Dynalogic 4002B Dual Drive Unit

Dublin Core

Title

Dynalogic 4002B Dual Drive Unit

Subject

computer hardware: disk drive system

Description

Historical Context
In 1973, C. Murray Bell incorporated Dynalogic Corporation in Ottawa to design, develop, and manufacture floppy disk drive systems that could be interfaced with a range of computers and programmable calculators. The floppy diskette systems shipped up to mid-1975 had hardwired controllers designed to work with specific computers. This solution was costly since different computer models typically required different floppy drive controllers that would have to be designed and assembled. In 1975, the company entered the microprocessor market with its release of a firmware controlled, microprocessor-based floppy disk system that could be interfaced with a range of computers via the industry standard RS-232C interface. The new floppy drive system could be programmed to operate with a specific computer instead of building a dedicated controller to provide such functionality. The system was unveiled at the 1975 Canadian Computer Show & Conference. Dynalogic disk drive systems were sold to several major Canadian governmental organizations and corporations including Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Telecommunications.

In 1976, the company moved into the general-purpose computer market. On October 1, 1976, it announced the Dynalogic Microcomputer System (DMS) — an advanced microcomputer that employed the Motorola 6800 processor. The DMS was among the earliest microcomputers with built-in floppy disk drives. It operated under a sophisticated UNIX-style proprietary DYNAMO operating system.

In 1981, Bytec Management Corp. took over Dynalogic and renamed it Dynalogic Info-Tech. At the 1982 spring Comdex computer show in Atlantic City the company unveiled its IBM PC-compatible Hyperion as the ``most powerful, portable, business computer in the world''.

Dynalogic 4002B dual drive unit
Dynalogic DMS computers featured two built-in disk drives that provided sufficient storage for a range of applications. To support operations that required more external storage, Dynalogic offered several disk expansion units such as the 4002B and 7004A, which featured two additional disk drives that could be interfaced with either a DMS computer.

The Dynalogic 4002B disk drive unit in YUCoM's Dynalogic collection was manufactured in 1980 for Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Telecommunications (CNCP Telecommunications). It was built around two M17861-001 disk drives manufactured by California Computer Products (CalComp).

Creator

Dynalogic Corp.

Date

1980

Relation

Dynalogic Collection

Type

Hardware

Coverage

1973-1980

Contribution Form

Online Submission

No

Files

Dynalogic 4002B Dual Drive  Unit

Citation

Dynalogic Corp., “Dynalogic 4002B Dual Drive Unit,” York University Computer Museum Canada, accessed April 20, 2024, https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/items/show/6.

Output Formats