AES Plus Text Editor
Title
AES Plus Text Editor
Subject
hardware: text editor
Description
Historical context
(by Z. Stachniak)
In 1967, Stephen Dorsey founded Automatic Electronic Systems (AES) in Montreal to develop electronic devices for industrial remote-control applications. Over the six years, AES developed, among other products, its own minicomputers (the AES-80 and AES-80C) and the world’s first all-in-one programmable word processor — the AES-90. Until the mid-1980s, digital word processors remained the company's main line of business, sold around the world.
In the 1960s, office document-writing equipment was still dominated by various types of typewriters, ranging from purely mechanical to electric models, including those with digital storage for recording typed text, such as the best-selling IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter), which recorded edited documents on magnetic tape. These devices lacked displays and offered only limited word-processing functionality. None of them could be upgraded to newer versions; they could only be replaced with more advanced models as they became available.
It all changed in the early 1970s, when several companies introduced dedicated text-editing equipment with displays for on-screen document editing and external storage. In 1972, Linolex Systems introduced its Model A while Lexitron offered the Videotype 911. In the following year, AES released its AES-90 Word Processor, and Vydec began selling its Vydec Text Processor. Although all these systems provided on-screen editing and external storage, several unique features of the AES-90 set new trends in the design of cost-effective text editing equipment. The most important of these was the AES-90 architecture and its software upgradability. The AES-90 was a standalone system that featured a CRT display, a keyboard, and two 8-inch floppy disk drives connected to a central processor. However, unlike the “hard-wired” solutions used in other early on-screen text-editing systems, the AES-90 processor was built around a general-purpose minicomputer (the AES-90C) running dedicated text-editing software. This design allowed for software updates, bug fixes, and adaptation to changing requirements without the need to purchase a new processor and discard the outdated one. For this reason, the AES-90 was promoted as a programmable word processor and “a giant step into a new era of cost-effective written communication.” Within a few years, the office equipment market was flooded with similar video-screen text-editing products from companies worldwide—the Toshiba JW-10 Japanese Language Word Processor, announced in 1978, is one notable example—revolutionizing office operations.
Although orders for AES-90 processors were piling up, AES faced significant difficulties with cash flow and attracting investor interest. Ultimately, the company came under the control of Innocan Investments Ltd., a Canadian financial organization specializing in venture capital for new and expanding firms, particularly those in high-technology industries. The Canadian Development Corporation owned 40% of Innocan, while other shareholders included the Air Canada Pension Fund, the Bank of Nova Scotia, and several well-established investment groups. Difficult relationship with AES financial backers led Dorsey to leave the company in 1975. Walter F. Steel, previously hired by Innocan as CEO, became AES’s new president. The company also adopted a new name: AES Data Limited.
In 1975, the AES manufacturing plant in Montreal employed 135 people. That year, the plant delivered over 300 AES-90 units, bringing the total number of installations in Canada to more than 400. The company also operated branches in Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, and St. Albans, Vermont.
In 1976, AES signed an agreement with Lanier Business Products to sell and service AES word processors in the U.S., with Lanier becoming a minority shareholder in the company. AES also partnered with the Swedish office electronics distributor Scribona to distribute a multilingual variant of the ACS-90 designed for Western Europe. This European model featured character sets and keyboards supporting eight languages: English, French, German, Swedish, Swiss-French, Italian, Dutch, and Danish-Norwegian. That same year, the company reached a new financial milestone, achieving sales of over $1 million per month. By 1981, the company would dominate the Canadian word processing equipment market.
The Canadian Development Corporation (CDC) became the majority shareholder of AES in 1978. Headquartered in Toronto, the CDC was created and partially owned by the Canadian federal government, with a mandate to expand investment opportunities for Canadian-controlled companies through both public and private funding. However, the broad scope and diversity of CDC’s operations caused significant challenges in decision-making and communication between AES and CDC. Furthermore, the relationship between AES and Lanier was deteriorating. Lanier developed its own word processor in direct competition with AES products, resulting in AES losing ground in the U.S. market. Steels, who had led the company to worldwide sales across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, ultimately resigned.
In 1982, with Lanier losing interest in AES, CDC secured a new U.S. distribution channel by acquiring a majority stake in the successful American photocopier manufacturer Savin. However, intense competition in the office automation market, a shift toward using microcomputers for text editing, and Savin’s own financial difficulties led to declining sales of AES products and CDC’s decision to sell off Savin. The percentage of AES units installed in Canada dropped from 33% in 1981 to 19% in 1983 partially due to the entry of major companies such as AT&T, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Olivetti, Wang, and Xerox into the field. However, AES was also falling increasingly behind in both technology and marketing.
By the mid-1980s, unable to redefine itself as a provider of integrated office systems focused on computer and communications technologies, the company saw only one path to a comeback: shifting from developing its own innovative products to assembling and distributing products from other manufacturers, including IBM-compatible desktop computers such as the AES-256. However, this strategy also failed, and the company that had helped pioneer cutting-edge text-editing technology ceased operations. The entire industry of dedicated text-editing hardware collapsed soon after, under pressure from the rapidly growing office automation personal computer market, which offered multifunctional solutions for office operations, from advanced text-editing software, electronic spreadsheets and mail to financial and actuarial packages, databases, and administration software.
The AES Plus Text Editor
The AES Plus was released in 1977. While the AES-90's CPU was based on bit slice technology using two SN74181N 4-bit chips and occupied three circuit boards, the AES Plus architecture was designed around the Intel 8080A microprocessor. Distributed in the US under the name Lanier No Problem, it became a bestseller on the American market. One of these Lanier text editors is displayed in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.
The AES Plus was released in 1977. While the AES-90’s CPU was based on bit-slice technology, using two SN74181N 4-bit chips and occupying three circuit boards, the AES Plus was built around the Intel 8080A microprocessor. In addition to its dedicated text editing software, it could be operated under CP/M and Xenix operationg systems.
Distributed in the U.S. under the name Lanier No Problem, it became a bestseller in the American market. One of these Lanier text editors is now on display at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. In the subsequent years, the AES Plus was followed by the AES Superplus, Multiplus, AlphaPlus, as well as the 7100-, 7200-, and 7300-series.
Technical specifications
Software
(by Z. Stachniak)
In 1967, Stephen Dorsey founded Automatic Electronic Systems (AES) in Montreal to develop electronic devices for industrial remote-control applications. Over the six years, AES developed, among other products, its own minicomputers (the AES-80 and AES-80C) and the world’s first all-in-one programmable word processor — the AES-90. Until the mid-1980s, digital word processors remained the company's main line of business, sold around the world.
In the 1960s, office document-writing equipment was still dominated by various types of typewriters, ranging from purely mechanical to electric models, including those with digital storage for recording typed text, such as the best-selling IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter), which recorded edited documents on magnetic tape. These devices lacked displays and offered only limited word-processing functionality. None of them could be upgraded to newer versions; they could only be replaced with more advanced models as they became available.
It all changed in the early 1970s, when several companies introduced dedicated text-editing equipment with displays for on-screen document editing and external storage. In 1972, Linolex Systems introduced its Model A while Lexitron offered the Videotype 911. In the following year, AES released its AES-90 Word Processor, and Vydec began selling its Vydec Text Processor. Although all these systems provided on-screen editing and external storage, several unique features of the AES-90 set new trends in the design of cost-effective text editing equipment. The most important of these was the AES-90 architecture and its software upgradability. The AES-90 was a standalone system that featured a CRT display, a keyboard, and two 8-inch floppy disk drives connected to a central processor. However, unlike the “hard-wired” solutions used in other early on-screen text-editing systems, the AES-90 processor was built around a general-purpose minicomputer (the AES-90C) running dedicated text-editing software. This design allowed for software updates, bug fixes, and adaptation to changing requirements without the need to purchase a new processor and discard the outdated one. For this reason, the AES-90 was promoted as a programmable word processor and “a giant step into a new era of cost-effective written communication.” Within a few years, the office equipment market was flooded with similar video-screen text-editing products from companies worldwide—the Toshiba JW-10 Japanese Language Word Processor, announced in 1978, is one notable example—revolutionizing office operations.
Although orders for AES-90 processors were piling up, AES faced significant difficulties with cash flow and attracting investor interest. Ultimately, the company came under the control of Innocan Investments Ltd., a Canadian financial organization specializing in venture capital for new and expanding firms, particularly those in high-technology industries. The Canadian Development Corporation owned 40% of Innocan, while other shareholders included the Air Canada Pension Fund, the Bank of Nova Scotia, and several well-established investment groups. Difficult relationship with AES financial backers led Dorsey to leave the company in 1975. Walter F. Steel, previously hired by Innocan as CEO, became AES’s new president. The company also adopted a new name: AES Data Limited.
In 1975, the AES manufacturing plant in Montreal employed 135 people. That year, the plant delivered over 300 AES-90 units, bringing the total number of installations in Canada to more than 400. The company also operated branches in Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, and St. Albans, Vermont.
In 1976, AES signed an agreement with Lanier Business Products to sell and service AES word processors in the U.S., with Lanier becoming a minority shareholder in the company. AES also partnered with the Swedish office electronics distributor Scribona to distribute a multilingual variant of the ACS-90 designed for Western Europe. This European model featured character sets and keyboards supporting eight languages: English, French, German, Swedish, Swiss-French, Italian, Dutch, and Danish-Norwegian. That same year, the company reached a new financial milestone, achieving sales of over $1 million per month. By 1981, the company would dominate the Canadian word processing equipment market.
The Canadian Development Corporation (CDC) became the majority shareholder of AES in 1978. Headquartered in Toronto, the CDC was created and partially owned by the Canadian federal government, with a mandate to expand investment opportunities for Canadian-controlled companies through both public and private funding. However, the broad scope and diversity of CDC’s operations caused significant challenges in decision-making and communication between AES and CDC. Furthermore, the relationship between AES and Lanier was deteriorating. Lanier developed its own word processor in direct competition with AES products, resulting in AES losing ground in the U.S. market. Steels, who had led the company to worldwide sales across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, ultimately resigned.
In 1982, with Lanier losing interest in AES, CDC secured a new U.S. distribution channel by acquiring a majority stake in the successful American photocopier manufacturer Savin. However, intense competition in the office automation market, a shift toward using microcomputers for text editing, and Savin’s own financial difficulties led to declining sales of AES products and CDC’s decision to sell off Savin. The percentage of AES units installed in Canada dropped from 33% in 1981 to 19% in 1983 partially due to the entry of major companies such as AT&T, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Olivetti, Wang, and Xerox into the field. However, AES was also falling increasingly behind in both technology and marketing.
By the mid-1980s, unable to redefine itself as a provider of integrated office systems focused on computer and communications technologies, the company saw only one path to a comeback: shifting from developing its own innovative products to assembling and distributing products from other manufacturers, including IBM-compatible desktop computers such as the AES-256. However, this strategy also failed, and the company that had helped pioneer cutting-edge text-editing technology ceased operations. The entire industry of dedicated text-editing hardware collapsed soon after, under pressure from the rapidly growing office automation personal computer market, which offered multifunctional solutions for office operations, from advanced text-editing software, electronic spreadsheets and mail to financial and actuarial packages, databases, and administration software.
The AES Plus Text Editor
The AES Plus was released in 1977. While the AES-90's CPU was based on bit slice technology using two SN74181N 4-bit chips and occupied three circuit boards, the AES Plus architecture was designed around the Intel 8080A microprocessor. Distributed in the US under the name Lanier No Problem, it became a bestseller on the American market. One of these Lanier text editors is displayed in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.
The AES Plus was released in 1977. While the AES-90’s CPU was based on bit-slice technology, using two SN74181N 4-bit chips and occupying three circuit boards, the AES Plus was built around the Intel 8080A microprocessor. In addition to its dedicated text editing software, it could be operated under CP/M and Xenix operationg systems.
Distributed in the U.S. under the name Lanier No Problem, it became a bestseller in the American market. One of these Lanier text editors is now on display at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. In the subsequent years, the AES Plus was followed by the AES Superplus, Multiplus, AlphaPlus, as well as the 7100-, 7200-, and 7300-series.
Technical specifications
- CPU: National Semiconductor INS8080AN, 8 bit, 2MHz;
- ROM: 512 x 8-bit;
- RAM: 32K x 8-bit; 16 NEC μPD416 (16,384 x 1-bit) chips;
- Video Memory: 16K x 9-bit; display: 28 lines of up to 80 characters per line; 2240 characters including control lines (2080 without control lines);
- keyboard: standard 51-key QWERTY layout; 15-key editor function keypad; 5 optional function keys;
- external storage: two build in 5.25 inch Shugart SA400 discette drives (storage for 109.4 kilobytes of data per drive — approximately 69 pages of text);
- ports: printer port for Qume Sprint Micro 3 series printers.
Software
- AES Plus Word Proccessor (3 program diskettes),
- AES Plus Training Software,
- Building Blocks,
- Repaginate,
- Financial Proofreading,
- Record Organization,
- Search and Replace.
- AES Plus, model 103B, serial number 388892,
- AES-Plus Maintenance & Service Manual, AES Data Ltd., 1977,
- AES Plus Operator Training and Reference Manual, AES Data Ltd., 1978,
- PLUS: Operator's Training and Regfference Manual, AES Data Ltd., July 1978,
- PLUS1: Financial Proofreading, Operator's Training and Regference Guide, AES Data Ltd., January 1979,
- PLUS2: Records Oragnization, Operator's Training and Regference Guide, AES Data Ltd., January 1979,
- PLUS3: Building Blocks, Operator's Training and Regference Guide, AES Data Ltd., January 1979,
- PLUS4: Financial Proofreading Operator's Training and Regference Guide, AES Data Ltd., January 1979,
- XENIX System V, Operating System User's Guide, Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., 1988,
- XENIX System V, Installation Guide, Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., 1988,
- 386 XENIX (5.25" floppy diskette),
- AES Software, North Star Corp. (5.25" floppy diskette).
Creator
AES Data Ltd.
Date
1977-198?
Contributor
donated by Noel Thomas
Coverage
world, 1977-198?
Online Submission
No
Files
Citation
AES Data Ltd., “AES Plus Text Editor,” York University Computer Museum Canada, accessed November 30, 2025, https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/items/show/29.