Plus Development

Plus Development Corporation

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Computer hardware
Predecessor	BBH Corporation, Bits in Space, Qew Corporation
Founded	October 1983 (1983-10)
Founder	Stephen Berkley, Dave Brown, Joel Harrison
Defunct	1993 (1993)
Fate	Acquired La Cie in 1990; later defunct
Headquarters	Milpitas , United States
Products	Hardcard (hard disk drive expansion card)
Parent	Quantum Corporation

Plus Development Corporation operated as a majority-owned subsidiary of Quantum Corporation. The firm is credited with creating the Hardcard, a hard disk drive integrated onto an expansion card, which initiated a surge of comparable innovations throughout the 1980s.

History

Quantum Corporation focused on producing advanced, high-performance hard drives tailored for minicomputer systems. In October 1983, Plus Development was established by Quantum staff members Stephen Berkley (President), Dave Brown (Engineering), and Joel Harrison (Architecture). The company's inception followed a conversation between Nolan Bushnell and Quantum's President James Patterson regarding entry into the consumer market. Their mission was to streamline the upgrade process for the recently introduced IBM Personal Computer, which initially lacked an internal hard drive. The company was first incorporated under the name BBH Corporation, reflecting the founders' initials, then briefly operated as Bits in Space, before transitioning to Qew Corporation and ultimately adopting the name Plus Development Corporation.

Product development

During its initial two years, Plus Development achieved several pioneering milestones within the industry:

• Introducing a hard disk mounted directly into an ISA PC expansion slot, predating PCMCIA standards
• Combining the host controller circuitry with the hard disk printed circuit board (PCB)
• Developing a more cost-efficient drive controller chipset than those previously available
• Reducing hard drive thickness to a mere 1 inch
• Facilitating user-friendly installation of hard drives for consumers

Competition

Within twelve months after Plus Development launched the Hardcard, 28 companies released similar products. Most rival designs utilized standard 1.6 inch (40.6 mm) height drives, which resulted in cards extending over adjacent PC slots and often occupying one and a half expansion slots. Some competitors positioned their drives on the side opposite the connector to partially preserve neighboring slot availability. Notable competitors and their respective products included:

• JVC (Japan Victor Company)
• Kamerman Labs (Beaverton, Oregon) – Slot Machine
• Maynard Electronics (Casselberry, Florida) – On Board
• Microscience International Corp (Mountain View, California) – EasyCard
• Mountain Computer Inc. (Scotts Valley, California) – DriveCard
• Qubie Distributing (Camarillo, California) – Hardpack
• Tandon Corporation (Chatsworth, California) – DiskCard, Business Card
• Verbatum Corporation (Sunnyvale, California) – Data Bank
• Western Digital (Irvine, California) – FileCard

Tandy 1000

Hardcards became the favored solution for adding hard drives to early models of the Tandy 1000 series featuring 8-bit slots—such as the Sx, Tx, Sl, and Tl variants. While Tandy provided a smaller 10.5-inch expansion slot, Plus Development's hard cards required the full 13-inch slot length.

As a result, Plus Development's hard cards were physically incompatible with Tandy 1000 systems due to their extended length; however, removing the computer’s cover and metal plate could enable proper fitting and operation of a Plus card.

Acquisitions

Throughout its eight years of operation, Plus Development completed a single acquisition: La Cie, a company located in Tualatin, Oregon, specializing in the production and direct sales of external hard drives designed for Apple devices. This acquisition, valued at $3.8 million in cash, was disclosed in December 1990 and represented Plus Development’s deliberate expansion into the Apple product market.

External links

• Computer History Museum