Harris Computer Systems

The origins of Harris Computer Systems began in 1967 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when Datacraft Corporation was founded. The Slash 1 made cost-effective use of hardware for floating-point operations and quickly became popular as alternatives to computers from Systems Engineering Laboratories. == Harris Computer Systems Division ==

In 1974, Harris Corporation acquired Datacraft, which led to the formation of the Harris Computer Systems Division. The H-series systems typically had support for a number of different programming languages, including Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, BASIC, APL, SNOBOL, RPG, and assembly language. OS support In 1984, Harris Computer made its first forays into having VOS co-exist alongside the Unix operating system. As Harris left 24-bit systems and moved to 32-bit architectures, Vulcan and VOS fell by the wayside and Unix-based ones took over. In this fashion, Harris Computer offered three operating systems: CX/RT, built around real-time processing features and constraints; CX/SX, for customers needing government-specified levels of security, and CX/UX, for a system offering a Unix basis. Night Hawk series By the late 1980s/early 1990s, the major product of Harris Computer Systems Division was the Night Hawk series of real-time systems. Night Hawk models included the NH-1200, NH-3400, NH-4400, NH-4800, and NH-5800. == Harris Computer Systems Corporation ==

On October 7, 1994, Harris Computer Systems Corporation came into being, as a spinoff to Harris Corporation shareholders. and had earned about $2 million over the year prior. The new company's business focus was on systems for real-time simulation and simulation for training and for data acquisition and control. An additional focus was on secure systems. Its headquarters were those of the division prior, being in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Night Hawk was especially strong in the flight simulator market. At the same time, Harris Computer Systems introduced a product for network security called CyberGuard, whose purpose was to protect systems against unauthorized incursion over the Internet. During the mid-1990s, Harris Computer Systems was also involved in the process for revising the Ada Semantic Interface Specification. == Acquisition ==

In March 1995, Harris Computer Systems, led by CEO Siegel, looked to buy Concurrent Computer Corporation, its main competitor, but the discussions tripped over business, legal, and cultural issues and ended in acrimony. Negotiations resumed late in the year, Harris Computer Systems' Siegel was named CEO of Concurrent Computer, while existing Concurrent CEO was made chair of the board of directors. As a result, the offices in New Jersey gradually all but disappeared. The CyberGuard network security business was not included in the deal, == References ==