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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.

History

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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]

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]

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

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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]

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]

References

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  1. ^ Bowles, Ken (October 22, 2004). "Some Insights for UCSD Pascal Generation" (PDF). Retrieved November 1, 2015.[permanent dead link] Also available from "UCSD Pascal Reunion Symposium Held October 22, 2004", University of California, San Diego.
  2. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "Ken Bowles – Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Engineering". University of California, San Diego. Archived from the original on December 31, 2017. 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. ^ a b c d 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)". ACM SIGAda Ada Letters. 29 (2): 28–35. doi:10.1145/1620593.1620597. S2CID 608405.
  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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Recent changes and updates in software management technology". Software Management News. Vol. 10. 1992. pp. 24, 64.
  16. ^ Ratcliffe, Mark, ed. (1995). Ada Yearbook 1995. Amsterdam: IOS Press. p. 5. ISBN 9789051992182.