TeleSoft

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TeleSoft, Inc. (sometimes written Telesoft) was an American software development company founded in 1981 and based in San Diego, California, that specialized in development tools for the Ada programming language.

Contents

History

In 1981, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) professor Kenneth Bowles was looking to do for the emergent Ada programming language what the UCSD Pascal and the UCSD p-System language translator and operating system had done for the Pascal programming language and world. [1] He thus founded a company called Telesoftware, which soon merged with another UCSD-offshoot company Renaissance Systems, founded by Craig Maudlin and Christopher Klein, to form TeleSoft. [2] The early merged company initially sold various Motorola 68000-based systems and software. [3]

University of California, San Diego Public university in La Jolla, California, United States

The University of California, San Diego is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, in the United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is the seventh-oldest of the 10 University of California campuses and offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling approximately 30,000 undergraduate and 8,500 graduate students. The university occupies 2,141 acres (866 ha) near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, with the main campus resting on approximately 1,152 acres (466 ha).

Kenneth L. "Ken" Bowles was an American computer scientist best known for his work in initiating and directing the UCSD Pascal project, when he was a professor of computer science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

UCSD Pascal Pascal programming language system

UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

TeleSoft got off to a fast start in the Ada compiler market, releasing its first product in May 1981, well before the new language standard became final. [4] TeleSoft had thus put out the first commercially available Ada compiler. [5] Bowles took an-earlier-than-usual status as an emeritus professor at UCSD in 1984 in order to focus his attentions on TeleSoft. [6] The company was able to obtain funding, including $2 million in venture capital funding in 1984. [2]

The first generation TeleSoft compiler was very slow, but compilation speeds improved considerably with the TeleGen2 product. [7] TeleSoft sold both native compilers and cross compilers for various embedded systems architectures. [8] The customer base for the compiler grew to include many large corporations, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Intel, Cray Research, Motorola, and Unisys. [9]

IBM American multinational technology and consulting corporation

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924. IBM is incorporated in New York.

Sun Microsystems Defunct American computer hardware and software company

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was an American company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the Network File System (NFS), and SPARC. Sun contributed significantly to the evolution of several key computing technologies, among them Unix, RISC processors, thin client computing, and virtualized computing. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982. At its height, the Sun headquarters were in Santa Clara, California, on the former west campus of the Agnews Developmental Center.

Intel American semiconductor chip manufacturer

Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in the Silicon Valley. It is the world's second largest and second highest valued semiconductor chip manufacturer based on revenue after being overtaken by Samsung Electronics, and is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers (PCs). Intel ranked No. 46 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Intel is incorporated in Delaware.

The Ada software environment was originally thought to be a promising market, with a number of small, new companies including TeleSoft seeking to gain a foothold in it. [10] But the Ada compiler business proved to be a difficult one to be in; many of the advantages of the language for general-purpose programming were not seen as such by the general software engineering community or by educators. [11] By the late 1980s, TeleSoft had suffered two rounds of layoffs. [12] Still privately held, in 1988 it reportedly had revenue of $18 million and some 235 employees. [9] [13]

Company sale and subsequent history

TeleSoft was acquired in 1989 by Swedish Telecom and merged with that company's subsidiary Telelogic to form an entity known as Telesoft AB. [9] TeleSoft president Ben Goodwin became the head of the new company. [9] Swedish Telecom was a heavy user of Ada and Telelogic wanted to bolster its offerings in that area. [14] Bowles sold his interest in TeleSoft as part of this transaction; he would go on to participate for several years in the ISO committee responsible for the Ada 95 standardization effort. [6]

Televerket (Sweden) Swedish State authority acting as a state-owned corporation (public enterprise), responsible for telecommunications in Sweden between 1853-1993

Televerket, was a Swedish State authority acting as a state-owned corporation, responsible for telecommunications in Sweden between 1853-1993. Originally it was named Kongl. Elektriska Telegraf-Werket, which was founded in 1853. Its name changed to Kongl. Telegrafverket in 1871, Kungl. Telegrafverket in 1903, the prefix Kungl. was dropped in 1946 and the name was further modernised to Televerket in 1953. Televerket continued on with its telecommunications monopoly until corporatisation in 1992-1993 when it was renamed Telia, now part of Telia Company.

Telelogic AB was a software business headquartered in Malmö, Sweden. Telelogic was founded in 1983 as a research and development arm of Televerket, the Swedish department of telecom. It was later acquired by IBM Rational, and exists under the IBM software group.

But the Ada industry underwent further consolidations. [15] Telelogic soon reduced its development of Ada tools. [14] At the end of 1992, TeleSoft was merged into Alsys, founded by chief Ada designer Jean Ichbiah, which itself had been acquired in 1991 by French defense contractor Thomson-CSF; more mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and the like would follow. [15] [16]

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References

  1. ↑ Bowles, Ken (October 22, 2004). "Some Insights for UCSD Pascal Generation" (PDF). Retrieved November 1, 2015. Also available from "UCSD Pascal Reunion Symposium Held October 22, 2004", University of California, San Diego.
  2. 1 2 "Telesoft". Venture. January 1985. p. 99.
  3. ↑ Dine, Peter (July 20, 1981). "68000 Source". InfoWorld. p. 13.
  4. ↑ "Telesoft Introduces Ada Compiler". Computerworld. May 4, 1981. p. 78.
  5. ↑ Batt, Robert (September 7, 1981). "Maker of Ada Compiler Took New Tack". Computerworld. p. 69.
  6. 1 2 "Ken Bowles – Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Engineering". University of California, San Diego. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  7. ↑ Oman, Paul (July 1987). "Telesoft Ada Revisited" (PDF). IEEE Software: 89–90. doi:10.1109/ms.1987.231071.
  8. ↑ "Ada Validated Compilers List". Ada Information Clearinghouse. July 1, 1992. pp. 23–25.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Yasuda, Gene (July 25, 1989). "Swedish Firm to Acquire TeleSoft for $25 Million". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ↑ "Small Firms Capitalize on Pentagon Software". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. November 25, 1985.
  11. ↑ Rosen, Jean-Pierre (September 2009). "The Ada paradox(es)". SIGAda Ada Letters. 29 (2): 28–35. doi:10.1145/1620593.1620597.
  12. ↑ Libicki, Martin (1995). Information Technology Standards: Quest for the Common Byte. Digital Press. p. 203.
  13. ↑ Betts, Mitch (August 7, 1989). "Telesoft to merge with Swedish firm". Computerworld. p. 77.
  14. 1 2 Paulsen, Gard (2011). Betwixt and between: Software in telecommunications and the programming language Chill, 1974–1999 (Ph.D.). Oslo: BI Norwegian Business School. pp. 194, 248.
  15. 1 2 "Recent changes and updates in software management technology". Software Management News. 10. 1992. pp. 24, 64.
  16. ↑ Ratcliffe, Mark, ed. (1995). Ada Yearbook 1995. Amsterdam: IOS Press. p. 5.
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