The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. However, the purchase price is expected to be substantial as Transitive is a leader in cross-platform virtualization and in dynamic translation that allows applications written for one type of microprocessor and operating system to run on multiple platforms, with little or no modification.

As a result, the technology will enable customers to consolidate their Linux-based applications onto the IBM systems that make the most sense for their business needs. Transitive technology is currently included as part of the IBM PowerVM software designed to help customers consolidate their x86 Linux workloads onto IBM Systems.

Transitive's technology has earned the company 48 worldwide patents.

The company first surfaced with its dynamic binary translation technology at the Embedded Processor Forum in San Jose, Calif., in June 2001. The company has no scheduled role in the Forum but took a suite of rooms in the Fairmont Hotel, where the forum is being held, and invited engineers, executives and journalists to see a demonstration of its technology. Alasdair Rawsthorne, Transitive's founder and chief technology officer, demonstrated x86 software running on a MIPS-based computer, having been converted on-the-fly.

From there Transitive went on to be an under-acknowledged but key enabler of Apple's switch from the Power architecture to x86. Transitive played the game by keep quiet about the name when it announced that a "big computer OEM customer" had plans to ship computers with the Transitive emulation shell back in September 2004.

Intel tapped Transitive for a boost to its Itanium and Xeon processor programs in March 2006 and later in the same year linked up with IBM to apply its technology to server applications.

Transitive, having been founded in 2000, was included on the first and second iterations of the Silicon 60 and was acknowledged as a European pioneer when it was awarded a 200,000 euro prize (about $250,000 at today's rates) by the Eurepean Union

Manchester University and Pond Venture Partners were original investors in Transitive, which reportedly raised a further $20 million in the U.S. as it moved its headquarters to California.

By: DocMemory
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