Barrington International
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 1980 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States |
| Founder | William M. Cassell |
| Defunct | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Ann Arbor , United States |
Key people | William M. Cassell (founder) |
| Products | E'Lite microcomputer |
Number of employees | 10 (1983) |
The E'Lite is a compact microcomputer utilizing the Zilog Z80B processor, launched by Barrington International Corporation in 1982. It marked the debut of Irwin Magnetic Systems' 510 Winchester tape drives in the marketplace.
Development and specifications
Barrington International was established in 1980 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by William M. Cassell, who had previously served as executive vice president at Candor Computer Corporation. The creation of the E'Lite spanned nearly two years, culminating in its delivery in September 1982, approximately two months following its public announcement. Despite the industry's transition toward 16-bit processors, Cassell opted for the 8-bit Zilog Z80B due to the scarcity of 16-bit software, which he believed would limit commercial success. Although a 16-bit variant was planned for release in spring 1983, it never came to fruition.
At its introduction, the E'Lite featured Irwin Magnetic Systems' much-anticipated 510 Winchester tape drives, developed collaboratively with Italy's Olivetti S.p.A.. Irwin, headquartered in Ann Arbor and founded by former executives of Sycor Inc., had connections with Cassell stemming from his tenure at Sycor. The 510 Winchester drive provided a storage capacity of 10 MB and a seek time of 33 ms, with random write speeds reportedly five times faster than those of standard 5.25-inch floppy disks. This drive was designed to fit within the E'Lite's single 5.25-inch internal bay, while an external floppy drive could be attached through the integrated controller.
The system incorporated a 2 KB page cache alongside up to 64 KB of RAM. It was shipped with either the single-user CP/M operating system or an optional multi-user MP/M OS; however, multi-user functionality was initially unavailable. In October 1982, Barrington released a daughtercard that expanded memory by an additional 256 KB, added a second Z80B CPU, and provided four extra RS-232 serial ports. This expansion allowed support for up to five simultaneous ASCII terminal users via these ports plus the original one. The daughtercard was bundled with MP/M, and the system also included a Centronics-style parallel port.
Cassell arranged a partnership with Candor to bundle their Series 20-3 database management software with the E'Lite. Additionally, the daughtercard package contained MicroPro's WordStar word processing program and Comshare's Target PlannerCalc financial planning application.
By August 1983, Barrington had grown to employ ten staff members and established an international network of dealers but had sold only around 100 units of the E'Lite. The expected release of the 16-bit model had not occurred by that time. Barrington had ceased operations by 1986 when Cassell took on the role of executive director at the Michigan Technology Council.