System Industries

System Industries, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Computer hardware
Founded	1968
Founder	Ed Zschau
Defunct	1993
Headquarters	United States
Products	Printers, disk drives, storage devices

System Industries, Inc. was a U.S.-based computer hardware firm that operated from 1968 until 1993, specializing in manufacturing printers and disk drives tailored for minicomputer systems.

History

Established in 1968 by entrepreneur Ed Zschau with financial support from the private equity group Brentwood Associates, System Industries concentrated on creating peripherals compatible with DEC systems, notably printers and disk drives equipped with their own controllers. The company's business performance and significant events were frequently reported by The New York Times.

In 1992, the firm broadened its range of products by acquiring the disk drive division of Emulex, thereby strengthening its position in the storage device market. Despite this expansion, System Industries encountered financial challenges that resulted in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 1993. During that same year, the company launched an erasable optical disc product alongside an 8mm magnetic tape storage device as part of its initiatives to advance technology within its core offerings.

System Industries was one of nineteen disk drive manufacturers targeted by Digital Equipment Corporation in patent infringement lawsuits during the late 1980s and early 1990s; these disputes were ultimately settled individually.

Silonics

The company operated a subsidiary called Silonics, which specialized in producing ink-jet printers. By 1980, System Industries had shifted its primary focus toward its more lucrative disk drive business.

SIMACS (SImultaneous Machine ACceSs)

System Industries developed the SIMACS (SImultaneous Machine ACceSs) system, which permitted multiple DEC CPUs to write to a shared disk—albeit not at the exact same moment. This capability was facilitated through the use of a semaphore flag managing disk access, enabling concurrent writes to identical files on VAX and PDP-11 RSTS platforms and thereby enhancing the functionality of their disk controllers.

Advertising

The company’s advertisement proclaiming "80 Mbytes of storage for under $12K!" received notable recognition in Computerworld, being cited as a prominent IT advertisement over several years. Additionally, it was featured by CIO magazine as an exemplary instance of effective technology marketing, illustrating System Industries’ strategic emphasis on competitive pricing and market impact.