Computervision
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Computervision, Inc. (CV) was an early pioneer in turnkey Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) company. Computervision was founded in 1969 by Marty Allen and Philippe Villers, and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA. Its early products were built on a Data General Nova platform. Starting around 1975, Computervision built its own "CGP" (Computervision Graphics Processor) Nova-compatible computers with added instructions optimized for graphics applications and using its own operating system. In the 1980s, Computervision transitioned to Unix.
Computervision's first product, CADDS-1, was aimed at the printed circuit board layout and 2-D drafting markets.
Integrated circuit layout was added with the CADDS-2 product, which had a dedicated operating system and a 16-bit graphic database. When this proved insufficient resolution for VLSI (very large scale integration), the company developed CADDS-2/VLSI in the late 1970s. CADDS-2/VLSI included a new operating system, a 32-bit database, and user expandability through a dedicated programming language called ICPL (integrated circuit programming language), which was a dialect of BASIC, based on an interpreter licensed from Fairchild Semiconductor. The original CADDS-2 ran on Data General Nova 1200 computers. CADDS-2/VLSI ran on Computervision's own hardware.
3-D design was added in the mid 1970s with the CADDS-3 product. Tailored packages were available for CAD drafting, CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), 3-D modeling, piping and plant design, printed circuit board layout, instrument panel design, and many other applications. During this period, they also contributed to the development of the IGES standard for CAD/CAM data exchange, along with Applicon and other competitors.
Computervision merged with Prime Computer in 1988 and acquired GE Calma (its major competitor in the microelectronic CAD market) in 1989. Computervision was acquired by Parametric Technology Corporation in 1998 which (as of 2005) still supports the CADDS-5i product for existing users.
