Y-E Data, Inc. (YED) took its first breath of corporate air at Otsuka, Tokyo, in September 1973, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yaskawa Electric Corporation. YED was part of the first wave of companies established to make the venture business in computer peripherals flower in Japan.

In its original market research, YED identified three technologies ready for introduction to the domestic market.

1. Orbis, Inc. Floppy Disk Drive (8-inch, 128 KB, single side)

   At the time, IBM had just introduced an input device using an FDD, as an alternative to its 3270 series card punch. However, YED realized that an FDD could serve as an external memory device for small or embedded systems, not just as a replacement for punch cards or paper tape. So YED imported technology from the American company Orbis, Inc., and began domestic production of floppy disk drives in Japan.

   This was the start of today's Memory Products Division. Sales were slow in the beginning, however, because Japanese electronic makers couldn't imagine how to use this innovative device. To demonstrate the FDD's utility, YED married the FDD with an Intel 4004 microprocessor, yielding the FileMaster inventory management system, the first product of today's Computer Systems Division.

2. Printronix, Inc. PRINTRONIX 300 (shuttle printer)

   Typical output devices of the day consisted mostly of teletypes and IBM Selectric ball-type typewriters, or large chain or drum printers which couldn't print anything other than English. After the introduction of dot-matrix serial printers, YED soon recognized their value as a basis for a high-speed Japanese character (kanji) printer. In cooperation with Printronix, Inc., YED established the Printer Division and developed its first shuttle printers.

3. Terminals and tablets

   TermiFlex	Hand-held VT-100 terminal with LED display. Good idea, but required advanced technology which soon died in the field.
   TeleNote	Electrostatic hand-written input terminal (forerunner of the tablet). Troubled by Japan's high humidity.
   BeeHive CRT	Inexpensive VT-100 terminal. Suffered poor key contact due to Japan's high humidity.

   This research gave birth to electromagnetic induction tablets and many, many other products.

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