computer science

Prometheus Products

Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products rather than just read about it. In short: Prometheus Products, Inc. was an American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1981 to 1996. The company primarily manufactured modems and sound cards for personal computers for the bulk of its existence.

Key takeaways

Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Prometheus Products from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Prometheus Products, Inc. was an American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1981 to 1996. The company primarily manufactured modems and sound cards for personal computers for the bulk of its existence.

History Prometheus Products was incorporated in Fremont, California, in January 1981. The company was founded to capitalize on Apple II home computers by providing peripherals and other add-on products. In 1984, the company began focusing on the production of modems, following a breakthrough in modem design developed within Prometheus that allowed the relatively inexpensive Intel 8031 to be used as a digital signal processor. This replaced the need for numerous analog devices for signal processing circuits customary in modem design at the time. In 1984, the company's board of directors hired Tom McShane as chairman of the company; he shortly after expanded the company to occupy two buildings, including a production factory and a research and development company, within Fremont. Prometheus was en route to generating $7 million in sales in 1987 and was one of the top 10 modem manufacturers ranked by global sales. Between 1987 and 1989, the company relocated out of state to Tigard, Oregon. In 1992, the company merged with Technology Concepts, Inc., a manufacturer of fax and enhanced voice modems based in Belmont, California. Prometheus relocated again to Tualatin, Oregon, by early 1994. In early 1994, the company introduced its first series of sound cards, the Aria 16 (comprising the flagship Aria 16 product and the Aria 16se featuring a SCSI-2 connector for connecting to optical drives). The Aria 16 was based on Sierra Semiconductor's Aria sound chipset featuring 32-polyphony wavetable synthesis and Sound Blaster–compatible FM synthesis. The Aria 16 was bargain priced but received decent reviews from the computer press of its day. Prometheus' sound cards soon found use in prebuilt computer systems manufactured by IBM and DEC. Sales of Prometheus' modems cooled considerably in the early 1990s, the company trailing behind the growing pace of advancements in modem bit rates and hampered by quality control issues stemming for slow communication with their Taiwanese manufacturing contract. In October 1994, Sierra Semiconductor purchased Prometheus Products in whole for an undisclosed sum of cash, making the company a subsidiary under Sierra while still operating out of Tualatin. Sierra tasked businessman Jack Murphy, then recently of Practical Peripherals to turn the company around; actions he took included moving the company's manufacturing efforts stateside and shuffling the company's management to included his contacts from Practical Peripherals, Apple, and Tektronix. These actions were not enough to stem Prometheus' losses immediately, the subsidiary generating $4.6 million in losses on revenues of $19 million by late 1995. In January 1996, Sierra announced the divestiture and sale of Prometheus to the highest bidder.

References

External links Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived October 8, 1997)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Prometheus Products

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products

In research: Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products 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: Prometheus Products is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980s disestablishments in California, 1980s establishments in Oregon, 1981 establishments in California, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Prometheus Products in simple terms?

Why does Prometheus Products 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 Prometheus Products?

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 Prometheus Products.