards and systems based on the S-100 bus. Their products included the Poly-88 and the System 8813. The company was incorporated in California in 1976 as Interactive Products Corporation d/b/a PolyMorphic Systems. It was initially based in Goleta, then Santa Barbara, California.
PolyMorphic Systems' first products were several interface boards based on the then-popular S-100 bus. These were compatible with other microcomputers such as the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080. The first was an A/D and D/A converter board. This was followed by a video terminal interface (VTI) card which became the primary display device for their systems. Later board-level products included CPU, RAM, and disk controller cards.
With the release of their CPU card, PolyMorphic began selling complete systems. Their first was the Poly-88, housed in a 5-slot S100 chassis, with additional side-mounted S-100 connectors for the purpose of joining chassis together. This unit earned the nickname "orange toaster" due to its orange metal cover, and the fact that the S-100 cards generated noticeable heat."PolyMorphic Systems History" S100 ComputersThe Poly-88 was available in kit form, or assembled. It was originally called the Micro-Altair, but after objections from MITS, manufacturers of the Altair, the name was changed.