Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company
Altran
ALTRAN (ALgebraic TRANslator) is a programming language for the formal manipulation of rational functions of several variables with integer coefficients. It was developed at Bell Labs in 1960s. ALTRAN is a FORTRAN version of ALPAK rational algebra ...
. Altran Praxis was a British
software house
A software company is a company whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry.
Types
There are a number of different types of softw ...
that specialised in
critical system
A critical system is a system which must be highly reliable and retain this reliability as it evolves without incurring prohibitive costs.
There are four types of critical systems: safety critical, mission critical, business critical and securit ...
s. This role is continued under the banner of high-tech engineering consultancy services provided by the rest of the Altran group.
The division formerly known as Praxis (the critical systems specialists) is based in
SouthGate
Southgate or South Gate may refer to:
Places Australia
*Southgate, Sylvania
*Southgate Arts and Leisure Precinct, an area within Southbank, Victoria
Canada
*Southgate, Ontario, a township in Grey County
* Southgate, Middlesex County, Ontario
Ed ...
,
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
,
England, close to
Bath Spa railway station
Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath in South West England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. Its three-letter station code i ...
, and also have offices in
London,
Loughborough,
Paris,
Sophia Antipolis, and
Bangalore.
Altran
UK as a whole has offices in
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
,
Bristol,
London,
Loughborough,
Manchester,
Slough
Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
and
Coventry.
The company Praxis Systems Limited was founded by
Martyn Thomas and David Bean in 1983:
it was incorporated on 1 June 1983 and commenced business on 1 July 1983.
On 28 June 1985 it became a
Public limited company Praxis Systems plc.
Until 1988, Praxis was owned almost entirely by its staff.
In 1988 Praxis obtained venture capital finance in order to provide funds for future acquisitions and working capital for continued growth.
On 27 November 1992 Praxis was acquired by
Deloitte Consulting
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
(then known as Touche Ross), an international firm of accountants and management consultants.
The critical systems part of the company was acquired by the
Altran Group
Capgemini Engineering (previously known as ''Altran Technologies, SA'') is a global innovation and engineering consulting firm founded in 1982 in France by Alexis Kniazeff and Hubert Martigny. Altran operates primarily in high technology and ...
in 1997.
In 2004, Praxis Critical Systems and
HIS Consulting
Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company Altran. Altran Praxis was a British software house that specialised in c ...
merged to form Praxis High Integrity Systems. In January 2010, the company was merged with SC2 by Altran to form Altran Praxis. The company has since been rebranded to Altran along with Altran Xype and Altran Technologies.
In December 2012, AdaCore along with Altran Praxis released SPARK Pro 11. In 2013, Altran acquired Sentaca, a specialty telecoms consultancy.
A distinguishing feature of the former Praxis office's is its extensive use of
formal methods such as the
Z notation
The Z notation is a formal specification language used for describing and modelling computing systems. It is targeted at the clear specification of computer programs and computer-based systems in general.
History
In 1974, Jean-Raymond Abrial ...
and the
SPARK toolset (acquired through the takeover of the developers
Program Validation Limited
Altran UK (formerly known as Altran Praxis, Praxis High Integrity Systems, Praxis Critical Systems, Altran Xype, Xype and Altran Technologies) is a division of parent company Altran. Altran Praxis was a British software house that specialised in c ...
in 1994) in its approach to improving the reliability of
software engineering. A major project using Z has been an enhancement for the
United Kingdom's
National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
[Antony Savvas]
NATS claims the biggest air traffic control innovation since radar
'' Computer Weekly'', 7 March 2007.
See also
*
Anthony Hall, a former employee, now a consultant
*
IPSE (Praxis was a key participant in the influential IPSE2.5 project)
References
External links
Company website
Companies established in 1983
1983 establishments in England
Companies based in Bath, Somerset
Software companies of the United Kingdom
Formal methods organizations
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