Roberts was most likely primarily alluding to Processor Technology, a company whose first product was a 4-KB static RAM board plug-compatible with MITS' influential Altair 8800 kit microcomputer.

[3] Fulmer originally envisioned the friendlier-sounding name Symbiotic Engineering but chose against it, wanting to avoid ties to the Symbionese Liberation Army, a radical left-wing terrorist group active at the time of the company's conception.

[8] Parasitic established dealer channels in Europe in 1977 as part of an effort to rival European and Japanese computer companies that had been making inroads in the continent during that period.

The computer featured an Intel 8080 microprocessor, twenty S-100 slots, 4 KB of RAM, a built-in hexadecimal keypad with a seven-segment LED readout, RS-232 serial and parallel ports, and a cassette interface.

The system was solidly built, the two designers taking notes from computer mogul Bill Godbout and Diablo Data's Bob Mullen on how to make the S-100 bus more robust.

By the time of the Equinox's release, hobbyists and corporate buyers had begun to see the Intel 8080 as antiquated compared to Zilog's Z80 microprocessor, however, and the computer sold poorly as a result.

The company at this time began a pivot to providing after-market hardware upgrades to the TRS-80, a microcomputer line marketed by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores and catalogs.