Transitive is now an IBM company.

With more than 15 million customer deployments worldwide, Transitive® is a leader in cross-platform virtualization and a pioneer in developing technologies that allow applications compiled for one CPU and operating system to run on platforms using different CPUs and operating systems - without any modification to source code or binaries. Transitive’s breakthrough technology has earned it more than 70 worldwide patents and numerous industry awards and accolades.

Since its establishment in 2000, Transitive has enjoyed considerable success across a diverse range of computing platforms, including desktop systems and high-performance workstations as well as enterprise servers and a variety of OEM equipment. Transitive’s OEM customers have included Apple, IBM and Silicon Graphics.

Transitive’s innovative QuickTransit® enterprise cross-platform virtualization product line provides a unique solution for IT organizations seeking to standardize and consolidate their computing resources to a smaller number of more cost-effective and energy-efficient systems. QuickTransit is available in versions that support the most common enterprise hardware migration paths, and in configurations that are aligned with most common customer use cases.

Company History

Transitive’s unique technology dates back to 1992, when an unrelated computer design project at Manchester University in the UK hit a challenge. The project team was subject to a late change in its required instruction-set-architecture. After a short gestation period, the development of QuickTransit began in 1995.

The initial research goals of the project were to determine the effectiveness of a modular, re-targetable, dynamic binary translator, providing 100% compatibility between pairs of different processor instruction sets. These goals allowed exploration of the best way to design intermediate representations of the software being translated, which paid dividends in the modularity and optimizing capability of the resulting translators. The research team quickly discovered that the novel principles underlying QuickTransit would lead to a unique combination of configurable translators, providing high fidelity and outstanding performance.

Transitive’s technology shows promise in many areas. Besides easing the application migration of software between different computing platforms, it has potential in the design of application-centered CPUs, in dynamic re-optimization of performance-critical software at run-time, and as a component in computer systems deeply embedded in consumer and industrial electronics – from cell phones and PDAs through to storage controllers and network switches.

Transitive Corporation was founded in 2000 as the vehicle to develop the QuickTransit® technology for the commercial market. Initial technical work was focused on developing the technology into a robust, commercial and industrial software base, and to complete the many features necessary for full customer deployment.

Development contracts were signed in 2001 and 2002 with early customers acting as technology partners, and 2003 saw the beginning of focused sales activity with key customer prospects in the industry. SGI launched the first commercially available product incorporating QuickTransit® in April 2005, and Apple acknowledged its relationship with Transitive in June 2005. More recently,IBM commenced a project using the QuickTransit technology and further product launches with leading computer companies are planned for the near future.

Transitive Corporation is located in Los Gatos, California with a research and development team in Manchester, UK. The company is privately held, with funding participation by Pond Venture Partners Ltd., Manchester Technology Fund, Crescendo Ventures, Accel Partners and Meritech Capital Partners