Pompano Beach, Florida-based Clarion Corp has changed its name to TopSpeed Corp, to reflect the name of the compiler it acquired when the company took over London-based Jensen & Partners International Ltd in 1992. The TopSpeed compiler is now at the core of the company’s software development, which is split across the Atlantic, with development taking place at the UK operation, while testing and documentation is carried out by a 60-strong US team. There is no name change, however, for the Clarion range of database development tools, built around the company’s Clarion programming language. Barry Lynch, managing director of the UK company, TopSpeed Software, which employs 20 staff in its Harpenden, Hertfordshire offices, said the reason for the name change is to endorse the importance of the TopSpeed technology. He added that with the launch of Clarion for Windows imminent, the company wanted to avoid misunderstanding in the market. Confused? The people that keep ringing the Harpenden office under the impression that they are speaking to Clarion Car Radios will have fewer market misunderstandings, as will the people that ring Clarion Corp to speak to either Clarion Hotels or Clarion Cosmetics, and Lynch says the company has never been confused with Data General Corp’s Clariion range of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. But the bad news is that although there is no other TopSpeed in the US, there is a UK company that tunes racing cars called, yes, you guessed, TopSpeed.
