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Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto)
Known for their reliable and well built chess computers, Hegener &
Glaser or Mephisto as it is commonly referred to in the chess computer
world, was a German company later bought by Saitek.
Here's a little bit of its history. Information kindly provided by
Bernhard D.
- 1969 founded in Munich by Manfred Hegener and Florian Glaser for
production of semiconductors and displays
- 1978 programmer Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne gets in contact with
H+G
- 1980 "Mephisto" trademark was created. First German chess computer by
Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne
- 1983 till now, "Mephisto" gets in Germany a synonym for chess
computers
- 1984 with Richard Lang and his Psion chess (winner of the WMCCC 1984
in Glasgow) the series of championship victories starts
- 1989 more than 90% of all chess computers sold in German are Mephistos
- 1989 H+G buys "Fidelity
Electronics Inc." (~7 million US $)
- 1990 the high price market for chess computers collapse because of
the rise of the PCs
- 1992 H+G debts are now 28 million DM
- 1992 Ed Schroeders Gideon 3.1 (Mephisto RISC II) wins the 7th World
Computer Chess Championship (not the micro one !) in front of
mainframes and special hardware
- 1994 H+G gets bought by "Saitek Ltd." (~ 7 million DM)
- 1994 Richard Langs Genius (Mephisto Genius London) beats Garry
Kasparov at the Intel World Chess Grand Prix in London
- 1997 Manfred Hegener and Ossi Weiner setup the company "Millennium
2000 GmbH Hegener & Weiner" and produced the "Millennium
Schachpartner 2000" which was sold for 99 DM
Probably the most successful product from H+G was the "Mephisto Modular
System". After more than 20 years, there are still modules available
and produced. Try the same with an old IBM 8088 PC and its 8 bit ISA
slots!
All pictures from Computer Schach & Spiele (computer chess &
games), kindly supplied by Bernhard D.
Polgar sisters at Mephisto 1989
Ossi Weiner Manfred Hegener Richard Lang, 1985
Polgar sisters against Mephisto
Mephisto Prototype
A comprehensive list of modules for
the Mephisto Modular System (Exclusive and co.)
- MM I (Mephisto III, 1806, 8 MHz)
- Mirage (Mephisto II, 1806, 8 MHz)
- S [Budapest] (~Mephisto III, 68000, 12 MHz)
- B&P (6502, 3.7 MHz)
- S [Glasgow] (~Mephisto III, 68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- MM II (6502, 3.7 MHz)
- Amsterdam (68000, 12 MHz)
- Rebel 5.0 (6502, 5 MHz)
- Dallas 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Dallas 32 Bit (68020, 14 MHz)
- Roma 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Roma 32 Bit (68020, 14 MHz)
- MM IV (6502, 5 MHz)
- Almeria 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Almeria 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Roma II (68000, 10 MHz)
- Portorose 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Portorose 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- MM V (6502, 5 MHz)
- Polgar (6502, 5 MHz)
- Lyon 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Lyon 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Polgar 10 MHz (6502)
- Vancouver 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz)
- Vancouver 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz)
- Genius 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- Genius 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- Genius 68030 (33 MHz)
- RISC I (ARM2, 14 MHz)
- London 16 Bit (68000, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- London 32 Bit (68020, 12 MHz) [Eprom]
- London 68030 (33 MHz) [Eprom]
- RISC II (ARM2, 14 MHz)
- MM VI (H8, 10 MHz)
- Senator (SH7000, 16 MHz)
- Magellan (SH7000, 20 MHz)
- Resurrection (StrongARM,
200MHz)
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