UK IT Innovation Gold TaOs Operating System 1.27

from Tao Systems

Silver:

White Cross WX9010 from White Cross Systems Bronze: ARM 700 family Risc micro-processors from Advanced Risc Machines

It's not often that a new software product in publications as diverse

gets rave reviews

as entertatnment specialist title trdge Magazine and techie journal Byte. But Tao Systems, developer

of a revolutionary

operating system called Taos, is used to it. Not being easy to pigeonhole is part of the charm of being an innovative company.

But it can also be one of the drawbacks,

it comes to raising funds. In the early days, Taos' inventor Chris especially when

r)

Flinsley financed the new operating system by developing computer and video -When games.

the original funding col-

lapsed, Tao's current chairman Francis Charig stepped in. 'A lot of innovation is left as innovation

in this country,'Charig says.'I've been round the world with this product, and seen the different reactions in different countries. There is definitely

^

Tao's Francis Charig (right): 'There is definitely a reluctance for people in the Ul( to believe that a British product can be any good.'

reluctance

fo. people in the UK to believe that

a

British product can be any good, and that it can be commercially successful. Venture capitalists take no risks in this country.' Charig eventually secured funding from

J^panese investors, with whom Tao Systems has set up a joint g1oba1 distribu-

tion company called TKS. 'Our emphasis will be on the Far East, not Europe , in the beginning,' Charig says. 'Taos is a product for all seasons, but it is particularly appropriate for the multimedia market, which happens to be dominated by Far Eastern and Japanese companies.'

Taos is innovative because it is who1ly portable. According to the company, it is a compact operating system kernel for single and parallel processor systems. Applications

for Taos need to be written only

once,

after which they can run on any hardware platform r,vithout being re-compiled. The implications for games and other software rnanufacturers are huge, Charig says, because only the format needs to be changed when they release products for different hardware environments. Using Taos, developers can write for familiar environments such as the PC, yet their appltcations can also run on Advanced

Risc Machines (ARM) and Inmos processors. Developers don't need to know how many parallel processors will be required by the application, since a built-in load-bal-

ancing feature enables applications to exploit additional power as it is added. One of Tao's target markets will be the flourishing television set-top box market, which will be driven by a move towards interactive television and cable services on the information superhighway. 'The advantage of Taos for this market is its microkernel architecture,' says Charig. 'Instead of taking up BMb of Ram in a ser-

top box, it uses only 1Mb. Manufacturers appreciate this, because they carr bring down the total cost of their boxes.' For the same reason, Taos is being used by a number of manufacturers as afi embedded operating system for personal digital assistants (PDAs), arcade games, virtual realiry machines and robotic systems.

Around 40 organisations are using Taos so far, including Golconda Games and various Japanese

multimedia companies.

Tao Systems is conspicuously filling niches not yet targeted by other, larger operating system vendors, particularly Microsoft. '-W'e're trying to latch onto the

markets where Microsoft is not yet ful1y

involved,' Charig says. ''W-e are going straight to the top of globa1 industries, such as entertainment, multimedia and -We're communications. not going to let this opportunity slip.'

The challenge for Tao Systems, as it enters a new phase of development for -Windows and Posix application programming interfaces (APIs), will be to apply its technology in the right way. '-We have a product which could be seen as highly esoteric and difficult to underst and,' says Charig. ''What we need to aim for are products which are as close

to the complexity leve1 of the Videoplus video recording system as possible. There's no point at a7l in having the functionality if people can't access it easily.' Charig's final word of advice to other would-be UK innovators is to be persistent. 'Don't give up,' he says. 'And don't sell out too soon. Someone, somewhere

will eventually believe in you. One of the first things we intend to do when we become a highly successful, cash-rich software company is to help UK innovators.

There are so many potential successes which never see the light of day.' COMPUTING AWARDS TOR EXCELLENCE 1994 27

Awards 1994.pdf

platform r,vithout being re-compiled. The implications for games and other. software rnanufacturers are huge, Charig. says, because only the format needs to be.

5MB Sizes 2 Downloads 299 Views

Recommend Documents

Jubilee Centre Awards for Service - Youth Awards Flyer Nomination ...
Jubilee Centre Awards for Service - Youth Awards Flyer Nomination Form.pdf. Jubilee Centre Awards for Service - Youth Awards Flyer Nomination Form.pdf.

Art Awards
Texture. C. Construction Techniques. III. Art Heritage. IV. Responding to Art. A. Similarities & Differences. B. Vocabulary. C. Opinions. V. Occupations & Careers ...

ECU Innovator Awards 2013
The Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) is now accepting submissions for the ECU. Innovator Awards. The competition is open to all ECU staff and students, ...

ECU Innovator Awards 2013
products or services with commercial potential. Introduction. The Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) is now accepting submissions for the ECU. Innovator ...

Untitled - Golden Blog Awards
Page 1. В. K. Pe ce a. CO GBA OD. D. O 0.0 0. H. GOLDEN. GOLDEN. AWARDS. SLUG. FICTION www.slugfiction.com. AWARDS. DO IT YOURSELF. GOLDEN ...

teacher awards
1.3.4 The candidate may have up to 120 days of teaching service prior to signing a full-time contract with our district. 1.4. Principals are invited to nominate a ... efforts to prepare students for the challenges of a knowledge-based economy by impr

Awards THEATRE
directed approach to their learning as they explore and apply their interests in the theatre to projects and productions. Why Theatre? Beyond improved self-‐confidence, better public speaking and performance skills, and ensemble building, according

2013 Awards Booklet.pdf
Central Maine Medical Center Family Medicine Residency. Stephen R. Smith, MD, MPH. Page 3 of 17. 2013 Awards Booklet.pdf. 2013 Awards Booklet.pdf.

PNASC FORMS_Nursing Excellence Awards 2013
This form must be submitted with the original completed nomination form. PHILIPPINE NURSES ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. PNASC Inc.

JCI Awards Manual 2017-TS
Joazuín V. González Memorial. The Joaquín V. González Memorial is given posthumously to recognize outstanding service of an active JCI member who died ...

Awards & Scholarships Descriptions.pdf
Past Recipients 2016: Piper Boyll (SP 16), Brian Burrows (FA 15). 2015: Ryan Muller; Anika Larson (Dean's Medalist). 2014: Indira Harahap. 2013: Easton White. 2012: Michelle Schmoker. 2011: Glenn Markov. 2010: Ellen Dupont. 2009: Amber Neitzel. 2008:

THE L'ORÉAL - UNESCO AWARDS
research explores efficient methods to capture and store solar energy. .... Cruz is also very active in rural areas of the Philippines, where she mobilizes science ...

THE L'ORÉAL - UNESCO AWARDS
3. L'ORÉAL - UNESCO AWARDS. Over two thousand eminent members of the scientific community ..... investigations of our own galaxy and other galaxies.

The Awards Die Preise - Berlinale
Feb 18, 2017 - Please find all information on juries and awards on the Berlinale website www.berlinale.de/prizes. 1. THE AWARDS OF THE 67th BERLIN ...

FYP Innovation Awards
Windows Platform, Java SE 1.6, Eclipse IDE, Apache, PHP ...... ii) Microsoft's Windows Communication Foundation (Chappell, 2007) also provides p2p ... Instant Messenger. While it started out as a means to handle p2p messaging and file transfer, it ha

awards scoring - Missouri Farm Bureau
speech, noting undertime and overtime, if any, for which deductions shall be made. Three qualified and impartial individuals will be selected to judge the contest. At least one judge shall have an agricultural background. Prior to the contest, the ju

awards scoring - Missouri Farm Bureau
the time used by each contestant in delivering his speech, noting undertime and ... Jaret Holden, South Central District FFA. Cassidy Ward ... The contestants will be the winners from each district. TIME LIMIT. Each speech shall be no less than six m

State Awards Final.pdf
Whoops! There was a problem loading this page. Whoops! There was a problem loading this page. Retrying... State Awards Final.pdf. State Awards Final.pdf.

65th tony awards
Download 65th tony awards - Queen guitar pdf.65th tony awards. ... Q3) Whywe'rethe police unableto catch Jack the Ripper. ... the Ripper is nevercaught but descriptions ofsuspects made bywitnesses we'reso identicala'Jack suspect' is ...

Google Research Awards - December 2009
Andrew Williams, Spelman College. Edward Gehringer, North Carolina ... Ondrej Chum, Czech Technical University. Shmuel Peleg, The Hebrew University of ...

JCI Awards Manual 2017-TS
Submitting Entries a. An entry may be presented in only ONE category. b. JCI Area Conference winning entries will automatically be sent to the JCI.

A+Awards Finalist Announcement.pdf
Mar 14, 2017 - ... program and the only red carpet event to honor the year's best architecture. ABOUT ARCHITIZER: ​Architizer is the leading online resource ...

south australian tourism awards always proves popular
Mar 24, 2011 - For further information contact Bianca Borrett, Communications & Business Development Manager, South. Australian Tourism Industry Council ...