Graphic Software Systems: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 05:20, 2 March 2024

Graphic Software Systems, Inc. (GSS) based in Wilsonville, Oregon was a company that specialised in vector graphics software.

History

Initially wrote graphic software as a contractor for numerous clients including Digital Research, but GSS actually wrote most of the GSX graphics library code that was later the basis for DR's GEM windowing system. A little later, the company introduced the "GSS-Toolkit", that were graphics routines that helped DOS programmers to write reasonably device independent graphics code. In 1984 the company introduced "GSS-Plottalk", a chart plotting package that uses English like commands to create graphs, it was sold mainly to larger businesses via VARs and system integrators.

The sudden popularity of Microsoft Windows v3 effectively killed off GSS's main business line since it has a graphics rendering engine built in and although not as capable and mature as the GSS products, the Windows code came essentially for free. The company tried its hand in manufacturing graphics card but failed and survived mostly on their first end-user product in the form of the "PC-Xview" package that allowed DOS based computers to act as X server terminals, thereby providing businesses with an X11 based terminal that was much cheaper than a UNIX workstation.

In 1990 the company was taken over by Spectragraphics for 6 million USD, who in turn sold the operation to Tektronix. The GSS part of the operation effectively became the Tektronix X-Terminal division.

Products

AT1000 - Short lived graphics card, ca 1989.
DGDS - Firmware and DOS, Windows and AutoCAD drivers for the TMS34010 and Intel 8278 graphics chips.
Graphics Development Toolkit (GDT) - DOS & OS/2 graphics library
GSS-Core -
GSS-Drivers -
GSS+GKS - IBM RT-PC Graphical Kernel System implementation, a development of the earlier GSS-Kernel.
GSS-Plottalk - DOS & AT&T UNIX plotting package - Sold to OEM's primarily.
GSS-Solutions -
GSS-Terminal -
GSS-Toolkit - Predecessor to GDT (Above)
GSS*X/386 - Workstation terminal software similar to PC-Xview that ran on 80386 PCs.
PC-Xview - DOS based X-Windows terminal emulator for 286/386 PCs - USD 295 in 1989
Virtual Device Interface (VDI) - Graphic abstraction layer used in graphic cards, including the IBM EGA

Personnel

Thomas B. Clarkson III
Lee Lorenzen (ex-Xerox, later founded Ventura)
Mitchell M. McLain - senior graphics software engineer
Timothy E. Stevenson - director of Entry Systems Engineering, cofounder

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Company based in Wilsonville, Oregon, USA that specialised in vector graphics software. Initially wrote graphic software as a contractor for numerous clients including [[Digital Research]], but GSS actually wrote most of the GSX graphics library code that was later the basis for DR's [[GEM]] windowing system. A little later, the company introduced the "GSS-Toolkit", that were graphics routines that helped DOS programmers to write reasonably device independent graphics code.  In 1984 the company introduced "GSS-Plottalk", a chart plotting package that uses English like commands to create graphs, it was sold mainly to larger businesses via VARs and system integrators.
+'''Graphic Software Systems, Inc.''' (GSS) based in Wilsonville, Oregon was a company that specialised in vector graphics software.
+==History==
+Initially wrote graphic software as a contractor for numerous clients including [[Digital Research]], but GSS actually wrote most of the GSX graphics library code that was later the basis for DR's [[GEM]] windowing system. A little later, the company introduced the "GSS-Toolkit", that were graphics routines that helped DOS programmers to write reasonably device independent graphics code. In 1984 the company introduced "GSS-Plottalk", a chart plotting package that uses English like commands to create graphs, it was sold mainly to larger businesses via VARs and system integrators.
 The sudden popularity of [[Microsoft Windows]] v3 effectively killed off GSS's main business line since it has a graphics rendering engine built in and although not as capable and mature as the GSS products, the Windows code came essentially for free. The company tried its hand in manufacturing graphics card but failed and survived mostly on their first end-user product in the form of the "PC-Xview" package that allowed [[DOS]] based computers to act as X server terminals, thereby providing businesses with an X11 based terminal that was much cheaper than a UNIX workstation.
-In 1990 the company was taken over by Spectragraphics for 6 million USD, who in turn sold the operation to Tektronix, and the GSS part of the operation effectively became the Tektronix X-Terminal division.
+In 1990 the company was taken over by Spectragraphics for 6 million USD, who in turn sold the operation to Tektronix. The GSS part of the operation effectively became the Tektronix X-Terminal division.
 ==Products==
@@ Line 21: / Line 24: @@
 ==Personnel==
+* Thomas B. Clarkson III
 * Lee Lorenzen (ex-Xerox, later founded Ventura)
+* Mitchell M. McLain - senior graphics software engineer
+* Timothy E. Stevenson - director of Entry Systems Engineering, cofounder
 [[Category:Defunct companies]]