Perihelion Distributed Software Ltd is planning a mystery September announcement that it will make its Helios Advanced RISC Machines Real Time Operating system available to a a large US company. The Somerset, UK-based software development and consulting firm says the system will go into the US company’s network computing devices. Perihelion, almost a decade old, is enjoying a welcome boom period. It redefined itself as an internet software supplier rather than a manufacturer of large parallel systems, and it focuses on two key product areas – Helios-ARM RTOS (CI No 2,749) and backend server technology for internet sites. The company was established originally to develop transputer-based workstations for Atari Corp, running under its Unix-like Helios operating system. Managing director Jon Powell comments: The internet has completely turned our business upside down and that’s where we are totally focused. Powell cites some important similarities between the company’s old and new businesses: The way Helios communicated with those classic parallel processors is very similar to the links between thin clients and backend servers… basically we act as the piece of wire between them. With only 19 staff, Perihelion reported 100,000 pounds profit on revenue of 700,000 pounds last year. It continues to resist going public, preferring to operate as a privately owned and financed business. Powell explains: You either go like a rabbit, beholden to shareholders, or take a slower approach. It’s a lot of effort to get the investment… and sometimes I question why people take the investment-led route.
