About Us

Data Proof was founded in 1983 by Jim Marshall. It was somewhat of a second career for Jim, having worked as an Engineer in Standards Laboratories for Hewlett-Packard (HP, now Keysite) for over 34 years. Jim developed the initial product and Proto Type Scanner while he was still managing a HP Standards Laboratory.

Jim recognized the need to automate his Voltage Reference process when he was working with the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now NIST), setting up a voltage calibration network for companies near San Francisco. It was the people at the NBS who introduced Jim to a low thermal latching relay. They had discovered its extremely low thermal characteristics and knew it would be ideal for standards applications.

The product worked so well, that people at NBS wanted the product to be commercially available. When Jim presented the idea to HP they turned it down, believing the market would be too small. The people at NBS convinced Jim to ask for a legal release from HP for the design and to manufacture the scanner himself. Jim along with his wife Norma began building the scanners in a spare room of their home on weekends and evenings, while he continued working full time with HP.

Jim eventually left HP to work full time with Data Proof. In Nov. 1989 Jim asked his son Tom to join the family business. Tom has a strong background in manufacturing as a Business Management major and having worked in manufacturing for HP for eight years. Tom gave up his position as a Computer Assembly and Test Department Manager in order to join Data Proof.

Today Data Proof operates out of a small facility in Auburn California, 50 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Today we now have Low Thermal Scanners in use around the world, a third of which are sold to international customers. Data Proof systems are used in the national laboratories for nearly all of the industrialized nations.