Applix

Applix Inc. was a computer software company founded in 1983 based in Westborough, Massachusetts that published Applix TM1, a MOLAP database server, and related presentation tools, including Applix Web and Applix Executive Viewer. Together, Applix TM1, Applix Web and Applix Executive Viewer were the three core components of the Applix Business Analytics Platform. (Executive Viewer was subsequently discontinued by IBM.)

Applix did business in over 50 countries with over 3,000 customers worldwide.

On October 25, 2007, Applix was acquired by Cognos. Cognos rebranded all Applix products under its name following the acquisition. On January 31, 2008, Cognos was itself acquired by IBM.

Prior to OLAP industry consolidation in 2007, Applix was the purest OLAP vendor among publicly traded independent BI vendors, and had the greatest growth rate. TM1 is now marketed as IBM Cognos TM1 and the latest version, IBM Cognos TM1 10.2, became publicly available on September 13, 2013.

Products and technology

Applix 1616

The Applix 1616 was a kit computer with a Motorola 68000 CPU, produced by a small company called Applix in Sydney, Australia, from 1986 to the early 1990s. It ran a custom multitasking multiuser operating system that was resident in ROM. A version of Minix was also ported to the 1616, as was the MGR Window System. Andrew Morton, designer of the 1616 and one of the founders of Applix, later became the maintainer of the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel.

History

Paul Berger and Andrew Morton formed the Australian company Applix Pty. Ltd. in approximately 1984 to sell a Z80 card they had developed for the Apple IIc that allowed it to run CP/M. This product was not a commercial success, but Paul later proposed they develop a Motorola 68000-based personal computer for sale in kit form.

The project was presented to Jon Fairall, then editor of the Australia and New Zealand electronics magazine Electronics Today International, and in December 1986, the first of four construction articles was published as "Project 1616", with the series concluding in June 1987. In October and November 1987, a disk controller card was also published as "Project 1617".