AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.) was a
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
company founded in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
in 1969 by several veterans of
M.I.T.'s Instrumentation Laboratory who had worked on the software for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Apollo Program including the
Apollo Guidance Computer
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was a digital computer produced for the Apollo program that was installed on board each Apollo command module (CM) and Apollo Lunar Module (LM). The AGC provided computation and electronic interfaces for guidan ...
.
The company specialized in
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
technology. It was responsible for the design and implementation of the
HAL/S
HAL/S (''High-order Assembly Language/Shuttle'') is a real-time aerospace programming language compiler and cross-compiler for avionics applications used by NASA and associated agencies ( JPL, etc.). It has been used in many U.S. space projects si ...
programming language, used to write the Space Shuttle PASS (Primary Avionics Software System). It participated in the design effort leading to the
Ada
Ada may refer to:
Places
Africa
* Ada Foah, a town in Ghana
* Ada (Ghana parliament constituency)
* Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria
Asia
* Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, Tur ...
programming language, designed the Red language, one of the finalists in the design competition, and wrote one of the first production-quality Ada compilers. The large-scale Ada 95 revision of the language was designed at Intermetrics.
Intermetrics merged with
Whitesmiths
Whitesmiths Ltd. was a software company founded in New York City by P. J. Plauger, Mark Krieger and Gabriel Pham, and last located in Westford, Massachusetts. It sold a Unix-like operating system called Idris (operating system), Idris, as well as ...
Ltd. in December 1988. In 1997, Intermetrics merged with
computer game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
developer
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (formerly Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Product ...
br>
In 1998, Intermetrics acquired
Pacer Infotec
Pacer, PACER or Pacers may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Pacer'' (album), an album by The Amps
* ''Pacer'' (video game), a 2020 racing game
* Pacers, a band formed by Sonny Burgess
* '' The Pacer'', a student newspaper circulated ...
, and changed its name to 'AverStar'. AverStar merged with the
Titan Corporation
Titan Corporation was a United States-based company that started as a telecommunications defense contractor with its headquarters located in San Diego, California. It was acquired by L-3 Communications on June 3, 2005 for $2.65 billion and oper ...
in March, 2000;
Titan was acquired by
L-3 Communications
L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training d ...
in 2005.
References
External links
{{Portal, Business
A history of Intermetrics some subjective notes on Intermetrics in the 1970s and 1980s
part of the Apollo Guidance Computer History Project
Defunct software companies of the United States
Ada (programming language)
Software companies based in Massachusetts
Defunct companies based in Massachusetts
Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Software companies established in 1969
Technology companies disestablished in 1998