Today
Our company comprises one full-time and one part-time employee, with two other contractors available as required. In one form or another, the company or its current MD (Mike Winiberg) has been involved in the world of 'personal' computing since the mid seventies, having touched on many aspects of recent computing history that have all long since faded away into the background of the Wintel world.
Please read on if you would like to know how we arrived at where we are now.
Mike Winiberg, March 2010
Company History.
The very first incarnation of Charter Software was a sole proprietorship, set up by me way back in 1978 when I was working part-time as a hardware tester for a small accounting firm in Penzance. This firm joined other local people to import Micropolis based computers into the UK through another company called Factor 1.
The poor business skills of the accountancy firm led to a major disagreement about the way the company was progressing and all the technical and marketing staff (including me) split off and - through the backing of a friend - formed another company called Liveport Ltd, based in The Ivory Works in St Ives, Cornwall. My friend, who owned the Ivory Works, made piano keys from elephant ivory - something long since banned!
Liveport Ltd
Liveport Ltd was the first importer and distributor of the Exidy Sorcerer computer (a Z80 based system manufactured by a US gaming company) - the first units being collected by our sales manager Geoff Wilkinson in person and flown into the UK as hand luggage! I worked as a developer and document technician for Liveport (as well as being a director). During our few years, we produced a number of add-ons for the system, including a plug-in floppy drive that didn't need the large external S100 box.
When the Dutch firm Tulip Computers obtained a licence to manufacture the Sorcerer, our biggest customer EMG (run by Scientologist Malcolm McPherson) obtained funding and became a competitor, eventually taking us over, but - again through lack of business acumen - eventually failing and leaving us holding a large bank overdraft and not much else. We purchased the stock from the official receiver and eventually managed to pay out the bulk of the overdraft.
During all this time I kept Charter Software ticking over doing the odd bit of contracting for local people.
Magus Computers
The hardware and manufacturing skills, and development experience of our small team came to the notice of a firm that had an interest in developing and building graphics cards and other addons for the Sirius and Apricot computers just coming onto the market. We specialised in Computer Aided Design, producing customised hardware and matching interface software to allow our cards to run with AutoCAD, MicroStation and other CAD software, including a house-design system used by Block-Watne of Norway. We also landed a contract with a big monitor manufacturer of the day, Taxan, who were pushing into that market.
When Magus got into difficulties, I converted Charter Software into a limited company and took over part of the contract to supply Taxan, as well as continuing with other work, including (initially) development and later local sales for Future Computers who sold their own design IBM PC Clone. CSL was also an agent for Tandon Computers and accessories (including a - then - revolutionary plug-in hard-disc).
transputers
Steamship
Barnes & Bolitho / CLO: RTS, Sun Workstations - toilet admin, Toshiba portables, PenWindows, TRANSIT, Mitsubishi Colour printing, wax transfer (transputers), Parallel C++
