18 February, 2008 – Transitive
Software development company Transitive have found what some describe as the Holy Grail of computing. The Manchester based company?s breakthrough product, QuickTransit, allows any software application to run on any machine, regardless of operating system or processor without speed or performance being affected. Until then, running software across multiple hardware platforms would have required several software rewrites ? costing time and money.
Transitive has attracted many blue chip customers and partners including Apple, HP, IBM, Intel, and Sun. Steve Jobs, Apple’s Chief Executive, gave Transitive its breakthrough three years ago by agreeing to deploy its software to allow programs written for Apple’s PowerPC-based computers to run on Intel-based Macs, enabling Apple to switch the processors it used with relative ease. Jobs praised the smooth switchover and more than 12 million Macs now use Transitive’s technology.
Alasdair Rawsthorne, the company’s founder and Chief Technology Officer, says the company’s deal with IBM, in particular, is proof of the company’s prospects. “We have a great beachhead in our potential markets” he says.
The company has won an accolade of awards on both sides of the Atlantic including the European ICT Prize, the Morgan Stanley Award for Innovation 2006 and became a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2007.
Transitive has been transformed from a university research team into a global, transatlantic success and Transitive attributes much of this to its core of computer scientists. Two thirds of its 80 plus developers are graduates from Manchester University which Alasdair Rawsthorne calls a “unique pipeline.”
“The University pours out literally hundreds of really talented computer scientists who want to stay in Manchester if there is something interesting for them to do.” ¹
Transitive now operates its marketing from California and maintains its software development in Manchester, relying predominantly on the cost effective capabilities of fresh computing science graduates.
¹ Manchester is home to the largest concentration of ICT industries outside the South East with over 100,000 highly skilled, qualified professionals employed in the ICT sector. Many global market leaders have based their headquarters within the city region, its talented workforce being key to their success.