ReActiveMicro

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ReActiveMicro is a subsidiary of the ReActiveCorporation, founded in January 1991 by Henry S. Courbis.


The Name: ReActive

Why the name ReActive? As Chemistry and Physics state: ReActivity belongs to the Fundamental Forces, disposed or inclined to participate readily in interactions. Reference ‘Active‘ and its synonyms in the dictionary and they state: Always being Active, ProActively assessing situations and new technologies, constantly exploring new ideas and areas for growth, always on the move and never being at rest. We’re Actively at it… again: ReActive!


History

ReActive started as Interactive Business Systems, Inc. (IBS) in January 1991 and mainly focused on custom written accounting software and IT hardware support and networking for small and medium sized companies. After selling his half of IBS in February 1993 Henry founded D&S Technologies, Inc. which was IT service and hardware based. In July of 1994 Henry bought out his business partner, becoming full owner, and changed the company name to Reactive Computers. This was the official beginning of ReActive as it is known today. ReActive Computers currently holds the record for longest surviving, single owner, IT Support company in NJ (17 years). Henry retired from IT work in December of 2007.


Locations

In the early years ReActive was primarily based in Southern New Jersey. They quickly expanded up and down the North East corridor of the United States. Their client base ranged as far West as Lancaster, PA. As far North as Road Island. And as far south as Delaware. In New Jersey they have had offices in Pennsauken, West Deptford, Piscataway, Mount Laurel, Marlton, Atlantic Highlands, Highlands, Middletown, Mantua, Cherry Hill, Moorestown, and Maple Shade. In Pennsylvania they have had offices in Millersville, Lancaster, and Ephrata.


ReActiveMicro to Current

In July of 2005 Henry founded ReActiveMicro which produces designs for 8bit and 16bit computers, primarily within the Apple II family.

For a brief time in mid-2005 to mid-2006 ReActiveMicro was partnered with Gerber Street Enterprises operated by Bill Garber. Items from this period were labeled as "GSE-Reactive". In 2007 Henry started to collaborate with Anthony Martino who then founded UltimateApple2.com. In 2015 they started a new brand called "Ultimate-Micro.com" based on the "Ultimate" from UltimateApple2, and "Micro" from ReActiveMicro. With Ultimate-Micro Henry mainly handles design work, and Anthony mainly runs the Store. Both perform project alpha testing and user support.


ReActiveMicro's Project Versioning Scheme

Hardware versioning is the process of assigning unique version numbers to unique states of computer hardware. Within a given version number category (major, minor), these numbers are generally assigned in increasing order and correspond to new developments in the project. At a fine-grained level, revision control is often used for keeping track of incrementally different versions of electronic information.

Computer hardware is often tracked using two different versioning schemes — an internal version number that may be incremented many times in a single day, such as a revision control number, and a released version that typically changes far less often.

Previous to 2015 all ReActiveMicro projects had a major and minor revision number, separated by a decimal point, even for internal revisions. For example: v1.0. This lead to some confusion as projects could skip minor versions in between official releases. For example: v1.0, then v1.4 could be released skipping 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

In 2015 Henry of ReActiveMicro decided to start using a two decimal revisioning number system in the effort to reduce possible confusion. There is now a major, minor, and internal revision number that is used. For example, released v1.0 could really be v1.0.24. However only ReActiveMicro design team members would know the actual internal revision number, and only the major and minor revision numbers would ever be printed on the PCB Silkscreen layers or refereed to in documentation and support forums. Some Beta Testers however may be told the internal revision number if it is pertinent to their testing or notes. However the internal revision number is not considered confidential information.

Henry has also been known to note the full project's version number, including the internal revision number suffix, on the PCB's copper layers along with a design date and layout credit. This is mainly done for internal tracking, confirmation, and stock control.

  • All versions start at "1.0.0" and will increment in the positive direction.
  • Major revisions consist of inception or complete relayout of a design. If the basis of the circuit doesn't change, then neither does the major revision.
  • Minor revisions consist of edits, partial relayouts, or changes to a design requiring a new PCB to be produced.
  • Internal revisions are only used by ReActiveMicro design team members. They consist of daily edits and project branches.