ECD Corporation

ECD Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	Computers, Electronics
Founded	1974
Founder	Ronald Todd, Jerry Roberts, Richard Eckhardt
Defunct	1983
Headquarters	Cambridge, Massachusetts , United States
Products	Electronic testing instruments, MicroMind microcomputer system, Smart ASCII terminal

ECD Corporation was a privately held American firm specializing in computers and electronics, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company operated from 1974 until its closure in 1983. Its product lineup included electronic testing instruments, the MicroMind microcomputer system, and the Smart ASCII terminal.

History

Established in late 1974 by MIT alumni Ronald Todd, Jerry Roberts, and Richard Eckhardt—with Todd serving as president—ECD launched with an initial investment of $5,000. Eckhardt's entrepreneurial expertise played a significant role in accelerating the firm's entry into the electronics market. Edward W. Costello was later appointed as marketing manager.

The company's inaugural product, released in spring 1975, was the C-meter: a capacitance meter equipped with an LCD display. This device achieved strong sales and paved the way for the T-meter, a durable portable digital thermometer featuring interchangeable thermistor probes designed for industrial applications. The T-meter found acceptance within scientific research facilities and manufacturing plants alike. By 1976, ECD had surpassed $200,000 in revenue and maintained an order backlog valued at $1.5 million.

In late 1976, ECD unveiled the MicroMind, a microcomputer system composed of three circuit boards and priced slightly above $980. It incorporated a MOS Technology 6512 CPU along with 8 KB of RAM, expandable to 16 KB as standard and up to 32 KB through additional expansion cards. The system included a display processor board housing 2.6 KB of video memory and an RF modulator for television output, plus an input/output board containing the power supply. The MicroMind came with an 80-key ASCII keyboard and bundled software such as an enhanced BASIC interpreter named notsoBASIC, a line editor, machine code monitor, assembler, cassette file browser, as well as games including Conway's Game of Life and a space war simulation. Much of this software was created by Bob Frankston, who would later co-found Software Arts.

In May 1977, ECD secured a contract worth $1.38 million from Avakian System Corporation to provide 1,000 MicroMind units to public schools across the United States. Whether a MicroMind II version was ever produced remains unclear.

July 1978 saw the release of the Smart ASCII terminal by ECD—one of the earliest intelligent video terminals capable of displaying 132 columns. The following month marked the introduction of ECD Business Basic, an extended version of Dartmouth BASIC designed specifically for small business needs. Later that year, ECD developed the Biflex floppy disk format: a proprietary 4.5-inch disk able to store up to 512 KB of data.

ECD discontinued its operations in 1983.