Eric Winkler

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Eric Ernest Winkler, a Swiss physicist, technologist, businessman and manufacturer of consumer electronics and dedicated chess computers, holding a MSc in Physics from ETH Zurich, in 1978, along with Peter Auge co-founder of Novag, and in 1979 founder and CEO of SciSys (Scientific Systems) located in Hong Kong, 1987 renamed to Saitek.

=Acquisitions= Saitek continued the Mephisto trademark after the acquisition of Hegener & Glaser in 1994 and its entire business operations in 2000. At the H&G Extraordinary General Meeting in December 2000, it was decided to change the company's name from Hegener + Glaser AG to Stella Entertainment AG realizing 100% of the shares of the Broadway Musical Management GmbH (BMM), while Winkler concurrently resigned as member of the supervisory board. Stella became insolvent in 2002, partly acquired by Stage Entertainment - the German Mantelaktien-Report by Undervalued-Shares broached the issue.

In 2007, Saitek's Branded Products division was acquired at a price of 30 million Dollar by Mad Catz, while Winkler continued with his own company, electronics manufacturer Ryder Industries Ltd., Hong Kong, no longer in the dedicated chess computer business.

=Inventions= Eric Winkler was involved in various patent-registered inventions in the field of dedicated chess computers, for instance the Sensory Electronic Game which includes a board having a number of defined positions each provided with an isotropic field sensor such as a reed switch which has open and closed positions depending upon the presence or absence of a magnetic field, and two sets of playing pieces, the Thin Membrane Sensor Board as mentioned by Mike Watters , and the Configurable computer input device.

=Associated People=

Programmers
Professional programmers associated with SciSys and Saitek computers:

Business People

 * Peter Auge
 * David Levy
 * Günter Niggemann
 * Kevin O’Connell

=External Links=
 * Eric Winkler - Founder and Chairman of the Board, Ryder Industries
 * Winkler Eric Ernest - Inventor Patent Directory
 * SciSys and Novag : The Early Years from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
 * Chess Computers - The UK Story from Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters
 * SciSys – Schachcomputer.info Wiki

=References=

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