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.David B. Loveman, "Program Improvement by Source-to-Source Transformation", Journal of the ACM 24:1:121–145 (January 1977) It was acquired in the late 1960s by Applied Data Research.
Many well-known computer scientists 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. Some of the systems they worked on include AMBIT/GCarlos Christensen, Michael S. Wolfberg, Michael J. Fischer, "A Report on AMBIT/G", Massachusetts Computer Associates Inc., 1971 and IVTRAN, a Fortran compiler for the ILLIAC IV.Robert E Millstein, "Compiler Design for the ILLIAC IV", Massachusetts Computer Associates Inc., 1973
Leslie Lamport wrote his influential "Time, Clocks" paper while he was at COMPASS.
The original vectorizing compiler for the ILLIAC IV was written at COMPASS"Supercomputer cruises at 80 million operations a second", Popular Science June 1979, p. p. 89 with contributions by Lamport, who worked there part-time.Dennis Shasha, Cathy Lazere, Out of their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists, p. 125
Robert Floyd's Treesort algorithm was published while Floyd was at COMPASS.Robert W. Floyd, "Algorithm 113: Treesort", Communications of the ACM 5:8:434 (August 1962)
Corporate history
Applied Data Research (ADR) bought Massachusetts Computer Associates in the late 1960s.Rosemary Hamilton, "Computervision turns believer after Compass helps convert software", Computerworld, July 14, 1986, p. 20 ADR was sold to Ameritech in 1986 and then by Ameritech to the (unrelated) Computer Associates of New York.Applied Data Research, Software Products Division Records, 1959-1987, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Shortly after ADR was sold to Computer Associates, Compass was in turn sold to SofTech.
Notes