ITEL

 

My next job after my final stint at Breuners was at ITEL.  ITEL was my first job in Silicon Valley, and my first job working for a computer manufacturer.  ITEL, among several lines of computer business, sold IBM “look-alike” or “clone” computers.  For example we had the AS/5 which was microcode compatible with the IBM System/370 model 158.  Since IBM hadn’t copyrighted their operating systems, we were able to ship them with our product.  But we had to make whatever modifications were necessary to run on our equipment, and we had to support customers who might have problems with the OS. 

 

ITEL was the first company where I had a semi-private office and where I had my own (IBM 3270) terminal at my desk.   Even though I was primarily working on DOS/VS we all used VM/370, so I could boot my own copy of DOS in my virtual machine.  ITEL was also the first place I worked that didn’t require wearing a tie. 

 

While I was at ITEL one of our customers, Dow Chemical in Indianapolis, was having serious problems with one of our products.  It was a product that my boss had written and I had never worked on.  So when it was decided that someone should go to the customer’s location, it seemed logical to send my boss.  But he was going through serious problems with his wife at the time so they sent me.  My boss briefed me on the product before I left.  When I got to Indianapolis, the ITEL salesman who met me at the airport told me that the customer was expecting a real expert on the project, which left me in a funny position, since I was anything but an expert.  With the help of the customer’s systems programmer and by talking with my boss and other developers on the phone, we were able to solve the problem.

 

ITEL’s AS/5 computer was manufactured by National Semiconductor.  They had signed a contract with ITEL that included the provision that they would not manufacture IBM-compatible systems for anyone but ITEL.  But eventually they started selling their own IBM-compatible systems.  ITEL sued.

 

Around this same time, IBM announced a new series of computers, the 4300 series.  Although these computers were announced, they were not available for sale.  The consequence of this announcement was that most customers put new-purchase decisions on hold until they could evaluate and price the new systems.  This put IBM’s business on hold, but they were big enough to absorb the setback.  The IBM-compatible manufacturers such as ITEL were in worse shape.  Many speculated that IBM did this on purpose. 

 

ITEL was hit worst of all:  their contract with National Semiconductor called for the manufacture of a set number of systems per quarter.  ITEL asked Nat. Semi. to stop sending us new machines, but Nat. Semi. was mad at us because of the lawsuit mentioned above, so they kept sending us systems which we had to store in warehouses since we had no customers.