SemiDisk Systems was founded by perhaps one of the most unusual and
controversial characters amongst our list of S-100 board companies.
His name was Jim Bell. Bell was born in Akron, Ohio and attended
the MIT where he earned a degree in chemistry. After graduation, he worked
for Intel before founding SemiDisk Systems, in 1982. The company was
located in Beaverton Oregon. It focused on making memory chip based
"solid state" disk drives. It had a early lead in the field before the
concept became widespread and for a short time the market was between them
and
Electralogics.
About the same time they went on to make IBM-PC (and even TRS 80 Model 2)
memory disk boards. SemiDisk closed in 1992.
Bell himself went on to be somewhat of a character. He was arrested in
1989 for illegally manufacturing methamphetamine, but pleaded guilty to a
lesser charge of failing to report receiving a controlled chemical,
for which he paid a fine of $2,500. When his company closed in 1992, Bell
claimed to have developed a "phobia" of tax-related issues and became a
Libertarian Party member, describing his political beliefs as
anarchy-libertarian. He involved himself with the militia movement and
with the Multnomah County Common Law Court in Portland, Oregon, which put
government officials on trial in absentia and awarded judgments against
them. Bell subsequently became involved in a tax dispute with
the Internal Revenue Service who adjudged that he owed $30,000 to the
federal government. Later in a long and convoluted
case he was convicted of potential terrorism acts against IRS agents and
other things. He is due to be released from prison in 2009.
