Redac Software
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Redac Software - Racal Electronics Design Automation Company - this company was formed sometime in the early 70's. The company was based in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK. I am writing this to ensure that the name and early history of the original company is not lost through time. I joined the company in April 1975 so detail before then is definitely required.
Redac produced one of the first Electronics Design Automation solutions, I should know as I was one of those who used the system from 1975. Eric Wolfendale was Managing Director of Redac for many years. We produced World Leading PCB design Software using state of the art computers. In 1975 I was trained on a GEC 905 computer by Bill Meadows, sadly he died in September 2006.
I then became part of the PCB Bureau an operation which was to provide both an income and also a demonstration organisation for the future sale of the software then produced. The software ran on a Digital Equipment PDP 15/20, the memory used was 32KB with a 1MB disc. The things we designed enabled many companies in Europe to forge ahead with their own products.
The first really saleable system which started to make some inroads in the market was the Redac Mini based on a PDP 11. BIt noisy but a nice machine. At this time we were still designing double sided thru hole PCB's and surface mount was yet to appear.
In the early 80's a new system was being developed the 'Visula' system as it came to be known. This was an advanced 32 layer system which could design PCB's to 1/100th of a micron accuracy. This system although advanced for the time was limited in its capability due to the availability of UNIX workstations. Even when they became generally available their capability was below that required for the power of the software. I still have two machines at home (but that is another story).
Redac Software became Racal-Redac sometime in the late seventies (can't remember when) and then later merged with Zuken, Inc. in 1994, the company renamed as Zuken-Redac for its European and American operation. The Tewkesbury office was then moved to a new building in AZTEC, Bristol, UK. In 2000, Zuken seized to use Redac, now its called Zuken Technology Center/Zuken Ltd. and became part of Zuken, Inc., Japan.
Today, Visula and Cadstar continue to exist as Zuken's product. The gridless routing algorithm brought to the world by Alan Finch at the 22nd Design Automation Conference in 1985 continues in the form of Zuken's CR-5000 Lightning, Placement & Route Editor (P.R.Editor).
Hopefully by making a start, those who took part in the building of this company and the effect those persons have made and are still making in the world of Electronics and Computing will add their memories.
