Kaypro

Kaypro was a personal-computer manufacturer in the 1980s. Made popular by its striking line of rugged, portable CP/M-based computers, it faded from the mainstream by the end of the decade.

History

Kaypro began as Non-Linear Systems, a maker of electronic test equipment, founded, in 1952, by Andrew Kay, the inventor of the digital voltmeter.

In 1981, Non-Linear Systems began designing a personal computer, called KayComp, that would compete with the popular Osborne 1 transportable microcomputer. In 1982, Non-Linear Systems organized a daughter company called Kaypro and rechristened the computer with the same name.

The first product, the Kaypro II, carried the Roman-numeral designation because the most popular microcomputer at the time, other than the IBM PC, was the Apple II. The Kaypro II was designed to be portable like the Osborne. (When laptop computers became available, the larger machines came to be called transportable or luggable, rather than portable.) Set in an aluminum case, it weighed 29 pounds (13 kilograms) and was equipped with a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 kilobytes of RAM, and two 5¼-inch double-density floppy-disk drives. It ran on the CP/M operating system of Digital Research, Inc., and sold for about $1,795.00.

By mid-1983, Kaypro had dropped the price to $1,595, and was selling more than 10,000 units a month—briefly making it the fifth-largest computer maker in the world. The Kaypro II's market success was due to a number of factors: it had a larger screen than the Osborne; it came bundled with third-party application software (PerfectWriter and PerfectCalc, later to be replaced by MicroPro's WordStar and CalcStar); and it was supported by a network of trained dealers. The boxy units were so popular that they spawned a network of hobbyist user groups across the United States that provided local support for Kaypro products. Kaypro's success contributed to the eventual failure of the Osborne Computer Corporation.

Additionally, Kaypro published and subsidized PROFILES Magazine, a monthly, 72-page, four-color magazine that went beyond coverage of Kaypro's products to include substantive information on CP/M and MS-DOS. It was comparable in content and design to other computer magazines of that era. A second popular magazine that also covered Kaypro products was Micro Cornucopia, published at Bend, Oregon by David J. Thompson, a former Tektronix engineer.

Following the success of the Kaypro II, Kaypro moved on to produce a long line of similar computers into the mid 80's. Exceedingly loyal to its original core group of customers, most of their computers ran on the CP/M operating system, though towards the mid to late 1980's, somewhat behind the market trend, they began producing IBM clones. The slow start into the IBM clone market would have serious ramifications.

After several turbulent years, with sales dwindling, Kaypro filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1990. Despite restructuring, the company was unable to recover and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 1992. In 1995, its remaining assets were sold for $2.7 million.

The Kaypro name briefly re-emerged as an online vendor of PCs in 1999, but was discontinued in 2005 by its parent company Premio Computers Inc. due to sluggish sales.

Kaypro founder Andy Kay re-emerged from the final failure of Kaypro with a second company, called Kay Computers, utilizing a similar sales strategy.

Kaypro Computers

Hardware

Kaypro's first computer, the Kaypro II (differing only in bundled software from the model 2) had a 2.5 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 kB of RAM, dual, single-sided, 191 kB 5¼ inch floppy disk drives, and an 80 column green monochrome 9" CRT.

Early in the Kaypro’s life, there was a legal dispute with the owner of the Bigboard computer who charged that the Kaypro II main circuit board was an unlicensed copy or clone.

The outer case was constructed of aluminum. The computer featured a detachable keyboard that covered the screen and disk drives when stowed. The Kaypro ran off regular AC mains power and was not equipped with a battery.

The Kaypro IV and later the Kaypro 4 had two double-sided disks The Kaypro 4 was released in 1984, usually referred to as Kaypro 4 '84, as opposed to the Kaypro IV released one year earlier and referred to as Kaypro IV '83.

The Kaypro 10 followed the Kaypro II, and featured a 10 megabyte hard drive and a single 5¼" floppy drive.

Kaypro later followed their CP/M machines with MS-DOS-based computers in the Kaypro 16, Kaypro PC and others, as the IBM PC and its clones gained popularity. Kaypro was late to the market, however, and never gained the kind of prominence in the MS-DOS arena that it had enjoyed with CP/M. Instead, Kaypro watched as a new company Compaq, grabbed its market share with the Compaq Portable, an all-in-one portable computer that was similar to Kaypro's own CP/M portables with the exception that it ran MS-DOS and was nearly 100% IBM compatible. This and other corporate issues helped lead to Kaypro's eventual downfall.

Software

CP/M was the standard operating system for the first generation of Kaypros. The first application software that came with the Kaypro II included an office suite from Perfect Software which included PerfectWriter, PerfectCalc, PerfectFiler, and PerfectSpeller, as well as Kaypro's own compiled S-BASIC (which produced executable .com files). PerfectFiler featured non-relational, flat-file databases suitable for merging a contact list with form letters created in PerfectWriter. PerfectWriter itself was initially just a rebranded Mince and Scribble from Mark of the Unicorn, which was itself a CP/M implementation of the (then) mainframe Emacs and Scribe using BDS C. Later on MBasic (a variant of Microsoft Basic) and The Word Plus spellchecker were added to the model II suite of software. The Word Plus included a set of utilities that could help solve crossword puzzles or anagrams, insert soft hyphens, alphabetize word lists, and compute word frequencies. Another utility program called Uniform allowed the Kaypro to read disks formated by Osborne, Xerox, or TRS-80 computers.

The initial bundled applications were soon replaced by the well-known titles WordStar, (a word processor with MailMerge, for personalised mass mailings), the SuperCalc spreadsheet, two versions of the Microsoft BASIC interpreter, Kaypro's S-BASIC, a bytecode-compiled BASIC called C-Basic, and the dBaseII relational database system.

Using the comma-separated values (CSV) file format, data could be moved between these programs quite easily, which enhanced the utility of the package. The manuals assumed no computer background, the programs were straightforward to use, and thus it was usual to find the CEO of a small company or somebody else developing the applications needed in-house.

The Kaypro II and later models also came with some games, including versions of old character-based games from earlier days (e.g., Star Trek), and a few of which were arcade games re-imagined in ASCII, including a Pac-Man-like game called "CatChum" and "Ladder," a Donkey Kong-like game.

All this software if bought separately would have cost more than the entire hardware and software package together. The Kaypro II was a very usable and (at the time) powerful computer for home or office, even though the painted metal case made it look more like a rugged laboratory instrument than an office machine. They enjoyed a reputation for durability.

Later MS-DOS Kaypro computers offered a similar software bundle.

Kaypro by Model & Year

Kaypro's nomenclature was odd, with the numerical designations for their machines having more to do with the capacity of the drives than the order they were produced. Kaypro also released several different models with the same names, perhaps hoping to capitalize on the name recognition of their older machines. As a result, identifying exactly which model a Kaypro is often requires an inspection of their hardware configuration.

All of the computers listed below are of the portable type unless otherwise noted.

1982

Kaypro II - The original Kaypro, was distinctive over its competition, the Osborne microcomputer, employing a 9 inch internal monitor over the Osborne's 5 inch display. A redesigned version of the Kaypro II was released in 1984 that allowed block style graphics. This version of the Kaypro II had a version of Space Invaders along with the typical ASCII games.

1983

Kaypro IV - An evolution of the Kaypro II, the Kaypro IV had two DS/DD drives (390 kB) and came with Wordstar in addition to the Perfect Suite of software.

Kaypro 10 - The Kaypro 10 was one of the earliest computers to come standard with a hard drive. It came with a 10 megabyte internal hard drive and a single DS/DD floppy drive.

1984

Kaypro 4 - The Kaypro 4 was virtually identical to the IV, but featured half-height drives instead of full height drives, a 4 MHz clock speed and had basic graphics capabilities.

Kaypro Robie - The Kaypro Robie was the only CP/M based Kaypro to be non-portable. Designed as a desktop computer, it had the same motherboard as the Kaypro 4. It was also equipped with two 2.6 MB high density floppy drives and a 300 Baud modem. The Robie was jet black, with the drives mounted above the screen, and the front panel angled upward. These features gave rise to the nickname, 'Darth Vader's lunchbox.' The Robie did not sell well, but it did make periodic cameo appearances on the ABC television series Moonlighting, as the desktop computer used by Bruce Willis' character David Addison.

1985

Kaypro 2X - The Kaypro 2X was similar to the Kaypro 4, but featured a built in 300 baud modem.

Kaypro "New" 2 - A scaled down Kaypro 2X for the budget buyer, came with minimal software, and did not feature the internal modem.

Kaypro 4+88 - A dual system computer, the 4+88 was equipped with both an 8088 processor and a Z80, and was capable of running both the MS-DOS and CP/M operating systems. It came with 256 kB of RAM for the MS-DOS operating system that could double as a RAM disk for CP/M.

Kaypro 16 - Very similar in appearance to the Kaypro 10, the Kaypro's 16's main difference was that it had an 8088 processor and 256 kB of RAM and ran on the MS-DOS operating system instead of CP/M.

Kaypro 2000 - Kaypro's first and only laptop, the Kaypro 2000 was an MS-DOS machine that ran on heavy lead-acid batteries. Strikingly similar in basic appearance to a modern laptop, it featured a detachable keyboard and brushed aluminum casing and a pop-up 3.5 inch floppy drive.

Kaypro PC - Late on the PC market, the Kaypro PC was intended as a competitor to the IBM PC-XT desktop machine. Running at a faster clock speed than IBM's machine, it was available with a larger hard drive than that offered by IBM and an extensive software package.

1986

Kaypro 1 - The Kaypro 1 was the last CP/M model Kaypro introduced. In most ways, it was simply a Kaypro 2X with a smaller software package. It is distinctive from earlier Kaypro models because of its vertically oriented disk drives.

Kaypros in popular media

Notable science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote the script for " The Year We Make Contact" on a Kaypro II in 1982, using an early modem to transmit the script to his studio contact in California from his home in Sri Lanka.
As mentioned above, the Kaypro Robie made periodic cameo appearances on the ABC television series Moonlighting, as the desktop computer used by Bruce Willis' character David Addison.
In the 2001 film The Score, a hacker boasts, "Give me a Kaypro 64 and a dialtone and I can do anything." While the "Kaypro 64" never existed, it's obviously a reference to Kaypro computers.
Perhaps an obscure product plug, Peggy Hill uses a Kaypro to write her musings in the animated TV series King of the Hill. It was replaced in the season 4 episode "Hillennium" by what appears to be an iMac.
In The Simpsons, Marge Simpson answers "That's how we got our KayPro..." when Nelson Muntz speaks of his habit of throwing computers around.

Notes

Sources

US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (2000)."ARROW ELECTRONICS V JUSTUS 9955210". Retrieved April. 1, 2006.

External links

Personal computers | Portable computers | Computer hardware companies | Defunct computer companies of the United States

Kaypro | Kaypro

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