1. SOROC TECHNOLOGIES
the legend of the creation of the company name
The ADM-3A, aka The Dumb Terminal was a computer terminal manufactured by Lear
Siegler, Inc. It had a 12-inch screen displaying 12 or 24 lines of 80 characters.
Lear Siegler, Inc. (LSI) manufactured its first video display (CRT for cathode ray tube)
terminal in 1972 - the 7700A. In 1973 LSI hired a new head of engineering, Jim Placak.
He and his team created the ADM-1 in late '73. ADM stood for American Dream
Machine. It set a new pricing low in the industry at $1,500. Its lower cost was primarily
due to a unique single printed circuit board design. The ADM-1 was quickly followed by
the ADM-2 in early '74. It had expanded functionality and a detached keyboard.
The famous clamshell ADM-3A quickly followed and the first manufactured units were
shipped in mid 1974. It set another new industry low single unit price of $1,195. Its
innovative wave soldered single board design, which included the keyboard and all
connectors, was packaged in an original clamshell enclosure.
In early 1973 the LSI division in Anaheim, CA that manufactured these products (and
others) hired a dedicated management team for this product line - a VP, national sales
manager, and one regional sales manager - for the western region. This regional
manager was Dennis Cagan. He came from an LSI competitor. Within weeks of the
launch of the ADM-3, Cagan started to book very large orders. The unit’s 'Dumb
Terminal' nickname came from some of the original trade publication ads, and quickly
caught on industry wide.
Due to two emerging trends the device immediately became the best selling terminal
device in the industry. These two trends were the fact that computer communications
speeds were rapidly increasing, and a wave of general purpose and dedicated single
application minicomputer systems were hitting the market from dozens of
manufacturers. These systems required inexpensive operator consoles that could match
the speeds. With no fast low cost printers available, the ADM-3 (painted in a variety of
custom colors for the OEMs) became the de facto standard.
SOROC Technologies was founded in 1975 in a garage in Orange County, CA by
Dennis Cagan (the salesman), and engineers Jim Placak, John Murar, and Herb

2. Higachi. This same team was responsible for the design and sales success of the ADM-
3A, the original 'Dumb Terminal.' All had quit Lear Siegler in 1975 to start their own
company SOROC, with the plan to design and build a video display (CRT) terminal that
improved on the famous and successful ADM-3. Placak was the former head of LSI's
engineering team and Cagan was the former western regional sales manager.
As the four founders sat in the garage drinking beer, they debated the selection of an
original company name. They had already designed the IQ-120 as a kit. It was intended
to offer an even lower cost updated alternative to the ADM-3. They had still not come to
agreement on a company name, and the deadline had arrived. All the usual choices of
the time – containing data, tech, com, sys, computer, etc., were taken. The team wanted
something original. The leading choice among the engineers was either Big Foot or Yeti
Technology.
As a professional salesman, Cagan felt that was embarrassing. They challenged they to
come up with something better. As they all drank their Coors beer, Cagan began to
doodle. Running low on ideas he was looking for anything that would avoid using the
name of a big hairy monster. He reversed the letters on his beer can, but ‘soorc’ didn't
look that great. But, when he reversed the 'o' and 'r', bingo. He yelled out, “how about
SOROC? SOROC Technologies” It was immediately adopted unanimously. As Cagan
stared further at the beer can he got another idea. In those days there were no pop-top
cans. It took a 'church-key' to open drink cans. The opener left a triangular hole in the
can top -like a pizza with a piece missing. So, Cagan superimposed that image on the
side of the 'S' in SOROC. Bingo again.
http://www.tentacle.franken.de/adm3a/
http://www.old-computers.com/history/detail.asp?n=32&t=3
http://www.old-computers.com/site/header/terminal.asp