Teklogix International Inc., or Teklogix, was a tech company founded in 1967 by engineers working at

Ferranti-Packard Ferranti-Packard Ltd. was the Canadian division of Ferranti's global manufacturing empire, formed by the 1958 merger of Ferranti Electric and Packard Electric. For several years in the post-war era, the company underwent a dramatic expansion and ...

. The company focused on mini computer applications. It designed and built complete systems based upon DEC's

PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a 12-bit computing, 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's ...

computer, DEC's logic modules and purpose built logic. Many of the company's projects involved control of material handling systems and this led to the development of radio linked terminals for installation on fork lift trucks complete with multiplexers to interface to a variety of main frame computer systems. In September 2000 Teklogix was acquired by U.K.-based Psion PLC, and became

Psion Teklogix Psion Teklogix Inc. was the operational business of Psion (computers), Psion. Psion Teklogix is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection. Psion Teklogix' products and services include rugged mobile hardw ...

Inc.

Founders

The founders are: Rod Coutts, Lawrie Cragg, Al Vanderburgh, Cliff Bernard and Pete Halsall. Lawrie Cragg ran the company as President for the first nine years of its life.
The group met while working at

Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...

International's Canadian division,

Electronics. The engineers worked on projects related to FP6000 (

Ferranti-Packard 6000 The FP-6000Ferranti Packard: Pioneers in Canadian Electrical Manufacturing Norman R Ball, John N Vardalas was a second-generation Mainframe computer, mainframe computer developed and built by Ferranti-Packard, the Canadian division of Ferranti, ...

, which became the

ICL 1900 ICT 1900 was a family of mainframe computers released by International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) and later International Computers Limited (ICL) during the 1960s and 1970s. The 1900 series was notable for being one of the few non-American ...

ReserVec ReserVec was a computerized reservation system developed by Ferranti Canada for Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA, today's Air Canada) in the late 1950s. It appears to be the first such system ever developed, predating the more famous SABRE system in ...

, Back Up Interceptor Control (BUIC) for the United States Military, as well as

drum memory Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory ...

systems. The group left

and formed Teklogix. * The founding members managed to collect $10,000 in initial subscribed capital, with an additional $8,000 provided by Pete Halsall, when he was made a full partner in the early 70's. * In the year 2000, the company was purchased by Psion for £240 million, or $544 million (CDN).

History

On September 20, 1967, Teklogix was formed by a group of five engineers. The first contract came from I. P. Sharp Associates (another

offspring) that involved the interface of a DEC PDP-8 computer to an

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...

. The system controlled

reagent In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

feeders in a copper and zinc flotation mill. The objective was to analyze the mine head (i.e. what was coming out of the mine) using on-line

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...

and, then, using mathematical

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...

developed by

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, add the appropriate amounts of reagent to optimize mineral recovery. In 1972, Teklogix was awarded a contract from

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

to control a tilt-tray mail sorter system. The company went on to be a primary supplier of sortation and conveyor control systems for the next decade. In 1980, Teklogix introduced wireless real-time data collection solutions. In 1981, the company was awarded a contract with U.S. Defense General Supply Agency (DGSC) to develop a real-time on-board pick information system for 37 Raymond pick vehicles. The next few years attracted more high-profile clients, such as General Motors, Digital Equipment Corp., General Dynamics, Avon and Owens Corning. 1988 - Teklogix opened its first U.S. office in Florence, Kentucky.
1992 - Teklogix was expanded to Europe and Pacific Rim. In the summer of 1992, Teklogix produced its 10,000th terminal.
1993 - An executive, principal engineers, and several other Teklogix employees resign and start a competing company, ''WaveLink Technologies'', which is subsequently bought by Amtech Corp. of Dallas, Texas.
1994 - Teklogix launches a $7.8 million lawsuit against WaveLink and Amtech for improper use of confidential information, theft of technology, and misappropriation of business opportunities.
1995 - Teklogix announced its

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...

.
1996 - In June, Teklogix has relocated its office to the current

corporate office, in

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

, Ontario, Canada. Teklogix was expanded to South America thru the opening of 4 offices in Mexico DF, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Buenos AIres.
1997 - Company acquired Badger Mobile Computing.
2000 - In September 2000 Teklogix was acquired by U.K.-based Psion PLC, and became

Inc.
2011 - Psion has shortened its operating company name, removing the name “Teklogix”.
2012 - Psion was acquired by Motorola Solutions on Oct. 1, 2012.
2014 - In October,

Zebra Technologies Zebra Technologies Corporation is an American mobile computing company specializing in technology used to sense, analyze, and act in real time. The company manufactures and sells marking, tracking, and computer printing technologies. Its product ...

acquired Motorola Solutions' Enterprise business which included

Symbol Technologies Symbol Technologies is an American manufacturer and supplier of mobile data capture and delivery equipment. The company specializes in barcode scanners, mobile computers, RFID systems and Wireless LAN infrastructure. In 2014, Symbol Technologie ...

and Psion for $3.45 billion in cash.

References

External links

Psion Teklogix websiteOpenPsion: A project to port linux to Psion Handhelds!A detailed history of Psion around the time of the Series 5Abandoned Psion software collectedPsion shareware library and tips/articles
{{Authority control Technology companies established in 1967 Ferranti Technology companies of Canada 1967 establishments in Ontario Canadian companies established in 1967 2000 mergers and acquisitions 2011 disestablishments in Ontario Technology companies disestablished in 2011 Defunct technology companies of Canada