Adaptec

Adaptec, Inc. was a company that made computer storage products. It started in 1981 and was its own company until 2010. Then, another company called PMC-Sierra bought it. Later, PMC-Sierra was bought by Microsemi, and Microsemi was bought by Microchip Technology

History

Three people—Larry Boucher, Wayne Higashi, and Bernard Nieman—started Adaptec in 1981. At first, Adaptec made tools for computers that used a system called Parallel SCSI. Their popular products included adapters for computers, such as:

• The 154x/15xx ISA family,
• The 2940 PCI family,
• The 29160/-320 family.

They also made software called ASPI to help connect devices like tape drives, scanners, and special disks. As technology improved, they added new features like RAID and used newer connections like PCIe and SAS.

In the 1990s, Adaptec bought other companies to grow. Some examples:

• In 1993, they bought Trantor Systems Ltd. for $10 million.
• In 1995, they bought Future Domain Corporation for $25 million.
• In 1999, they bought Distributed Processing Technology for $236 million.

In 2010, PMC-Sierra bought most of Adaptec’s business, including:

• Their RAID storage products,
• The Adaptec brand name,
• Their customers and tools for selling products,
• Solutions to make SSDs faster.

After the sale, Adaptec kept some of its old technology, patents, and real estate, plus about $400 million in cash. The deal was completed on June 8, 2010, and PMC-Sierra renamed the storage business "Adaptec by PMC".

Later, PMC-Sierra was bought by Microsemi in 2016. The old Adaptec company changed its name twice, first to ADPT Corporation, and then to Steel Excel, Inc. Steel Excel is now an investment company.

Products

Adaptec made many different products for computers, like:

• Tools for SCSI, USB, FireWire, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel,
• Software for burning CDs and DVDs (like Easy CD Creator and Toast),
• Storage devices like Snap Servers.

Today, the Adaptec brand is still used to sell:

• Host bus adapters,
• RAID adapters,
• SAS expander cards,
• Cables and accessories.

References