From Orphan To Startup

After being bought and sold and then finally told that he just wasn’t wanted anymore, computer scientist David Jenkins is now calling the shots for his own computer hardware company, Visionary Systems Inc. of New Haven, Conn. It all began in 1986 when Jenkins was working on microchips for array processing boards as part of ITT’s Advanced Technology Center in Shelton, Conn. In December of that year, ITT sold Jenkins’ Cellular Array Processor project, along with its 29 other Shelton-based research projects, to Alcatel N.y., a French telecommunications company. Less than a year later, however, Alcatel closed down all the projects, including Jenkins’ operation. That’s when Jenkins formed Visionary Systems, which develops array processing boards for PCs. The company’s first product now being tested is called the APx Accelerator, which he says will bring “high computing power at low-cost in a desktop machine.” Since the computer...

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