Description
The Ideographix, Inc. records range in date from 1974 to 1999 and contain program listings, manuals, specifications, data
sheets, periodicals, software, and A/V materials. The contents of the collection were produced and used by the office of Ideographix,
Inc. (IPX), a software development company that specialized in Chinese language keyboards and printers. IPX, which was headquartered
in Sunnyvale, California and operated from 1972 to 1999, is best known for making the world's first system to automate Chinese
typesetting. About half of the collection consists of program and code listings ranging in date from 1975 to 1988. There is
also a small amount of other printed materials published by IPX, such as installation manuals, data sheets, and user guides.
The other half of the collection is made up of software, including magnetic tapes, 8 inch floppy disks, 5.25 inch floppy disks,
and paper tape.
Background
Ideographix, Inc. (IPX) was a software development company that operated from 1972 to 1999 and specialized in Chinese language
keyboards and printers. IPX was best known for making the world's first system to automate Chinese typesetting. The company
was founded in 1972 in Sunnyvale, California by Chan Yeh, a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the United States after teaching
himself Korean in order to be a translator for the U.S. during the Korean War. After the war, Yeh studied military science
at the Virginia Military Institute and earned a PhD in nuclear engineering at Cornell University. Prior to founding IPX, he
worked as an analyst at IBM for six years. He remained the CEO for the entire duration of the company. The company of about
50 employees developed the IPX automatic Chinese photo-typesetting system, which made typesetting Chinese characters three
times faster. Later, the company designed and produced Chinese language keyboards as well as some of the earliest laser printers
that created Chinese characters. IPX's products were very successful in China and Taiwan. IPX closed in 1999.
Extent
42.53 Linear feet,
15 record cartons, 20 newspaper boxes, and 2 manuscript boxes
Restrictions
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying
any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the
Computer History Museum's collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer
History Museum.
Availability
The collection is open for research.