Phoenix Technologies
| Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 1979 |
| Seat | Milpitas , United States |
| management | Rich Geruson (President and CEO ) |
| Number of employees | about 500 |
| sales | 67.7 million US dollars (2009) |
| Branch | software |
| Website | www.phoenix.com |
Phoenix Technologies is a manufacturer of BIOS software.
Company history
In 1979 Neil Colvin founded Phoenix Software Associates after his previous employer Xitan went out of business. Neil hired Dave Hirschmann, a former Xitan employee, and from 1980 to 1981 the two rented office space for the first Phoenix headquarters.
During this period, Phoenix purchased a non-exclusive license for 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products . Phoenix developed adapted versions of QDOS (sometimes PDOS , for Phoenix DOS , called) for different microprocessor platforms, furthermore Phoenix further developed libraries for the programming language C , which were called PForCe . These products provided only a small income to Phoenix during the 1980s. The company barely grew during this time.
With the success of the IBM PC in 1983, Phoenix decided to make an IBM PC ROM BIOS compatible computer . A licensable ROM-BIOS would allow PC manufacturers to run the same applications. Even MS-DOS was used by IBM. To do this, however, Phoenix would have needed a strategy to defend itself against legal violations before legal proceedings. Because levies on the nature of low-level programming in two well-written pieces of code that perform the same functions would make some correspondence inevitable, it would have been impossible for Phoenix to defend itself due to the fact that no part of their BIOS is too IBM fits. Because of this, Phoenix developed a cleanroom implementation that strictly isolated the developers who were contaminated with reading the program lists . The contaminated developers wrote specifications for the BIOS APIs and made them available to the clean developers who did not see the source code. These clean developers went from scribbling code to shaping the BIOS API. This technology offered Phoenix IBM PC-compatible ROM-BIOS, which were defensible and non-vulnerable. Due to the fact that programmers who wrote the Phoenix Code never read IBM program listings, nothing they wrote could be copied by the IBM code, no matter how close together they were. The first Phoenix was introduced in May 1984 and helped grow the personal computer industry. The availability of an IBM PC-compatible ROM-BIOS helped the 70% growth in sales that Phoenix tested in 1988. Phoenix also developed the BIOS for the IBM Personal System / 2 , including the ABIOS and the EISA -compatible BIOS, from 1988 to 1989. In 1987, Phoenix began its first growth cycles. Phoenix acquired Softstyle Inc and Softset Inc and began emulating a series of printers and a Phoenix publishing division. Furthermore, Phoenix tripled the number of employees between late 1986 and 1989.
Expansion in the 1990s
By 1992 Phoenix was financially strong enough to start further expansion and a renewed cycle of growth. In 1992, Phoenix acquired Quadtel , a leading BIOS provider. The Quadtel BIOS code was newer than the Phoenix ROM BIOS code base . That is why the focus of development was placed on Quadtel products. It has been renamed PhoenixBIOS . The original ROM-BIOS code base was used as a development interface, but Phoenix no longer developed the original code.
Phoenix also expanded its presence in foreign markets. In 1993 Phoenix SRI KK acquired a Phoenix dealer and formed the Japanese Phoenix KK subsidiary. In addition, the offices in Taipei and Europe expanded in size. In 1996, Phoenix acquired Virtual Chips, a manufacturer of cores for peripheral devices .
In 1998 Phoenix merged with Award Software , one of the leading manufacturers of IBM PC BIOS '.
Consolidation 2001
Phoenix grew steadily from late 1990's and saw significant revenue growth from the Y2K bug . However, the computer industry experienced another downturn in mid-2001, forcing Phoenix to cut back on less profitable product lines. Phoenix again focused the BIOS business for the next few years.
Expansion in 2003
Between late 2002 and 2003, Phoenix began developing specialized applications that were based on firmware . These applications often had components embedded in the BIOS, giving them the ability to work in a damaged PC. These integrated security applications were used to hide passwords and for authentication , as PC backup and recovery programs and diagnostic programs. The PC-BIOS business was steady but slow, but the share price fell very sharply.
Consolidation in 2006
In late 2005 it became clear that BIOS revenues could not cover losses from the application sector. The flow of cash through income was largely leveraged through fully paid licenses. However, from the beginning of 2006 this model was no longer profitable. Phoenix announced the biggest losses in the company's history and continued a further consolidation cycle. Some offices have been closed and over 70% of employees have been laid off. At the end of 2006, after changes in the management team, the company refocused on the BIOS business and the few potentially profitable applications.
In November 2010, Marlin Equity Partners took over Phoenix Technologies. In the course of the takeover, the company was taken off the stock exchange.
Web links
- Official Website of Phoenix Technologies (English)