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and Europe. Packet-switching also made their transatlantic links much more usable, since on previous equipment, frequent "line hits" would produce user-visible errors. As the network grew, and as Sharp APL was available on in-house computers, Sharp clients with their own mainframes could join the network, access their own or the
Toronto mainframe from anywhere on IPSANET, and transfer data accordingly. The network eventually provided "Network Shared Variables" that allowed programs running on one mainframe to communicate in realtime with programs on another mainframe. This was used for
1057:
479:(STSC) of Bethesda, Maryland, USA, each retailing the same services in their respective countries. IPSA and STSC jointly developed their software. Eventually they devised separate product names. They separated as Sharp APL and APL*Plus. Initially, IPSA served STSC's customers from its Toronto datacenter. In 1972, STSC built its own datacenter. Afterward, both firms provided disaster recovery for each other: if one of the datacenters could not function, the other datacenter would accommodate both vendors' users.
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hardware, essentially an IBM PC/XT with IBM 370 hardware emulation cards, but the PC/370 hardware never caught on. Later, Sharp released the SAX (Sharp APL for Unix) interpreter, based on STSC's APL*Plus UNX interpreter, which was a much more complete implementation of
Iverson's APL extensions. As
487:
IPSA sold time on its mainframes by the minute to customers across Canada, and rapidly developed into a major time sharing service in the 1970s. Long before the
Internet, IPSA developed IPSANET to provide cheap telecommunications between the Toronto data center and IPSA clients across North America
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posed little threat to the timesharing industry as the computing power and storage capacity offered by these small machines was insufficient. A major part of Sharp's business was buttressed by database business, which had the beneficial effect of delaying the eventual downslide. STSC started to
495:
I. P. Sharp
Associates offered timesharing users access to a variety of databases, plus sophisticated packages for statistical analysis, forecasting, reporting, and graphing data. Databases included historical stock market time series data, econometric data, and airline data. All of these were
547:, Leigh O. Clayton, Doug Forkes, Dave Markwick, and Peter Wooster. This group was headed by Eric B. Iverson, Ken Iverson's son. It was affectionately termed the "Zoo" and was well-respected inside and outside the firm. The term "Zoo" is attributed to a visitor from
607:, written by Roger Moore, which ran the mainframe Sharp APL executable on the PC. This product was only used by users exposed to mainframe Sharp APL, never enjoying the commercial success of STSC's APL*Plus/PC product. Sharp also offered their APL interpreter for
586:
The profitable timesharing business started to deteriorate in mid-1982, as some key timesharing clients moved their operations from timesharing to in-house Sharp APL. Around that time, IBM started offering smaller mainframes, such as the
551:
who witnessed the long hair, beards, and unconventional dress of some in the team. Sharp APL and APL Plus, and variants, were all based on the XM6 IBM program. Further extensive APL development was done in
Toronto and elsewhere.
591:
series, which could be leased for less than the cost of using external services. Clients who did not depend on the network were the first to migrate to small mainframes. Initially, the presence of the
574:
services, known colloquially by its users as the "Sharp
Mailbox". The original 666 Box was written by Larry Breed of STSC. It was later rewritten for higher security by a student hacker from
472:
near DND headquarters. Ted McDorman and Jim McSherry were lead players in this. At one point IPSA could claim to have played a part in every computer system onboard
Canadian Navy ships.
504:. In 1982, IPSA produced its first printed catalog of all online databases and proceeded to document for its customers the content and use of single databases or sets of databases.
453:, which almost immediately closed the Toronto office. Ian Sharp, the chief programmer, founded I. P. Sharp Associates in December 1964 with the other members of the team (
619:
Reuters purchased I. P. Sharp
Associates in 1987, partly for the historic financial data. Ian Sharp continued as president until 1989, when he retired. In 1993, IPSA's
997:
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workspace, an easy-to-use time series, query, and reporting language, which among other things featured integrated high-quality business graphics from
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Sharp was active in the field of developing APL interpreters for the IBM PC and other computers. Their IBM PC implementation was based on a software
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578:, Leslie H. Goldsmith. Eventually it was extended to support transferring email among multiple domains (mainframes) over the IPSANET.
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series mainframes, and to some degree took over
Ferranti's former military work. It became particularly well used by the
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539:: including Ian Sharp, in his role as enabler, Roger Moore, Dick Lathwell, Brian Daly in his role as marketing guy in
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457:, Ted McDorman, Don Smith, David Oldacre, Brian Daly, and James McSherry) and David Butler shortly after.
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IPSA was heavily involved in the development of the APL language, eventually employing APL's inventor,
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532:). APL\360 was later greatly enhanced and extended to become Sharp APL, stylized as SHARP APL.
127:
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IPSA served an important role as an incubator for entrepreneurs and technologists, including:
387:, consulting and services firm of the 1970s and 1980s. IPSA is well known for its work on the
1185:
556:
446:
437:, which sold many products to the Canadian military and large businesses. The team worked on
709:
Paul
Phillips - co-founded Financial Market Software Consultants with Rob Hodgkinson (above)
661:
Rob Hodgkinson – co-founded Financial Market Software Consultants with Paul Phillips (below)
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IPSA employed a team of expert APL implementors and contributors at its head office in
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feel the effects of the deteriorating timesharing market one or two years earlier.
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Stephen Taylor – writer, editor, poet, founder of the Iverson College conferences
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559:, managed by Paul L. Jackson, made significant contributions to APL and later
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417:, which used them until 2005 as a data warehousing center for business data.
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Morten Kromberg – founded Insight Systems ApS; CTO and CXO of Dyalog Ltd.
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system named 666 Box, stylized as 666 BOX. It was purchased in 1987 by
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ISP; CEO of Raft Mobile Systems; CEO of Bell Globemedia Interactive
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Gitte Christensen – founded Insight Systems ApS; CEO of Dyalog Ltd.
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903:"Zoo Story: How the I.P. Sharp APL Development Group Got its Name"
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In the early years, IPSA collaborated with its sister company
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877:"History of I. P. Sharp Associates Timesharing and Network"
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design for the company's range of mainframe computers, the
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666 Box, written in APL, was one of the first commercial
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was purchased by its employees from Reuters and renamed
520:, a company co-founder and vice-president, won the 1973
563:. This office included Joey Tuttle, Roland Pesch, and
449:. In 1964 Ferranti sold off its computing division to
46:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
769:1980 – Sharp APL available as an in-house product
1508:
836:"Reuters Set to Acquire I.P. Sharp Associates".
627:. Reuters closed the Toronto facility in 2005.
581:
800:: Continuation of I. P. Sharp software business
425:The company's founders worked as a team at the
759:1970 – Dominant player in timesharing business
991:
900:
460:The firm began with contract programming on
871:
854:
712:Richard Proctor – founded APL Borealis Inc.
658:Leslie Goldsmith – founded Affinity Systems
524:for the development of APL\360 (along with
998:
984:
693:W.H. Lidington – founded Beyond 20/20 Inc.
482:
867:
865:
106:Learn how and when to remove this message
766:V8, high performance IBM 370 alternative
555:Later, in the 1980s, a branch office in
677:Hugh Hyndman – founded Affinity Systems
1509:
862:
781:2005 – Reuters closes Toronto facility
735:; developed the programming languages
451:International Computers and Tabulators
979:
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772:1984 – Sharp APL for the PC available
680:Eric Iverson – founded Jsoftware Inc.
667:– developed the programming language
1479:
1291:Telecompute Integrated Systems, Inc.
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756:1964 – I. P. Sharp Associates formed
44:adding citations to reliable sources
15:
1281:Scientific Time Sharing Corporation
1205:Association for Computing Machinery
1005:
722:Morgan Smyth – founded Braegen Inc.
645:Clarke Bruce – founded Soliton Inc.
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477:Scientific Time Sharing Corporation
13:
14:
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826:
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1170:Polymorphic Programming Language
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20:
937:. Jsoftware Inc. Archived from
683:Rohan Jayasekera – founded the
642:– founded Snake Island Research
612:of 2016, SAX is available from
31:needs additional citations for
1522:Technology companies of Canada
952:
931:"APL Quotations and Anecdotes"
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894:
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1:
1243:Digital Equipment Corporation
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775:1987 – Acquisition by Reuters
582:Rise of the personal computer
1294:Time Sharing Resources (TSR)
794:: US APL timesharing company
715:Scott Remborg – founded the
703:Roland Pesch – principal at
7:
1276:Science Research Associates
901:Bob Bernecky (2016-10-12).
785:
750:
169:; 59 years ago
10:
1543:
1309:Carnegie Mellon University
855:Roger Moore (2018-03-09),
696:Jane Minett – founded the
468:, setting up an office in
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55:"I. P. Sharp Associates"
1270:Micro Computer Machines
1210:British APL Association
907:Dyalog '16 User Meeting
483:Timesharing and IPSANET
1527:Time-sharing companies
1315:University of Maryland
1260:I. P. Sharp Associates
1021:APL syntax and symbols
857:private e-mail message
820:I. P. Sharp Newsletter
651:Lib Gibson – launched
516:, in the early 1980s.
373:I. P. Sharp Associates
275:59 offices (1983)
145:, consulting, services
119:I. P. Sharp Associates
778:1993 – Soliton formed
621:APL Software Division
557:Palo Alto, California
447:Ferranti-Packard 6000
1474:Open-source software
1420:Edward H. Sussenguth
1287:Soliton Incorporated
1231:Analogic Corporation
960:"Stocks - Bloomberg"
798:Soliton Incorporated
614:Soliton Incorporated
576:Lower Canada College
492:and email services.
389:programming language
246:Soliton Incorporated
40:improve this article
496:available from the
330:APL Plus (language)
271:Number of locations
120:
1381:Kenneth E. Iverson
1369:Patrick E. Hagerty
762:1978 – Arrival of
407:mainframe computer
167:December 1964
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1430:William Yerazunis
1413:J. Henri Schueler
1372:Herbert Hellerman
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838:Information Today
549:The Establishment
405:, and a powerful
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705:Cygnus Solutions
700:Internet service
687:Internet service
565:Eugene McDonnell
508:APL implementors
439:operating system
435:Ferranti-Packard
399:computer network
396:packet switching
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941:on 2018-07-05
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96:December 2009
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51:Find sources:
45:
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29:This article
27:
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1471:
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1463:
1409:John Scholes
1365:Adin Falkoff
1340:Bob Bernecky
1259:
1197:associations
1195:Professional
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943:. Retrieved
939:the original
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910:. Retrieved
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885:. Retrieved
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837:
819:
813:
640:Bob Bernecky
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585:
569:
554:
545:Bob Bernecky
534:
511:
501:
497:
494:
486:
474:
459:
429:division of
424:
385:time-sharing
376:
372:
371:
252:Headquarters
223:Acquired by
143:time-sharing
124:Company type
102:
93:
83:
76:
69:
62:
50:
38:Please help
33:verification
30:
1434:Rodnay Zaks
1404:Alan Perlis
1399:Roger Moore
1355:Fred Brooks
1345:Larry Breed
1335:Phil Abrams
1251:Dyalog Ltd.
1248:DNA Systems
1099:→ NARS2000°
873:Roger Moore
673:Ken Iverson
526:Larry Breed
518:Roger Moore
514:Ken Iverson
455:Roger Moore
394:, an early
281:Area served
150:Predecessor
1511:Categories
1265:Kx Systems
1238:CompuServe
1127:APLNext →
1080:Dyalog APL
1032:Code pages
945:2018-03-08
912:2018-03-08
887:2018-03-07
805:References
733:Kx Systems
731:– founded
230:Closed by
66:newspapers
1416:Bob Smith
1376:Roger Hui
1360:Jim Brown
1302:Education
1186:Community
1129:VisualAPL
1092:SHARP APL
935:Jsoftware
927:Roger Hui
717:Sympatico
698:Sympatico
685:Sympatico
665:Roger Hui
653:Sympatico
609:PC-XT/370
502:Superplot
383:computer
348:mainframe
346:666 Box (
304:Australia
242:Successor
137:Computer
1517:Ferranti
1495:Category
1225:Business
1207:: SIGAPL
1108:Dialects
1014:Features
875:(2005).
786:See also
751:Timeline
605:emulator
589:IBM 4300
498:39 MAGIC
443:compiler
431:Ferranti
381:Canadian
325:language
313:Products
194:Founders
154:Ferranti
139:software
134:Industry
1485:Commons
1464:Italics
1234:APL2000
1141:GNU APL
1083:APL2 →
929:(ed.).
625:Soliton
537:Toronto
427:Toronto
421:History
409:-based
403:IPSANET
341:network
334:IPSANET
257:Toronto
207: (
202:Defunct
184:Ontario
180:Toronto
174:1964-12
172: (
164:Founded
128:Private
80:scholar
1328:People
1283:(STSC)
764:Amdahl
743:, and
631:People
594:IBM PC
541:Ottawa
470:Ottawa
401:named
338:packet
319:Sharp
294:Europe
263:Canada
188:Canada
82:
75:
68:
61:
53:
1311:(CMU)
1272:(MCM)
1245:(DEC)
1173:(PPL)
1074:Major
1028:(dfn)
671:with
572:email
411:email
361:Owner
351:email
87:JSTOR
73:books
1472:° =
1153:kdb+
1097:NARS
1086:APLX
1042:Rank
792:STSC
528:and
441:and
377:IPSA
299:Asia
234:2005
227:1987
217:Fate
209:2005
205:2005
59:news
1422:Jr.
1255:IBM
1135:ELI
392:APL
321:APL
178:in
42:by
1513::
1160:,
1121:A+
1119:→
962:.
933:.
905:.
879:.
864:^
840:.
828:^
739:,
737:A+
616:.
567:.
543:,
433:,
260:,
186:,
182:,
156:,
141:,
1162:Q
1158:K
1149:°
1147:J
1143:°
1124:°
1117:A
999:e
992:t
985:v
968:.
948:.
915:.
890:.
842:4
745:q
741:k
669:J
561:J
375:(
353:)
343:)
336:(
327:)
323:(
211:)
176:)
109:)
103:(
98:)
94:(
84:·
77:·
70:·
63:·
36:.
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