Heurikon
The Heurikon Corporation was a microcomputer design and manufacturing company founded in Madison, Wisconsin in 1972. It provided microprocessors, hardware, and imaging equipment for medical and scientific applications, including notably during efforts to locate the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.[1] Their products included custom microcomputer systems and plug-in microcomputer boards.
Early history
Early customers included Oscar Mayer (Madison, WI), the Arrow Sign Corporation (Chicago, IL), Cuenique Billiards (Madison, WI) [2] and Butler Manufacturing. Early products were based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor, the Intel 8080 and the Motorola 68000 series of microprocessors [3]
Use in locating the RMS Titanic
In 1985, Heurikon was involved in the joint effort by the United States and France to locate the sunken RMS Titanic.[4][1] The equipment used for the project indluded a Heurikon HK68 along with three image processing boards, and processors and buffers made by a company called Imaging Technology.[4] This hardware was used by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to process the first images seen of the sunken ship.[5]
Growth and further uses
According to NASA Tech Briefs in 1989, Heurikon had been included in list of the top 500 fastest-growing privately owned U.S. companies compiled by Inc. Magazine six times.[1] It was also providing processors for the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C. to record its collection.[1]
In the 1990s, a major customer was TransCore (Norcross, GA) and the City Of New York for whom Heurikon designed and built the interface hardware for over 10,000 traffic lights in the five NYC boroughs.
In the mid-2000s, Heurikon VME bus boards were used by NASA in International Space Station EXPRESS rack suitcase simulators that payload developers around the world could use to pre-test their scientific payloads destined for the space station.[6]
Products
Heurikon's hardware included a line of 8-bit Multibus boards introduced in the early 1980s, and later microcomputers using the Motorola 68000 microprocessor in the 1980s.[1]
The company offered several operating systems and development environments, including Unix, VxWorks, Hunter Ready VRTX and OS-9.[7]
Sale
In 1994, Heurikon (a privately held company) was sold to Computer Products Incorporated (CPI, Florida) and was renamed as the Artesyn Corporation. When the company was sold, there were four shareholders and annual sales had grown to over 20 million dollars.
Later, Artesyn was bought by Emerson Electric.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d e National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1989-08-01). "NASA Tech Briefs, August 1989 (subtitle: Transferring Technology to American Industry and Government)". NASA Tech Briefs. 13 (8). ISSN 0145-319X. (PDF)
- ^ "Heurikon history 1". The Capital Times. 4 September 1990. p. 18.
- ^ "Heurikon Has 68060-Based Boards". 19 April 1994.
- ^ a b Shermis, Mark D.; Givner, Christine (1986-10-01). "Implications of Analog-to-Digital Technology for Social Sciences: A Review and Preview". Social Science Microcomputer Review. 4 (3): 295–309. doi:10.1177/089443938600400302. ISSN 0885-0011.
- ^ Leaf, Brian (9 February 1986). "Heurikon happily sinks to new lows". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 11 August 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Peter Hollingsworth Smith papers 1970-2017 (bulk 1993-2008) Smith, (Peter Hollingsworth) papers". azarchivesonline.org. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
- ^ "Heurikon Nitro60 VME CPU Board - Price, Specs".
- ^ "Joint Press Release". SEC.gov. Retrieved August 21, 2025.