Tandem Computers Unplugged

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Gaye I Clemson. Tandem Computers Unplugged

Tandem Computers Unplugged. A People’s History. Gaye I. Clemson

Dedication

Notes and Acknowledgements

The Journey Begins

Tandem - The Early Years

The Public Company

The Down Side of Being Public

My Introduction to “The Tandem”

Closing the Gap to a Billion

Tandem Grows Up

Tandem Pulls the Plug

The Wake and the End of an Era

Final Musings

Tandem Timeline 1974-1997

Tandem Philosophy Jimmy’s Talk 1980

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To all fellow Tandemites who at one time or another proudly wore a Tandem NonStop badge.

Like all things in life, some aspects of these ideas worked well and others didn’t work quite so well. But as is so clear in listening to the voices of Tandem people that are found in this narrative, the impact on those who spent time at Tandem was and is significant. All of us are proud to have been a part of that legacy. We are proud of the fact that we helped lay the foundation for what has become Silicon Valley, proud of the individual contributions that we made, proud of the fun and success that we had as a group, proud of Beer Busts, TOPS, sabbaticals, TTN, email and stock options for everyone. We are proud of the trust that we all had in each other that led to an openness of thought, creativity, innovation and customer commitment that is rare today. We had a spirit and a feeling that lives on and I hope comes through in these pages.

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But the challenge with this style of writing is that the scope is limited by the nature of the kinds of stories that individuals were willing to post. As a result, though lots of people and events are included, lots of others that didn’t quite fit the story line have been omitted, but not through any malicious intent. I’ve also learned in writing many of these types of histories that the human memory is a funny thing, so I don’t pretend that every story is absolutely true. No doubt some embellishment has gone on. There may also be some stories that in today’s vernacular might be considered not very politically correct. I apologize in advance for any sensibilities, political, ethnic or otherwise, that get bruised. I also excluded my own and others’ more “juicy bits” to both protect the innocent but also because, my sense is that those stories are much more suited to a fictional format. As I’ve often said you just had to be there to get it all.

Wherever I have been able, I’ve included employee numbers. Of course all Tandemites will know exactly why this is. But for those readers unfamiliar, the Tandem employee number (appearing on one’s security badge) reflected the order in which one got hired. The smaller the number, the higher the person ranked in the Tandem family hierarchy. With that higher ranking came respect, honor and the deference of others—not quite a seniority system and certainly outside of the normal organizational power structure, but very important all the same. My number was #6410 as I joined the firm in 1984, 10 years after its founding. The company, at nearly $500 million in annual revenue, had just joined the ranks of the Fortune 500. When I left in mid-1992, revenue was close to $1.5 billion. This time period was perhaps not quite as exciting as the first few years after the company’s founding but was a time of tremendous growth and change just the same. As a result, not much of the narrative covers the years from 1992 to 1996, at which point Compaq absorbed the firm. I will have to leave it to others to fill in this gap in some other way should what I have shared be insufficient.

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