TeleSoft

In 1981, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) professor Kenneth Bowles was looking to do for the emergent Ada programming language what the UCSD Pascal and the UCSD p-System language translator and operating system had done for the Pascal programming language and world.{{cite web | url=http://pascal.hansotten.com/uploads/ucsd/reunion/Ken%20Bowles%20-%20Some%20Insights%20for%20UCSD%20Pascal%20Generation.pdf | title=Some Insights for UCSD Pascal Generation | first=Ken | last=Bowles | date=October 22, 2004 | access-date=November 1, 2015}} Also available from [http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/Pascal/ "UCSD Pascal Reunion Symposium Held October 22, 2004"], University of California, San Diego. He thus founded a company called Telesoftware, which soon merged with another UCSD-offshoot company Renaissance Systems, founded by Craig Maudlin and Christopher Klein, to form TeleSoft.{{cite news | title=Telesoft| magazine=Venture | date=January 1985 | page=99}} The early merged company initially sold various Motorola 68000-based systems and software.{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tT0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13 | title=68000 Source | first=Peter | last=Dine | magazine=InfoWorld | date=July 20, 1981 | page=13}}

TeleSoft got off to a fast start in the Ada compiler market, releasing its first product in May 1981, well before the new language standard became final.{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aScefDgbsnUC&pg=PA78 | title=Telesoft Introduces Ada Compiler | newspaper=Computerworld | date=May 4, 1981 | page=78}} TeleSoft had thus put out the first commercially available Ada compiler.{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tk74jLc6HggC&pg=RA1-PA69 | title=Maker of Ada Compiler Took New Tack | first=Robert | last=Batt | newspaper=Computerworld | date=September 7, 1981 | page=69}}

Bowles took an-earlier-than-usual status as an emeritus professor at UCSD in 1984 in order to focus his attentions on TeleSoft.{{cite web | url=http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/Pascal/bios.html | title=Ken Bowles – Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Engineering | publisher=University of California, San Diego | access-date=November 1, 2015}} The company was able to obtain funding, including $2 million in venture capital funding in 1984.

The first generation TeleSoft compiler was very slow, but compilation speeds improved considerably with the TeleGen2 product.{{cite journal | url=http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/so/1987/04/01695790.pdf | title=Telesoft Ada Revisited | first=Paul | last=Oman | journal=IEEE Software | date=July 1987 | pages=89–90|doi=10.1109/ms.1987.231071 }}

TeleSoft sold both native compilers and cross compilers for various embedded systems architectures.{{cite news | title=Ada Validated Compilers List | publisher=Ada Information Clearinghouse | date=July 1, 1992 | pages=23–25}}

The customer base for the compiler grew to include many large corporations, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Intel, Cray Research, Motorola, and Unisys.

The Ada software environment was originally thought to be a promising market, with a number of small, new companies including TeleSoft seeking to gain a foothold in it.{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-25-fi-1680-story.html | title=Small Firms Capitalize on Pentagon Software | agency=Reuters | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=November 25, 1985 }}

But the Ada compiler business proved to be a difficult one to be in; many of the advantages of the language for general-purpose programming were not seen as such by the general software engineering community or by educators.{{cite journal | first=Jean-Pierre | last=Rosen | title=The Ada paradox(es)

| date=September 2009 | journal=ACM SIGAda Ada Letters | volume=29 | issue=2 | pages=28–35 | doi=10.1145/1620593.1620597| s2cid=608405 }} By the late 1980s, TeleSoft had suffered two rounds of layoffs.{{cite book | title=Information Technology Standards: Quest for the Common Byte | publisher=Digital Press | year=1995 | first=Martin | last=Libicki | page=203}} Still privately held, in 1988 it reportedly had revenue of $18 million and some 235 employees.{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLCrPe3QfssC&pg=PA77 | title=Telesoft to merge with Swedish firm | first=Mitch | last=Betts | newspaper=Computerworld | date=August 7, 1989 | page=77}}

TeleSoft was acquired in 1989 by Swedish Telecom and merged with that company's subsidiary Telelogic to form an entity known as Telesoft AB.{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-25-fi-140-story.html | title=Swedish Firm to Acquire TeleSoft for $25 Million | first=Gene | last=Yasuda | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | date=July 25, 1989}} TeleSoft president Ben Goodwin became the head of the new company. Swedish Telecom was a heavy user of Ada and Telelogic wanted to bolster its offerings in that area.

Bowles sold his interest in TeleSoft as part of this transaction; he would go on to participate for several years in the ISO committee responsible for the Ada 95 standardization effort.

But the Ada industry underwent further consolidations.{{cite news | magazine=Software Management News | date=1992 | volume= 10 | pages =24, 64 | title=Recent changes and updates in software management technology}} Telelogic soon reduced its development of Ada tools.{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |last=Paulsen |first=Gard |date=2011 |title=Betwixt and between: Software in telecommunications and the programming language Chill, 1974–1999 |url=http://web.bi.no/forskning%5Cpapers.nsf/wSeriesDissertation/42215F66B6282965C12578DF003A14FF |publisher=BI Norwegian Business School | location=Oslo | pages= 194, 248}}

At the end of 1992, TeleSoft was merged into Alsys, founded by chief Ada designer Jean Ichbiah, which itself had been acquired in 1991 by French defense contractor Thomson-CSF; more mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and the like would follow.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3F-lhug50cC&pg=PA5 | title=Ada Yearbook 1995 | editor-first=Mark | editor-last=Ratcliffe | publisher=IOS Press | date=1995 | location=Amsterdam | page=5| isbn=9789051992182 }}

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Category:Software companies established in 1981

Category:Software companies disestablished in 1992

Category:Software companies based in California

Category:Defunct software companies of the United States

Category:Technology companies based in San Diego

Category:Ada (programming language)

Category:American companies disestablished in 1992

Category:American companies established in 1981