Concurrent Computer Corporation

Concurrent Computer Corporation

Company type	Public (initially subsidiary of Perkin-Elmer)
Industry	Computer hardware, real-time systems, parallel processing
Predecessor	Perkin-Elmer Data Systems Group (formerly Interdata)
Founded	November 1985 (1985-11)
Defunct	2017 (2017)
Fate	Divested assets; real-time systems acquired by Battery Ventures (2017), later sold to Brüel & Kjær (2021); video content division sold to Vecima Networks (2017/2018)
Headquarters	Duluth , United States
Area served	Global
Key people	James K. Sims (founding CEO), Denis R. Brown, John Stihl, E. Courtney "Corky" Siegel (CEO of Harris Computer Systems)
Products	Parallel processing computers, real-time systems, video-on-demand solutions, Ada and Fortran compilers, iHawk product family
Number of employees	Approx. 2,800 (peak 1988); 1,250 (early 1990s)
Parent	Perkin-Elmer (initially majority owner)

Concurrent Computer Corporation was a U.S.-based computer firm active from 1985 until 2017, focusing on systems designed for parallel processing and real-time applications. Its product portfolio catered to sectors such as process control, simulation, data acquisition, and video-on-demand services. The company was initially headquartered in Monmouth County, New Jersey, before relocating operations to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and later Duluth, Georgia.

Origins and initial efforts

Concurrent originated in November 1985 when Perkin-Elmer divested its Data Systems Group, which had previously been Interdata prior to Perkin-Elmer’s acquisition in 1974. Although the division generated $259 million in revenue, it remained relatively obscure within the broader industry under Perkin-Elmer’s ownership. At first, Concurrent operated as a wholly owned subsidiary but offered minority shares to the public in February 1986, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker CCUR, while Perkin-Elmer maintained an 82% ownership.

James K. Sims, who had served as general manager of Perkin-Elmer’s computer division, assumed the roles of president and CEO at Concurrent. The firm employed roughly 1,700 individuals in Monmouth County, including approximately 800 workers at its Oceanport manufacturing facility. By 1987, Concurrent had expanded to nine local offices and shifted its headquarters from Holmdel to Tinton Falls.

The company concentrated on the 32-bit superminicomputer sector with a strong emphasis on parallel processing capabilities. Its heritage Series 3200 line was inherited from Interdata and utilized proprietary processors built around AMD Am2900 bit-slice technology running the OS/32 real-time operating system. Subsequent models included the Series 5000, powered by Motorola 68020 processors, and the Series 6000 featuring Motorola 68030 chips, both aimed at demanding rapid-response environments such as flight simulators.

Defense and aerospace industries represented significant customer bases. To comply with industry standards, Concurrent developed Ada language compilers; notably, its C3Ada compiler released in 1987 was among the earliest to successfully pass stringent Ada Compiler Validation Capability tests. The company also investigated implementing Ada’s real-time multitasking features on multiprocessor platforms.

Fortran remained a prevalent programming language on Concurrent’s systems. The compiler development team focused on optimizing Fortran for shared-memory multiprocessor architectures, tackling challenges like loop optimization and mitigating cache thrashing effects.

By 1988, Concurrent’s workforce had grown to approximately 2,800 employees overall, with nearly 1,000 stationed at the Oceanport site during peak production periods. The company reported revenues of $247 million in 1987.

Merger with MASSCOMP

On August 1, 1988, Concurrent Computer Corporation merged with Massachusetts Computer Corporation (MASSCOMP), in a transaction where MASSCOMP technically acquired Concurrent for $241 million despite Concurrent being more than three times larger. This type of "minnow swallowing the whale" deal was characteristic of the late 1980s and was primarily financed through junk bond offerings. As part of the acquisition, MASSCOMP also purchased Perkin-Elmer’s remaining shares in Concurrent. Unusually for such mergers, the combined entity retained the Concurrent name with Sims continuing as CEO and maintained its headquarters in New Jersey. The merger finalized on September 27, 1988.

The strategic intent behind this merger was to integrate MASSCOMP’s lower-tier real-time product lines with Concurrent’s high-end systems while leveraging MASSCOMP’s expertise in Unix environments—specifically their Real-time Unix (RTU) operating system deployed on Series 5000 and Series 6000 machines.

Nonetheless, the union encountered substantial difficulties. The considerable debt incurred proved challenging to service during the early 1990s U.S. economic downturn, resulting in workforce reductions at Monmouth County facilities. Additionally, cultural differences and internal competition between product teams impeded smooth integration. Moreover, competitors such as IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation introduced more advanced real-time solutions that were difficult to compete against on price or performance. In response to these challenges, CEO Sims was replaced by Denis R. Brown in 1990, followed by engagement of a turnaround specialist and another leadership change in 1993 when John Stihl assumed the CEO position.

Throughout the 1990s, Concurrent maintained active involvement in Ada language advancement efforts, acting as rapporteur for Ada 9X and contributing to the Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS).

By the early part of that decade, Concurrent’s headcount had declined to about 1,250 employees. The company introduced the Series 8000 line based on MIPS R3000 processors running RTU. Core markets for these systems included weather forecasting, air traffic management, radar simulation applications, and financial trading platforms.

Merger with Harris Computer Systems

By 1995, Concurrent had significantly reduced its liabilities from $200 million to less than $25 million through a debt-for-equity exchange. During this period, Harris Computer Systems—a real-time computing firm originally part of Harris Corporation and led by CEO E. Courtney "Corky" Siegel—was a direct competitor. That year, Harris attempted to purchase Concurrent, but the acquisition talks did not succeed.

The following year, the roles reversed when Concurrent acquired the high-performance computing division of Harris Computer Systems and shifted its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The New Jersey operations experienced a sharp decline due to workforce reductions and employee departures. By mid-1997, Concurrent sold its Oceanport facility but maintained a smaller leased site dedicated to manufacturing and servicing legacy products.

In 1999, Concurrent relocated its main office once again, this time to Duluth, Georgia, near Atlanta. CEO Siegel attributed this move to better access to executive leadership and a richer talent pool; however, manufacturing activities continued at the Pompano Beach, Florida location. Although the company was actively marketing its video-on-demand solution MediaHawk, the bulk of its $82 million annual revenue still originated from real-time system offerings.

As the new millennium commenced, Concurrent concentrated on expanding within the video-on-demand sector, securing clients such as AOL Time Warner and Cox Communications. Simultaneously, it maintained defense contracts with firms like Lockheed Martin. Its real-time systems operated on RedHawk Linux—Concurrent’s customized version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux—and employed Intel/AMD x86-64 processors. These technologies were integral components of Concurrent's iHawk product family.

End

In 2017, Concurrent Computer Corporation divested its assets. In May of that year, Battery Ventures, a private equity firm, acquired the real-time systems segment for $35 million, establishing Concurrent Real-Time. This business unit was subsequently sold to Brüel & Kjær—a subsidiary of Spectris plc—for $166.7 million in July 2021. Meanwhile, in October 2017, the video content delivery and storage division was purchased by Canadian telecommunications firm Vecima Networks for $29 million; this transaction was finalized in early 2018.

External links

• Official website of Concurrent Real-Time – post-2017 products site
• "Concurrent Computer Corporation", International Directory of Company Histories, c. 2005
• Entry at Northeast Parallel Architectures Center at Syracuse University