The Computer That Killed New England Industry

The 1982 Rainbow 100 was a marvel featuring two separate processors to run different operating systems. Despite this technical brilliance, it flopped so hard that it triggered the collapse of the entire New England computing empire.

To accommodate different software, this machine hid both a Zilog Z80 and an Intel 8088 chip under the hood. While technically impressive, it was far too complex compared to the simple, standardized IBM PC. Its failure signaled a shift away from the era of regional minicomputer giants like DEC and Wang. Within years, almost every major computer firm in the Northeast vanished as the industry consolidated elsewhere.