Columbia Data Products, Inc.

Columbia Data Products, Inc. (CDP), founded in 1976, was once a publicly held, major player in the personal computer market. All of the remaining assets of this Maryland computer manufacturer were purchased by a company owned by Alan L. Welsh in 1986.Columbia Data Products (CDP) introduced the MPC 1600 "Multi Personal Computer" in June 1982. It was an exact functional copy of the IBM PC model 5150 except for the BIOS which was clean roomed. IBM had published the bus and BIOS specifications, wrongly assuming that this would be enough to encourage the add-on market and prevent unlicensed copying of the design.