Pico Technology, a manufacturer of PC Oscilloscopes and data loggers celebrated 30 years in business. Pico’s oscilloscopes, data loggers, and RF equipment are used by engineers, scientists and technicians around the globe to bring their products to market. Pico automotive diagnostics products help save time and money for vehicle manufacturers and service organizations on every continent.
Pico Technology was founded in 1991. This was when Intel introduced the low-cost 486SX microprocessor, priced at $258. It was implemented on PCs running MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0. The World Wide Web Consortium was founded by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, and the GSM mobile network was launched in Europe. On 1st July, 1991 Alan Tong and Mike Green co-founded Pico Technology. Initially operating from its office in Hardwick, near Cambridge, UK, Pico’s first product was the ADC-10, so-called because it was an analog-to-digital converter and sampled at 10 kS/s. It connected to the PC via a parallel port. The first order for ADC-10s was received in August that year, with two units sold for £49 ($68) each.
The ADC-10 was the world’s first PC oscilloscope, and in the years that followed Pico notched up several more industry firsts, including the first oscilloscope with digital triggering and the first high-resolution oscilloscope. Pico’s products and employees have won many awards, such as the Queen’s Award, Elektra European Electronics Awards and Motor Award, to name just a few! Pico is celebrating continuous growth with sales growing year on year for 30 years, with over one hundred and fifty employees at its head office in St Neots, UK and in Manchester, UK, the USA, China, Japan and Germany.
Pico CEO and owner Alan Tong said that he is very proud of Pico and how they have worked hard with dedication to achieve 30 years of continuous growth. To begin with, their aim was to make test equipment affordable for many hobbyists and small companies that couldn't afford traditional benchtop equipment. That helped them to unleash their imagination and design creativity that contributed to many advances in electronic design that they see all around them today, such as personal computers, power tools, particle accelerators and advancements in vehicle design.
He further added that as things have progressed, they still look after hobbyists but their products have evolved to compete with the higher-performance test equipment that is used in mainstream electronics design, as well as in some very advanced technologies and by leading companies and research institutions. They now supply over 30 vehicle manufacturers worldwide. They still take advantage of the latest computing and communications standards and provide excellent value with all-inclusive product packages that don’t require users to purchase additional options or licences. He feels that the company culture at Pico is key to their success. Tong also said that they treat customers as their friends, with free software upgrades and technical support for the lifetime of each product. Pico users are very loyal and have become strong advocates for their products amongst their colleagues. They treat their colleagues as their family and that is key to their very low employee turnover. Many of the team members have been at Pico for over a decade.
“On 3rd July we will have a lot to celebrate but we will also be thinking about the other people—suppliers, partners, distributors and former employees—who have enabled us to deliver 30 years of continuous growth.”
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