is an
American Personal Computer company founded in
1982 , and now a brand name of
Hewlett-Packard .
The company was formed by
Rod Canion ,
Jim Harris and
Bill Murto — former
Texas Instruments senior managers. The name "COMPAQ" was derived from "atibility '''a'''nd '''Q'''uality", as at its formation Compaq produced some of the first
IBM PC Compatible computers.
Once the largest supplier of computing systems in the world and previously regarded as perhaps the most reputable manufacturer of mid-range hardware, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until
2002 , when it merged with
Hewlett-Packard .
Compaq was founded in February
1982 by
Rod Canion ,
Jim Harris and
Bill Murto , three senior managers from semiconductor manufacturer
Texas Instruments . Each invested $1,000 to form the company. Their first venture capital came from Ben Rosen and Sevin-Rosen partners. Like many small startups with unique beginnings, the original Compaq PC was first sketched out on a placemat by the founders while dining in a local Houston restaurant, House of Pies.
In its early years Compaq was in many respects what
IBM's PC Group should have been, and indeed, two of Compaq's key marketing executives, Jim D'Arezzo and Sparky Sparks, had moved from there.
]]In November were the first to follow their lead, but soon "clone BIOSes" were available from several vendors.
On June 28th 1984 Compaq Released the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer using an
Intel 8086 microprocessor running at 7.14MHz. It was considerably faster than an
IBM PC and was, like the
Compaq Portable , also capable of running IBM software. This was the first of the
Compaq Deskpro line of computers.
In
1985 , Compaq released the
Compaq Deskpro 286 , a 16-bit
Desktop Computer using an
Intel 80286 microprocessor running at 8
MHz and capable of supporting up to 7 MB of RAM. It cost $2000 for the 40-MB hard disk model. It was considerably faster than an
IBM PC AT which ran at 6MHz at that time and was, like the
Compaq Portable , also capable of running IBM software.
After making half a billion dollars turnover, in
1986 Compaq released the
Compaq Portable II . The Portable II was significantly lighter and smaller than its predecessor, featuring a revised design with an 8 MHz processor and 10
MB hard disk. It was cheaper than the
IBM PC/AT at $3199, or $4799 with a hard disk.
When in
1986 Compaq introduced the first PC based on
Intel 's new
80386 microprocessor, the
Compaq Deskpro 386 {Link without Title} , they began a period of increasing performance leadership over IBM, who were not yet using this processor. An IBM machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.
This technical leadership and the rivalry with IBM was emphasised when the
Systempro server was launched in late 1989 - this was a true server product with standard support for a second CPU and
RAID , but also the first product to feature the
EISA bus which was designed in reaction to IBM's MCA (
MicroChannel Architecture ).
At the same time as they began to dominate the server market, in the early
1990s Compaq entered the retail computer market with the
Presario , and was one of the first manufacturers in the mid-1990s to market a sub-$1000 PC. In order to maintain the prices it wanted, Compaq became the first first-tier computer manufacturer to utilize CPUs from
AMD and
Cyrix . The price war resulting from Compaq's actions ultimately drove numerous competitors, most notably
IBM and
Packard Bell , from this market.
In
1997 , Compaq bought
Tandem Computers , known for their
NonStop server line. This acquisition instantly gave Compaq a presence in the higher end business computing market. In
1998 , Compaq acquired
Digital Equipment Corporation , the leading company in the previous generation of computing during the
1970s and early
1980s . This acquisition made Compaq, at the time, the world's second largest computer maker in the world in terms of revenue. Unfortunately for the company, CEO
Eckhard Pfeiffer , who engineered both mergers, had little vision for what the combined companies should do, or indeed how the three dramatically different cultures could work as a single entity, and Compaq struggled as a result. Pfeiffer was forced out as CEO in
1999 in a coup led by board chairman Ben Rosen and was eventually replaced by
Michael Capellas , formerly CIO of the company. Capellas was able to restore some of the luster lost in the latter part of the Pfeiffer era, but the company still struggled against lower-cost competitors such as
Dell .
