computer science

Logitech

Logitech is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Logitech rather than just read about it. In short: Logitech International S.A. ( LOJ-i-tek) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software.

Key takeaways

Logitech belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Logitech to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Logitech from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Logitech International S.A. ( LOJ-i-tek) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, with an important operational headquarters in San Jose, California, the company has offices throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. It is a component of the Swiss Market Index, and is listed on the Nasdaq. The company develops and markets personal peripherals for PC navigation, video communication and collaboration, music and smart homes. This includes products like keyboards, mice, tablet accessories, headphones and headsets, webcams, Bluetooth speakers, universal remotes and more. Its name is derived from logiciel (the French word for software) and "tech".

History

Logitech was founded in Apples, Vaud, Switzerland, in 1981, by Daniel "Bobo" Borel, Pierluigi Zappacosta, and former Olivetti engineer Giacomo Marini. Swiss-born Borel and Italian-born Zappacosta had met in California while taking electrical engineering classes in the late 1970s at Stanford University, under professors such as Ethernet inventor Robert Metcalfe. Returning to Europe, they began working on new ideas near Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland, and they brought in the Italian engineer Marini to round out the new company. Borel served as chairman of the board, focused on sales and manufacturing, and he was chief executive officer (CEO) for most of the 1990s. Zappacosta served as president and a period as CEO, and he oversaw research. He left Logitech in 1997 to lead Digital Persona, a biometrics company. The company founders first concentrated on creating word processing software for a large Swiss company, but the company canceled the project. Next, they turned to the computer mouse as an essential component of the graphical user interface used by a workstation requested by the Japanese company Ricoh. Logitech's first mouse, the P4 model, was produced in 1982 in Switzerland, based on an opto-mechanical design by Swiss inventor Jean-Daniel Nicoud working at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne). The company also published a version of Modula-2 for the IBM PC. One of Logitech's offices was at 165 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California, US, home to a number of noted technology startups in the birthplace of Silicon Valley. In 1984, Logitech won a contract to supply Hewlett-Packard with computer mice in the role of original equipment manufacturer (OEM). The mice that Logitech supplied to HP were made in a new factory in Fremont, California, and they were branded HP: they did not display the Logitech name. In the early-to-mid-1980s, Logitech stopped making mice in Switzerland, instead opening factories in Cork, Ireland, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, in addition to the Fremont location. Logitech created the first wireless mouse in 1984, using infrared (IR) light to connect to the Metaphor Computer Systems workstation developed by David Liddle and Donald Massaro, former Xerox PARC engineers. The Metaphor's keyboard was also IR wireless. The consumer IR connection scheme required a clear line of sight for data transfer, and did not work well on a cluttered desk. The wireless mouse did not gain widespread adoption until 1991 when Logitech introduced the first mouse based on a radio frequency connection, not limited to line-of-sight. In 1985, Swiss inventor René Sommer developed microprocessor circuitry for the wired mouse, making it more responsive to human movement. Logitech incorporated a Sommer-style CMOS microprocessor in its first retail mouse product, the rectangular three-button serial C7 product released in 1985, selling for $99 (equivalent to $296 in 2025). The next wired mouse model, the S9 released in 1989, was curved to fit the human hand, and it carried the Logitech logo for the first time. In 1988, Logitech incorporated as Logitech International SA with an initial public offering (IPO) on the Zürich stock exchange. In 1989, Logitech produced its first trackball product, the TrackMan. Also in 1989, the company was nominated for PC Mag's Technical Excellence Award for the patented development tool Multiscope Debugger. The application was written for OS/2, followed by versions for the DOS and Windows 3.0 operating systems. Logitech won the award in January 1990. Logitech re-organized its manufacturing in 1994, shutting down Fremont operations and opening a major facility in Suzhou, China. The Cork, Ireland, location downsized to become an R&D center, and the Hsinchu, Taiwan, factory was kept only for test runs and prototypes. Logitech bought the Connectix webcam division in 1998 for $25 million, then released QuickCam, the first webcam with an integrated microphone. By the year 2000, Logitech was the leader in global sales of webcams, with about four million units sold. In December 2008, the company announced it had produced its one-billionth computer mouse since beginning production in 1985. In January 2013, Bracken Darrell became Logitech's chief executive officer; then-CEO Guerrino De Luca continued as Logitech's chairman of the board. On 25 March 2017, Logitech signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with McLaren as the Official Technology Peripherals Partner. The deal would later be extended to McLaren's eSports endeavours under the Logitech G brand in 2020. On 29 July 2021, Logitech, in collaboration with choreographer JaQuel Knight, introduced its #Creators4BIPOC initiative under the Logitech For Creators brand. It allows social media creators, particularly BIPOC influencers, to copyright and monetize their online creations by making it possible for choreographers who amplify attention to hits by major artists in the entertainment business to secure copyright of their choreography using Labanotation and earn royalties from it. In June 2023, Bracken Darrell (former CEO) left Logitech and board member Guy Gecht took over as interim CEO. On 30 October 2023, Logitech announced that Hanneke Faber would be taking over as the new CEO beginning December 1, 2023. Faber was previously group president at Unilever.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Logitech

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Logitech claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Logitech before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Logitech ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Logitech

In research: Logitech appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Logitech in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Logitech is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980s initial public offerings, Audio equipment manufacturers of Switzerland, Companies based in Lausanne, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Logitech outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Logitech in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Logitech means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Logitech out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Logitech in simple terms?

Logitech International S.A. ( LOJ-i-tek) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software.

Why does Logitech matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Logitech?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Logitech.