[4]: 157 [5] The Z-171 sold immensely well for Zenith Data Systems, the latter shocking industry observers in early 1986 when it was awarded a contract to sell 20,000 Z-171s worth $27 million to the IRS, beating out IBM and their PC Convertible.

[6][7][8] In 1985, Sharp Corporation hired Vadem for the design of the PC-7000, their first fully IBM PC compatible portable computer.

[2]: 128  By 1988, Vadem occupied a 6,000-square-foot research and development facility San Jose, employed 18 full-time employees and had several freelance consultants on their roster.

[2]: 128  In the late 1980s, the company began pivoting to designing integrated circuits for application in personal computers and embedded systems, such as solid state disks and LCD controller chips.

[1]: 411 Vadem expanded to 30 employees in 1994, by which point the company began focusing on logic and power-management chipsets the handheld PC and personal digital assistant (PDA) markets.