CROMEMCO was founded in 1974 by two Stanford Students, Roger Melen and Harry Garland, who lived in the CROthers MEMorial Hall dormitory on the Stanford campus.

Eventually CROMEMCO needed space to receive visitors, and moved out of the dorm to Mountain View, and incorporated in 1976. Early products were cards for the S-100 bus, as used by the Altair and IMSAI computers.