| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| First Class Systems (1989–1990) | |
| Industry | Computer |
| Founded | October 1984; 41 years ago (1984-10) inBethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | November 1990; 35 years ago (1990-11) |
| Fate | Dissolution |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 40 (1989) |
| Parent | Xebec Corporation (1984–1989) |
First Class Peripherals, Inc., was an American computer hardware manufacturer active from 1984 to 1990. First Class was initially amail-order subsidiary ofXebec Corporation that producedHDD subsystems for theApple II, theMacintosh, and theIBM PC andcompatibles. After Xebec dissolved in 1989, First Class was spun off and relocated toSanta Clara, California, where it briefly existed as a manufacturer ofclones ofIBM'sPS/2 under the trade nameFirst Class Systems. It went defunct in November 1990.
First Class Peripherals was founded inBethlehem, Pennsylvania, in October 1984.[1] It was formed as a subsidiary ofXebec Corporation, a computer hardware company based inSilicon Valley that was a top player in thehard disk drive anddisk controller markets in the early 1980s.[1] Jim Toreson, the co-founder and chairman of Xebec, poached Clinton B. Teegardin, a 20-year veteran executive ofIBM, to lead the company while also being named a vice president of Xebec.[1][2] The impetus for First Class' foundation was to dominate in the field ofmail-order aftermarket computer hardware products, where rival disk drive manufacturers likeIomega had found commercial success.[1]
The company's first product was an externalhard disk drive subsystem for theApple II family (excluding theApple IIc).[1][3] Called the Sider, it featured a 10-MB HDD manufactured by Xebec and was compatible withApple DOS,ProDOS,Apple Pascal, and various distributions ofCP/M for the Apple II.[4] It was capable of being daisy-chained to a second Sider to expand the total storage capacity of the Apple II system.[5] Introduced in December 1984,[1] the Sider received positive reviews in the technology press and was namedinCider's product of the month for May 1985.[3][6][7]inCider praised its performance for its price bracket, although it had qualms about the drive's ability as abackup device.[8][9] By September 1985, First Class had introduced a version of the Sider for theIBM Personal Computer and itscompatibles.[10] Unlike the Apple II version, the PC Sider received a mixed assessment by the press.[11] In November 1985, First Class introduced the Sider II, a successor to the Apple II version featuring a faster 20-MB HDD.[12] The Sider II was succeeded by the 40-MB D4 in 1988.[13]
By the end of 1985, First Class had relocated toCarson City, Nevada, to be closer to Xebec's primary manufacturing plant.[11][14] In 1987, it began to branch out from just HDD subsystems to various computer peripherals, starting withtape drives forApple'sMacintosh family of computers.[14][15] Its parent company Xebec was by this point in dire financial straits after its previously lucrativedisk controller business began to crumble after it lostIBM as a customer.[14][16] In October 1988, Xebec signed a deal with Migent Software ofIncline Village, Nevada, to remarket the latter's Pocket Modem as the First Class Travel Modem. This was part of a debt repayment deal; per a Nevada judgement, Migent owed $163,000 to Xebec, whom Migent hired as a contract manufacturer for the company'smodems.[17][18]
Employment at First Class hovered at 40 in mid-1989. In July 1989, Xebec folded after filingChapter 7 bankruptcy and having its assets liquidated. First Class Peripherals was spun off into a separate company, which continued to operate.[19] Toreson, the ex-principle of Xebec, was named First Class' chairman, relocating the company toSanta Clara, California. Over the summer of 1989, Toreson secured funding and technical assistance fromVoxson [it] of Italy andNormerel of France to pivot from computer peripherals to complete computer systems. It was rebranded First Class Systems and focused exclusively on marketingclones of IBM'sPS/2 family of personal computers, which used the proprietaryMicro Channel architecture. Such clones were rare, especially by an American company.[20] In November 1989, First Class Systems made their market debut with the F20DX and the F16/SX, workalikes of thePS/2 Model 70 and thePS/2 Model 55 SX respectively.[21][22] First Class catered largely to pre-existing customers of PS/2s and achieved modest sales by February 1990.[23][24] In April 1990, it introduced the 325i, another workalike of the PS/2 Model 70 increasing the clock speed from 20 MHz to 25 MHz.[22]
Despite First Class' insistence that the slow adoption rate of MCA was "like front-engine cars ... Nobody wanted one until industry leaders started producing them" and that systems based on MCA would eventually "prov[e] their worth",[25] the company dissolved in November 1990 when it was suspended from the Franchise Tax Board of California.[26]