Massachusetts Computer Associates
Programming language software company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Massachusetts Computer Associates (originally just Computer Associates), also known as COMPASS, was a software company founded by Thomas Edward Cheatham Jr. and based in Wakefield, Massachusetts from approximately 1961 to 1991, focusing primarily on programming language design and implementation, especially source-to-source transformation.[1] It was acquired in the late 1960s by Applied Data Research.
Many well-known computer scientist were employed by, or consulted for, COMPASS at some point in their careers, including Michael J. Fischer, Stephen Warshall, Robert W. Floyd, and Leslie Lamport.[2] Some of the systems they worked on include AMBIT/G[3] and IVTRAN, a Fortran compiler for the ILLIAC IV.[4]
Leslie Lamport wrote his influential "Time, Clocks" paper while he was at COMPASS.[5][2]
The original vectorizing compiler for the ILLIAC IV was written at COMPASS[6] with contributions by Lamport, who worked there part-time.[7]
Robert Floyd's Treesort algorithm was published while Floyd was at COMPASS.[8]
Corporate history
Applied Data Research (ADR) bought Massachusetts Computer Associates in the late 1960s.[9] ADR was sold to Ameritech in 1986 and then by Ameritech to the (unrelated) Computer Associates of New York.[10] Shortly after ADR was sold to Computer Associates, Compass was in turn sold to SofTech.