Willow Peripherals

Willow Peripherals, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Computer hardware
Founded	1984
Founder	Jonathan Vail, Bill Bares, Valerie Gardner, Calvin Berger, Howard Alexander
Defunct	2004
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Area served	United States
Products	Frame grabber cards, television output adapters for IBM PC

Willow Peripherals, Inc. was a United States-based computer hardware manufacturer that operated from 1986 until 2004, headquartered in New York City. The firm specialized in producing frame grabber cards and television output adapters designed for the IBM Personal Computer. Its main operations were situated in Port Morris, located within the South Bronx area.

History

Founded in 1984 in Manhattan by Jonathan Vail, Bill Bares, Valerie Gardner, Calvin Berger, and Howard Alexander, Willow Peripherals initially focused on creating standard expansion cards and peripheral devices compatible with the IBM PC.

By 1986, the company moved its base to Port Morris and redirected its efforts toward video-centric products tailored for the IBM PC platform. It secured an 8,100-square-foot manufacturing space at a competitive lease rate of $2 per square foot, a price that remained unchanged for ten years. Despite this advantage, recruiting staff was challenging due to the South Bronx's negative perception related to crime and urban decline. Consequently, employee numbers dropped from 25 to 10 between 1992 and 1993. While production began internally, it was eventually shifted to an external facility in Pennsylvania as a response to stricter environmental laws in New York.

Willow’s debut video product arrived in September 1988 with the release of the Publishers' VGA frame grabber card. This affordable solution enabled capturing frames from composite video signals without interrupting the source feed. It was compatible with Willow’s Video Capture Software (VCAP), which supported exporting images into formats such as TIFF, PCX, and EPS.

Later that same year, Willow introduced the VGA-TV, marking the industry's first device capable of transmitting full VGA video through a composite output. In 1990, the company unveiled the VGA-TV GE/O model, which enhanced support for higher-quality S-Video inputs and included genlocking features that allowed for precise overlaying of multiple video inputs. The VGA-TV series found varied applications, notably serving as a PC teleprompter output tool at the White House during the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as being utilized in film special effects production.

Willow Peripherals ceased updating its website after 2000 and had fully discontinued its online presence by 2004.