Digitek
Encyclopedia
Digitek was an early system software company located in Los Angeles, California
.
Digitek, co-founded in the early 1960s by three equal partners (James R. Dunlap, President plus Vice Presidents Donald Ryan and Donald Peckham who had worked together at Hughes Aircraft Company
, in Culver City, California
), authored many of the programming language
systems (compiler
+ runtime
+ intrinsic library) on various manufacturers' computer systems, including IBM
, SDS
, GE
, Bell Labs
, and many others. Anyone interested in computers during the 60's might recall frequent Digitek advertisements in Scientific American
and Datamation
magazines.
Digitek's first compiler customer was Scientific Data Systems
(SDS), a computer mainframe hardware company founded by Max Palevsky
in 1961 and later acquired by Xerox
in 1969.
Digitek wrote language systems for almost every popular programming language at the time including FORTRAN
, PL/I
, SIMSCRIPT
, COBOL
, and BASIC
. Some Digitek compilers are the IBM System 360 G Level FORTRAN and Bell Labs PL/I. Due to their implementation in a virtual machine
technology called POPS (for "Programmed Operators"), the company's compilers could be developed rapidly and had a common "footprint". This later allowed a successor company, Ryan-McFarland Corporation, to capitalize on the rapid expansion of the microcomputer
market in the late 1970s and early 1980s by providing POPS-based compilers to virtually all of the emerging computer vendors at the time. Among these products were RM/COBOL and RM/BASIC for Tandy's TRS-80, and IBM Professional FORTRAN (and its twin, RM/FORTRAN) for MS-DOS. Ryan-McFarland was sold to an Australian company (Austec) in 1987, and the POPS-based compiler technology was subsequently sold to Language Processors, Inc. (later renamed Liant Software Corporation). Liant was purchased by Micro Focus International
in 2008, where the technology, in the form of the RM/COBOL-85 compiler and runtime system, is presently being sold. In 2009, applications built using this POPS implementation of COBOL are still in widespread use throughout the world.
Lahey Computer Systems F77L was also a POPS-based Fortran 77 compiler, for MS-DOS
. Don Ryan, Thomas M Lahey, Doug Ahl, Noel Vasquez, David McFarland, and Jack Perrine (developer of Univac
1108 Fortran V and Athena Fortran) had all worked at Digitek at the same time.
Digitek went down when taken into regress by GE for failing to deliver a promised PL/I compiler for the Multics
project. Don Peckham was bought out. Don Ryan went on with Dave McFarland, also from Digitek, to found Ryan−McFarland who continued the compiler writing work.
Dunlap was quoted in the 1970s as saying that the richest man in the world in the year 2000 would be an ex-programmer. He was, of course, Bill Gates
not Dunlap.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Digitek, co-founded in the early 1960s by three equal partners (James R. Dunlap, President plus Vice Presidents Donald Ryan and Donald Peckham who had worked together at Hughes Aircraft Company
Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
, in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
), authored many of the programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
systems (compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
+ runtime
Run-time system
A run-time system is a software component designed to support the execution of computer programs written in some computer language...
+ intrinsic library) on various manufacturers' computer systems, including IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, SDS
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
, GE
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
, and many others. Anyone interested in computers during the 60's might recall frequent Digitek advertisements in Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
and Datamation
Datamation
Datamation was a print computer magazine published in the United States between 1957 and 1998. When first published it wasn't clear there would be a significant market for a computer magazine given how few computers there were...
magazines.
Digitek's first compiler customer was Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
(SDS), a computer mainframe hardware company founded by Max Palevsky
Max Palevsky
Max Palevsky was an American art collector, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and computer technology pioneer.-Early life:...
in 1961 and later acquired by Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
in 1969.
Digitek wrote language systems for almost every popular programming language at the time including FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
, PL/I
PL/I
PL/I is a procedural, imperative computer programming language designed for scientific, engineering, business and systems programming applications...
, SIMSCRIPT
SIMSCRIPT
SIMSCRIPT is a free-form, English-like general-purpose simulation language conceived by Harry Markowitz and Bernard Hausner at the RAND Corporation in 1963. It was implemented as a Fortran preprocessor on the IBM 7090 and was designed for large discrete event simulations...
, COBOL
COBOL
COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, and BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
. Some Digitek compilers are the IBM System 360 G Level FORTRAN and Bell Labs PL/I. Due to their implementation in a virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
technology called POPS (for "Programmed Operators"), the company's compilers could be developed rapidly and had a common "footprint". This later allowed a successor company, Ryan-McFarland Corporation, to capitalize on the rapid expansion of the microcomputer
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
market in the late 1970s and early 1980s by providing POPS-based compilers to virtually all of the emerging computer vendors at the time. Among these products were RM/COBOL and RM/BASIC for Tandy's TRS-80, and IBM Professional FORTRAN (and its twin, RM/FORTRAN) for MS-DOS. Ryan-McFarland was sold to an Australian company (Austec) in 1987, and the POPS-based compiler technology was subsequently sold to Language Processors, Inc. (later renamed Liant Software Corporation). Liant was purchased by Micro Focus International
Micro Focus International
Micro Focus International plc is a multinational software and information technology business based in Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom. The firm provides software and consultancy services for clients updating legacy systems to more modern platforms...
in 2008, where the technology, in the form of the RM/COBOL-85 compiler and runtime system, is presently being sold. In 2009, applications built using this POPS implementation of COBOL are still in widespread use throughout the world.
Lahey Computer Systems F77L was also a POPS-based Fortran 77 compiler, for MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
. Don Ryan, Thomas M Lahey, Doug Ahl, Noel Vasquez, David McFarland, and Jack Perrine (developer of Univac
UNIVAC
UNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
1108 Fortran V and Athena Fortran) had all worked at Digitek at the same time.
Digitek went down when taken into regress by GE for failing to deliver a promised PL/I compiler for the Multics
Multics
Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
project. Don Peckham was bought out. Don Ryan went on with Dave McFarland, also from Digitek, to found Ryan−McFarland who continued the compiler writing work.
Dunlap was quoted in the 1970s as saying that the richest man in the world in the year 2000 would be an ex-programmer. He was, of course, Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
not Dunlap.
Further reading
- Cocke, JohnJohn CockeJohn Cocke was an American computer scientist recognized for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture."...
; Schwartz, Jacob T.Jack SchwartzJacob Theodore "Jack" Schwartz was an American mathematician, computer scientist, and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was the designer of the SETL programming language and the NYU Ultracomputer...
, Programming Languages and their Compilers: Preliminary Notes, Courant Institute of Mathematical SciencesCourant Institute of Mathematical SciencesThe Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is an independent division of New York University under the Faculty of Arts & Science that serves as a center for research and advanced training in computer science and mathematics...
technical report, New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, 1969. This has a section with a technical exposition of the Digitek compiler technique.