SWTPC
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronics, Computer hardware |
| Predecessor | Daniel E. Meyer Company |
| Founded | January 1, 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, United States |
| Founder | Daniel E. Meyer (implied predecessor) |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Fate | Rebranded as Point Systems, then ceased business |
| Successor | Point Systems |
| Headquarters | San Antonio , United States |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Electronic kits, microcomputers, computer terminals, SS-50 bus systems |
Number of employees | Over 100 (circa 1980) (1980) |
Southwest Technical Products Corporation (SWTPC) was an American manufacturer specializing in electronic kits and, subsequently, complete computing systems. Established in 1967 in San Antonio, Texas as the successor to the Daniel E. Meyer Company, SWTPC continued operations until 1990, when it rebranded as Point Systems before ultimately ceasing business a few years later.
History
During the 1960s, electronics hobbyist magazines such as Popular Electronics regularly published build-it-yourself articles supported by kit vendors. Daniel Meyer was a notable early figure who supplied parts kits for his own designs as well as those created by authors like Don Lancaster and Louis Garner. From 1967 through 1971, SWTPC offered kits for more than 50 projects featured in Popular Electronics, mainly concentrating on audio-related equipment including hi-fi components, amplifiers, and test instruments such as function generators utilizing the Intersil ICL8038 integrated circuit.
At first, kits predominantly employed analog circuitry due to the prohibitive expense of digital components at that time. SWTPC capitalized on the emergence of integrated circuits to produce cost-effective kits; for instance, the Signetics NE565 phase-locked loop IC enabled an affordable SCA decoder board that provided specialized FM radio demodulation—a capability that previously required complex hardware setups. The widely used Signetics NE555 timer chip also appeared in various signal generators and timing devices. By 1972, the company's growing product assortment warranted a dedicated 32-page catalog.
In January 1975, SWTPC introduced the "TV Typewriter" (CT-1024), a computer terminal kit. By November of the same year, they were shipping complete microprocessor-based computer kits powered by Motorola CPUs. This product range fueled company expansion for five years, growing SWTPC’s workforce to over 100 employees.
As the personal computer market evolved rapidly, most kit suppliers from 1975 had exited by 1978. Around 1987, SWTPC shifted its focus toward offering point of sale computer systems and adopted the name Point Systems, which operated for a brief period before shutting down.
Microcomputer pioneers
With microprocessor CPUs becoming available, SWTPC emerged as an early provider of microcomputers to consumers, concentrating on models built around Motorola's 6800 and later the 6809 processors. Their inaugural microcomputer, launched in November 1975, was the SWTPC 6800, which also introduced the widely adopted SS-50 bus architecture.
Numerous SWTPC products—including the 6800 microcomputer—were sold as kits. The company’s portfolio encompassed computer terminals, chassis assemblies, processor cards, memory modules, motherboards, input/output interface cards, disk drives, and tape storage devices. The CT-64 terminal system evolved from the original "TV Typewriter" design and played a vital role in early SWTPC configurations. Subsequent terminal models included the CT-82 intelligent terminal and GT-6144 graphical terminal. Eventually, SWTPC developed the SS-50 bus-compatible "Data Systems 68 6845 Video Display Board," which integrated keyboard input capabilities and eliminated dependence on external terminals.
The SS-50 backplane bus gained support from other manufacturers such as Midwest Scientific, Smoke Signal Broadcasting, Gimix, Helix, Tano, Percom Data, and Safetran. Helix extended this architecture into the SS-64 variant tailored for the 68000 CPU. Additionally, SWTPC produced one of the earliest budget-friendly printers designed specifically for microcomputer users by adapting receipt printer mechanisms.
Technical Systems Consultants (TSC), originally located in West Lafayette, Indiana (near Purdue University), then later Chapel Hill, North Carolina, became a prominent software supplier for hardware compatible with SWTPC systems. Their product lineup included operating systems (Flex, mini-FLEX, FLEX09, and UniFLEX), programming languages (various versions of BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, C compilers, assemblers), and other application software. Third-party offerings featured Introl's C compiler, Omegasoft's Pascal compiler, Lucidata's Pascal system from the UK market, along with spreadsheet and word processing programs. By 1980 TSC had developed UniFlex—a Unix-like multi-user operating system for 6809-based machines incorporating DMA floppy disk support and expanded memory—with multiple programming languages ported to this platform.
SWTPC’s software catalog included TSC’s products alongside software from other vendors as well as in-house developed titles; much of this software was available in source code form at premium pricing.
Answering a request from People's Computer Company for Tiny BASIC interpreters, Robert Uiterwyk created MICRO BASIC 1.3 for the SWTPC 6800 platform; it was published in SWTPC’s newsletter in June 1976. Initially hand-coded on legal pads, Uiterwyk enhanced it into a 4K version featuring floating-point arithmetic implemented via Binary Coded Decimal with nine-digit precision and a numerical range extending to 1099. An expanded 8K version added support for string variables and trigonometric functions. Both editions were sold through SWTPC. In January 1978 Uiterwyk transferred source code rights to Motorola.
External links
- SWTPC product history site – Created by Bill Dawson and Michael Holley; archived as of June 7, 2019
- DeRamp SWTPC 6800 Pages featuring detailed content from Michael Holley
- SWTPC section at the Old Computer Museum
- SWTPC M6800 featured on PC-History.org
- SWTPC M6800 archived specifications and photos on Erik Klein's website
- [1] Flex User Group official site, supported by Michael Evenson
- [2] Emulator for 6800/6809 Flex systems on x86 Microsoft platforms
- Exorsim Open-source emulator for 6800 Flex and Motorola EXORciser compatible with Linux/Cygwin
- Articles with short description
- American companies established in 1967
- American companies disestablished in 1990
- Companies based in San Antonio
- Computer companies established in 1967
- Computer companies disestablished in 1990
- Defunct companies based in Texas
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Defunct computer systems companies
- Early microcomputers
- Electronic kit manufacturers
- Defunct electronics companies of the United States