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Innovative Software Applications
Sorcim was an early start-up company in Silicon Valley, founded in June 1980 by Richard Frank, Paul McQuesten, Martin Herbach, Anil Lakhwara, and Steve Jasik - all former Control Data Corporation employees working in the Language Group in Sunnyvale, CA. Jasik left company early on, to develop the MacNosy product for the Macintosh. Sorcim was best known for SuperCalc, a spreadsheet the company developed for the Osborne Computer Corporation portable computer. The company made many other products, including SuperWriter and SuperProject before its acquisition by Computer Associates in 1985. Although the company continued as a largely autonomous division of CA, it never again achieved prominence after the acquisition. The company was named "Sorcim" after Richard Frank saw a reflection of the word “micros” in an airplane window. Early history The company was founded to expand the microcomputer products from Digicom, a company formed by Richard in 1978. Paul joined in 1979. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or Over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporation, there are a relatively small number of shareholders or company members. Related terms are closely-held corporation, unquoted company, and unlisted company. Though less visible than their public company, publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for ($1.8 trillion) in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In 2005, using a substantially smaller pool size (22.7%) for comparison, the 339 companies on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Godbout
Bill Godbout (October 2, 1939 – November 8, 2018) was an early computer pioneer and entrepreneur known for manufacturing and selling computer equipment, parts, and electronic kits in Silicon Valley, during the 1970s and 1980s. He and his company, Godbout Electronics (and later CompuPro and Viasyn), were very influential in the early years of the personal computer market. Together with George Morrow, he worked on the IEEE696 (withdrawn) better known as the very popular S-100 bus. He is featured in the book ''The Silicon Boys, 1999'' by David A. Kaplan about the pioneers of Silicon Valley. Early life He was born on October 2, 1939 in Providence, Rhode Island. Career After college, he went straight into a job at IBM, but found himself "involuntarily recalled" to active military duty in 1961 and subsequently spending most of the 1960s in the military, being discharged in 1968. Deciding not to return to a big company, although still holding IBM in esteem, he moved to the San Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphics Environment Manager
GEM (for Graphics Environment Manager) is an operating environment released by Digital Research (DRI) in 1985 for use with the DOS operating system on Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors. GEM is known primarily as the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Atari ST series of computers, and was also supplied with a series of IBM PC-compatible computers from Amstrad. It was also available for the standard IBM PC, at a time when the 6 MHz IBM PC AT (and the very concept of a GUI) was brand new. It was the core for a small number of DOS programs, the most notable being Ventura Publisher. It was ported to a number of other computers that previously lacked graphical interfaces, but never gained popularity on those platforms. DRI also produced X/GEM for their FlexOS real-time operating system with adaptations for OS/2 Presentation Manager and the X Window System under preparation as well. History GSX In late 1984, GEM started life at DRI as an outgrowth of a more g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LISP
A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping is produced when the tip of the tongue protrudes between the front teeth and dentalized lisping is produced when the tip of the tongue just touches the front teeth. The transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet for interdental sibilants is and and for simple dental sibilants is and . When a fronted lisp does not have a sibilant quality, due to placing the lack of a grooved articulation, the IPA transcription would be or variants thereof. * A occurs when the and sounds are produced with air-flow over the sides of the tongue. It is also called "slushy ess" or a "slushy lisp" in part due to its wet, spitty sound. The symbols for these lateralised sounds in the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for disordere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symbolics
Symbolics was a computer manufacturer Symbolics, Inc., and a privately held company that acquired the assets of the former company and continues to sell and maintain the Open Genera Lisp system and the Macsyma computer algebra system.Symbolics Sales by David Schmidt The symbolics.com domain was originally registered on March 15, 1985, making it the first -domain in the world. In August 2009, it was sold to napkin.com (formerly XF.com) Investments. History Symbolics, Inc. was a |
Skunkworks Project
A skunkworks project is a project developed by a relatively small and loosely structured group of people who research and develop a project, often with a very large degree of autonomy, primarily for the sake of radical innovation. The term originated with Lockheed's World War II ''Skunk Works'' project. Definition Everett Rogers defined ''skunkworks'' as an "enriched environment that is intended to help a small group of individuals design a new idea by escaping routine organizational procedures."Rogers E. (2003) ''Diffusion of Innovations'', 5th ed., p. 109. The term originated during World War II when the P-80 Shooting Star was designed by Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects Division in Burbank, California, under similar circumstances. A closely guarded incubator was set up in a circus tent next to a plastics factory in Burbank. The strong smells that wafted into the tent made the Lockheed R&D workers think of the foul-smelling “Skonk Works” factory in Al Capp’ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles in the business market. The first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, had helped launch the Apple II as one of the earliest personal computers in business use. With IBM's entry into the market, VisiCalc was slow to respond, and when they did, they launched what was essentially a straight port of their existing system despite the greatly expanded hardware capabilities. Lotus's solution was marketed as a three-in-one integrated solution: it handled spreadsheet calculations, database functionality, and graphical charts, hence the name "1-2-3", though how much database capability the product actually had was debatable, given the sparse memory left over after launching 1-2-3. It quickly overtook VisiCalc, as well as Multiplan and SuperCalc, the two VisiCalc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zenith Z89
The Z-89 is a personal computer produced by Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) in the early 1980s. Description The Zenith Z-89 is based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor running at 2.048 MHz, and supports the HDOS and CP/M operating systems. The US$2295 Z-89 is integrated in a terminal-like enclosure with a non-detachable keyboard, 12-inch monochrome CRT with a 80x25 screen, 48 KB RAM, and a 5.25" floppy disk drive. The keyboard is of high build quality and has an unusual number of special purpose keys: REPEAT, ESC, TAB, CAPS, CTRL, SCROLL, RESET, BREAK, BACK SPACE, LINE FEED, DELETE, REPEAT, and two with red and blue squares. There are five function keys and a numeric keypad. The video display has reverse video and block graphics are available. The computer has two small card cages inside the cabinet on either side of the CRT, each of which accept up to three proprietary circuit cards. Upgrade cards available for this included disk controller cards (see below), a 16 KB RAM ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''Energy'', ''Healthcare'' (Siemens Healthineers), and ''Infrastructure & Cities'', which represent the main activities of the corporation. The corporation is a prominent maker of medical diagnostics equipment and its medical health-care division, which generates about 12 percent of the corporation's total sales, is its second-most profitable unit, after the industrial automation division. In this area, it is regarded as a pioneer and the company with the highest revenue in the world. The corporation is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. Siemens and its subsidiaries employ approximately 303,000 people worldwide and reported global revenue of around €62 billion in 2021 according to its earnings release. History 1847 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CHILL
In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems in some telecommunication companies and for signal box programming. The CHILL language is similar in size and complexity to the original Ada language. The first specification of the CHILL language was published in 1980, a few years before Ada. ITU provides a standard CHILL compiler. A free CHILL compiler was bundled with GCC up to version 2.95, however, was removed from later versions. An object-oriented version, called Object CHILL, was developed also. ITU is responsible for the CHILL standard, known as ITU-T Rec. Z.200. The equivalent ISO standard is ISO/IEC 9496:2003. (The text of the two documents is the same). In late 1999 CCITT stopped maintaining the CHILL standard. CHILL was used in systems of Alcatel System 12 and Siemens EWSD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Coast Computer Faire
The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual computer industry conference and exposition most often associated with San Francisco, its first and most frequent venue. The first fair was held in 1977 and was organized by Jim Warren (computer specialist), Jim Warren and Bob Reiling. At the time, it was the biggest computer show in the world, intended to popularize the personal computer in the home. The West Coast PC Faire was formed to provide a more specialized show. However, Apple Inc. stopped exhibiting at the West Coast Computer Faire, refusing to exhibit at any show other than COMDEX that also had PC-based exhibits. In 1983, Warren sold the rights to the Faire for US$3 million to Prentice Hall, who later sold it to Sheldon Adelson, the owner of Interface Group and COMDEX. In total, sixteen shows were held, with the last in 1991. After Warren sold the show, it had a few more good years, and then declined rapidly. History The first fair took place on April 16–17, 1977, in San ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VisiCalc
VisiCalc (for "visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on 17 October 1979. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. VisiCalc is considered to be Apple II's killer app. It sold over 700,000 copies in six years, and as many as 1 million copies over its history. Initially developed for the Apple II computer using a 6502 assembler running on the Multics time sharing system, VisiCalc was ported to numerous platforms, both 8-bit and some of the early 16-bit systems. In order to do this, the company developed porting platforms that produced bug compatible versions. The company took the same approach when the IBM PC was launched, producing a product that was essentially identical to the original 8-bit Apple II version. Sales were initially brisk, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
