a day ago
- Hitachi was founded by Namihei Odaira in 1910, initially producing electric motors and later expanding into electrical generation, consumer electronics, and computing.
- Hitachi began computing research in 1951, developing the HIPAC MK-1 parametron computer in 1957 and the MARS-1 seat reservation system in 1959.
- In 1960, Hitachi licensed IBM patents, but continued developing proprietary computers, including the HITAC 8000 series compatible with IBM System/360.
- Hitachi produced minicomputers like the HITAC 10 (1969) and HITAC 20 (1975), used for scientific and network control applications.
- The company entered the microcomputer market in 1978 with the BASIC Master MB-6880, later releasing MS-DOS and UNIX workstations.
- Hitachi developed supercomputers such as the S-810 (1982) and S-820 (1987), with the latter being the first to have integrated video output.
- The company's CMOS technology, pioneered in 1978, led to low-power SRAM like the HM6147, outperforming Intel's HMOS.
- Hitachi adopted a monkeypod tree as a corporate symbol in 1973, paying annual fees for its exclusive image rights.