InterFace AG
| InterFace AG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1980 |
| Seat | Unterhaching |
| management |
|
| Number of employees | about 150 |
| Branch | Information technology |
| Website | www.interface-ag.com |
| Status: December 2016 | |
The InterFace AG is a company that deals with solutions in the field of information technology employed. The company originated as part of the InterFace Group and began business operations on April 1, 1984 as InterFace Connection GmbH. In 1999 the company was converted into an AG and then traded as InterFace AG. Today InterFace AG is the only still existing company in the group at that time and has a stake in other new InterFace companies.
History and vision
Peter Schnupp was the founder and partner of Softlab GmbH. He was one of the founders of the InterFace idea.
Group of companies
Peter Schnupp and Max Schulze-Vorberg junior, son of Max Schulze-Vorberg , came up with the InterFace idea in the early 1980s. Their vision was to build an ideal-typical group of companies consisting of many small companies with the common name InterFace. These companies themselves should remain lean and agile and still achieve better visibility and acceptance as part of a strong group in the market.
From the beginning, the name InterFace stood for a better interface between man and machine. The IF logo (face in the F of IF) was designed by Pierre Mendell in 1980 and symbolized this claim. All companies in the group were committed to the Unix operating system. They were the first companies to develop products with very innovative technology in various areas of the market, such as the HIT text system with the 4GL CLOU with embedded SQL (InterFace Connection GmbH) or the Prolog language (in addition to Lisp, the programming language for AI and expert systems) both as an interpreter and as Compiler (InterFace Computer GmbH). Overall, they were innovation drivers for UNIX in Germany and Europe through contributions to kernel development (for Siemens AG through InterFace Connection GmbH), technology training (including exclusively for IBM AIX-InterFace Computer) and the introduction of new technologies (InterFace Concilium) .
Foundations
The most important companies in the group were InterFace GmbH (1980), InterFace Computer (1982), InterFace Connection (1984) and InterFace Concilium (1985).
InterFace GmbH
InterFace GmbH was founded on April 1st, 1980 by Peter Schnupp and Max Schulze-Vorberg as a limited liability company. The original purpose of the company was to use conceptual work to make software and its interfaces more user-friendly and to define applications with social benefits. The company was an early pioneer in Germany for the UNIX operating system . From this company, the German-language UNIX magazine was published as the first editorially created and published magazine. The magazine was later taken over by Hanser Verlag Munich. InterFace GmbH employees were important protagonists of the UNIX operating system. Among other things, Hans-Peter Huber translated the book UNIX System 5 by Stephen R. Bourne into German.
By 1990 InterFace GmbH developed X-Text as the first German WYSYG text system for office solutions based on UNIX.
InterFace Computer GmbH
InterFace Computer GmbH was founded in 1982 as a subsidiary of InterFace GmbH by Claus Müller and Peter Schnupp. In the early 1980s, it was the first company in the world to develop the Prolog language as a product for commercial purposes. This is how the IF / Prolog programming language was created , which will be further developed in Japan in 2017 and is still being sold. Prolog and Lisp were the languages that were used in the 1980s as the basis for the development of expert systems in artificial intelligence . IF / Prolog, like later competitor products like Turbo-Prolog, consisted of an interpreter that processed an intermediate code. Since this technical process required a lot of memory and computing power, IF / Prolog was further developed into a compiled version .
On July 19, 1993, InterFace Computer GmbH filed for insolvency at the Munich District Court.
InterFace Lab
With the IF-Lab, InterFace AG has an innovation and development opportunity that actively lives digital change on the basis of real customer projects. Here students, trainees and experienced experts can work together. They do this on real customer projects and have the IF-Lab as a training facility, innovation laboratory and think tank as a development and training opportunity in addition to their formal training. You implement new trends and technologies in a professional setting.
InterFace Concilium GmbH
The InterFace Concilium was founded as SpinOff in 1985 by around 20 employees of Softlab as a GmbH. Herbert Neumaier was the managing director and thought leader. It made a name for itself by introducing completely new technologies in Europe. Tandem as a computer, Corvus as a terminal device with a display of black text on a white background and the option to rotate to DIN A4 upright as well as special software packages . InterFace Concilium GmbH was dissolved in 1992 due to major disagreements and strategic differences among the shareholders.
InterFace Connection GmbH
The Interface Connection InterFace Connection Gesellschaft für Datenverarbeitung und Kommunikationssoftware mbH was founded on April 1st, 1984 by InterFace Computer GmbH (managing directors: Claus M. Müller), Peter Schnupp, Roland M. Dürre and Wolf Geldmacher as a GmbH. It developed HIT / CLOU and is the only company of the InterFace group that still exists today.
Business model InterFace Connection
The two founders of InterFace Connection (Roland Dürre and Wolf Geldmacher) working in the company assumed at the beginning of the 1980s that UNIX would become the dominant operating system of the future in the field of " medium data technology " (MDT) and the many very different operating systems on the market would replace. The InterFace Connection should generate its sales through the sale of software licenses. The plan was to replace the then current office technology consisting of the three main areas of "typewriter, filing cabinet and telex" with information technology and to integrate it in a scalable software application on a multi-user system. InterFace Connection GmbH was involved in the development of the SINIX kernel, components, conception, manual editing, school for data processing.
Product HIT / CLOU
The HIT product developed by InterFace Connection GmbH (later renamed InterFace AG) and sold both as an OEM and directly as a text and office system on Unix with end devices, which are commonly referred to as VT100- compatible, was in the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s the market leader in Germany and Europe. It was used in Germany by authorities, municipalities and companies from various industries.
At that time, Unix was the essential platform for solutions in medium-sized data technology (four to 16 workstation systems) and was also used more and more in the area of server and mainframe applications. From 1990 the text system HIT was also ported to MS-DOS and used in addition (also in the USSR ). In Germany, Siemens was the market leader with its SINIX systems. CLOU / HIT as an OEM product from InterFace AG was used on most Sinix computers (as a paid software product) and on many other platforms from manufacturers such as DEC, IBM, HP, SCO, SUN and also from SGI, ICL ( GB), Telenorma used.
In the course of 1993, the fourth generation (4GL) CLOU language was added, in which the new SQL standard could be embedded for the first time worldwide and thus executed within a programming language. Another innovation is, for example, the development of multilingualism for UNIX software, which InterFace brought into X / Open as NLS through Siemens committee work . The technology developed by InterFace should still be the basis of most Unix-based systems (Android, Linux and others).
InterFace AG later acquired all rights from InterFace Computer GmbH.
InterFace Connection's self-image
According to the founders' understanding, the InterFace Connection was a company that should consist of teams at eye level, free of hierarchies. The word "connection" expresses that here "more than one company" namely a "conspiratorial community" emerged. The mindset was " agile , lean, open, democratic". The company was run as an agile company .
There was already an employee participation in 1986 . For this purpose, a participation association was founded, which initially consisted of 17 employees. The participation association held 10% of the company's capital and was represented in trust by Max Königsbauer (trustee) at the shareholders' meeting. When InterFace Connection GmbH was converted into InterFace AG, the employees' shares were converted into shares.
Change of name
In 1999 the InterFace Connection Gesellschaft für Datenverarbeitung und Kommunikationssoftware mbH was converted into a stock corporation and renamed InterFace AG. The employees' shares in the association were converted into shares and thus fungible .
Holdings
InterFace AG (as of 2016) holds shares in the following companies:
- IF – Localization GmbH - localization and translation of texts
- IF – Tech AG - Everything about technologies for the digital workplace / mobile workplace
- IF – Blueprint AG Consulting and project management on innovative Microsoft technologies in the areas of collaboration and communication such as SharePoint
All of these companies use the IF logo, but in a color scheme that differs from the original and with different claims to match the corresponding business model.
Locations
Outside of the headquarters in Unterhaching, the AG has four other locations in Germany. The IF-LAB, which is represented at all locations, is run as a separate business area dedicated to promoting young talent. There young people (students and trainees) implement innovative solutions and deepen their knowledge and skills in new technologies and real customer projects.
Employees, management board and supervisory board
The group, i.e. InterFace AG including its subsidiaries , employed 159 people (in the summer of 2016).
The board is made up of two people
- Maximilian Buchberger
- Christof Stierlen.
The supervisory board consists of three people
- Manfred Broy since 1999
- Kathrin M. Möslein since 2014
- Roland Dürre since 2015.
developments
From its foundation, the InterFace Connection developed the HIT / CLOU software and became, among other things, an OEM supplier of the Siemens AG text system of the same name. HIT / CLOU is a system developed for UNIX system for word processing , the German in many companies and authorities from 1983 as a writing system for the execution of word problems was used. Today there are still isolated uses of the software with larger customers in business and with authorities. Most of HIT's deployments were on Sinix (the UNIX from Siemens), as it was sold there as OEM software (see OEM ) by Siemens as standard software.
HIT was a line-oriented office editor that used character-based UNIX terminals ( VT100 and compatible). HIT was available on UNIX platforms from IBM (AIX), DEC, ICL, HP, Silicon Graphics, Nixdorf, SCO and others. From 1990 also under the name HIT-PC for the MS-DOS operating system.
From version 2 onwards, HIT was multilingual; the technology developed for this was introduced together with Siemens at X / Open as National Language Support (NLS).
From 1985, based on a license agreement for OEM software from Siemens, HIT was offered as the standard text system for Sinix (analogous to the Informix database from RDS). As a result, HIT was used on almost all Sinix systems as a paid license product - often together with Informix. State and federal authorities, municipalities and commercial enterprises from all industries that used HIT across the board in their organization for the creation of text had user numbers in the five-digit range.
HIT was integrated in some application software packages such as Sisymed (application for the doctor's practice of Siemens AG ) for the creation of text.
In addition to the text system, the first version, HIT, already had additional products such as the serial letter generator HITSB, the print module HPrint, the mask-based office interface FIT (HIT-Büro) and others.
1986 HIT 3.0 is expanded to include CLOU. CLOU is a 4GL programming language specializing in the programming of text modules with which documents are generated automatically or semi-automatically (controlled by the user via HIT). The product has been renamed HIT / CLOU.
1987 in HIT3.1 CLOU is extended by the possibility of SQL - scripts for databases such as Informix and Oracle embed. It was thus possible to create text modules that could get their information from databases using SQL and store them in databases.
In 1989 version 4.0 was released and HIT / CLOU to HSPELL (spelling control based on Langenscheidt libraries), HCARD (simple card index box with connection to databases such as Informix), HDOC (version management of documents), PROFORM (proportional font) and the possibility of creating Extended by Postscript as "Final Format".
In 1990 HIT was ported to MS / DOS (originally: HITchen, when it was published under the name HIT PC ).
In 1991 there was a version which, among others, appeared in a Cyrillic version. It was successfully marketed by Siemens on the Russian market. Version 4.1 was released in the same year, the new function was the database connection in CLOU for Informix and for Oracle and INGRES.
From 1992 HIT / CLOU could run under X-Motif and on the Siemens COLLAGE window system.
In 1993 CLOU / CS was created. With CLOU / CS (CS for client-server) the text editor HIT could be replaced by Word in client-server operation and the CLOU functionality and its modules could be used via MS-Word. Other new functions were e.g. B. HKEY for the secure encryption of documents and the HIT – LIB as API and library for processing hit documents.
In 1993, MagicHIT started the completely new development of a WYSIWYG editor based on document classes with semantics of content for UNIX and WINDOWS. From this point on, the product HIT-CLOU was called ClassicHIT.
In 1994 version 5.0 of ClassicHIT was released as the last major development step. It mainly contained improvements for handling and administration, an optimized debugger for CLOU and the possibility of using built-in functions in CLOU, for example in the C programming language .
Special
On September 24, 1990, the InterFace Connection organized the first German / German conference in Dresden for "Modern Software and Computer Application Systems".
Place of business
- InterFace AG has had its headquarters in a corner building on Leipziger Strasse in Unterhaching since October 1992.
- 1989 to 1992 in Weissenburger Str. 43, Munich (from September 1, 1990 only as a development laboratory, the service center was outsourced to St. Cajetan – Str. 1, Munich)
- 1987 to 1988 in Warngauer Str. 37, Munich.
- From April 1, 1984 (foundation) to 1986, the company was located at Unterföhringer Str. 24a, Munich.
Magazines
The company published several magazines.
- HIT / News - published October 1988 to November 1995 (publisher: InterFace Connection)
- IF / News - published from I / 1996 to I / 2000 (publisher: InterFace Connection)
- unix / mail - published from I / 83 to VI / 96 (with the ISSN 0176-8654 ) (publisher first InterFace Computer GmbH, later Carl Hanser Verlag)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ unix / mail: Europe's first information service for Unix manufacturers and users . 1983, ISSN 0176-8654 .
- ↑ Stephen R. Bourne: Unix System 5 . Addison-Wesley, 1989, ISBN 3-925118-23-3 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 20 (August 1993) page 10. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on October 18, 2016 .
- ↑ Interface Concilium sells Control. In: ChannelPartner. IDG Business Media GmbH, accessed on January 25, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c site of Interface AG
- ↑ site of Interface AG - map showing the locations
- ↑ a b c "Company" - Interface AG site
- ↑ In the "Functions" tab of the Leopoldina membership directory
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 3 (February 1989) cover sheet. InterFace computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 6 (December 1989) page 14. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Archive - HIT News 4 (May 1989) page 8. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 3 (February 1989) page 10. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 4 (May 1989) page 15. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News 9 (October 1990) page 11. InterFace Computer. InterFace AG, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive - HIT News No. 8. In: HIT News No. 8. InterFace AG, July 1990, p. 10 , accessed on October 18, 2016 .
- ↑ a b InterFace AG - Archive. InterFace AG, Munich, accessed on December 19, 2016 .
- ↑ InterFace AG - Archive. InterFace AG, Munich, accessed on December 27, 2016 .