Integrated Software Systems Corporation (ISSCO), doing business as ISSCO Graphics, was an American software developer and publisher based in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, and active from 1970 to 1986. They were best known for their enterprise graphics software packages, including ''Tellagraf'', ''CueChart'' and ''Disspla''.

History

ISSCO Graphics had considered acquiring

Breakthrough Software Breakthrough Software was a software company based in Novato, California. Breakthrough developed and sold the Time Line project management software for PC DOS computers, releasing the first version in 1984, and version 2.0 in July, 1985.Hank Banni ...

, whose software focus involved

PC DOS PC or pc may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Player character or playable character, a fictional character controlled by a human player, usually in role-playing games or computer games * '' Port Charles'', an American daytime TV soap opera * ...

, as a means of getting into the PC arena, but backed off when

Computer Associates CA Technologies, Inc., formerly Computer Associates International, Inc., and CA, Inc., was an American multinational enterprise software developer and publisher that existed from 1976 to 2018. CA grew to rank as one of the largest independent ...

made an offer to acquire ISSCO. By early 1987 it was reported that "Issco users breathe sigh of relief" that all was well. The ISSCO User's Group was founded in 1976. ISSCO, which was founded in 1970 by Peter Preuss, was acquired by

in 1986.

Notable products

Tellagraf

ISSCO's Tellagraf is an early software package designed to allow end-users to "turn out full color, professional quality charts" with initial results displayed on a screen, modified as needed, and then "a final 'hard-copy' can be made .. or made into 35mm color transparencies for projection onto a screen." Users of Tellagraf often had access to CueChart and Disspla software. Often computer sites having one had all three. Terminals with varying degrees of graphics, such as the DEC's

VT100 The VT100 is a video terminal, introduced in August 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was one of the first terminals to support ANSI escape codes for cursor control and other tasks, and added a number of extended codes for special ...

and

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...

's Tektronix 4xxx family of text and graphics terminals. were supported, and the software ran on popular computing platforms. Four years are important to Tellagraf's early history: * 1978: ease of use * 1980: graphic-artist quality * 1982: introduction of CueChart, and recognition by

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

. * 1983: "quality graphics enters the mainstream of data processing with ..." Tellegraf was eventually acquired by

and renamed CA-Tellegraf. SAS users found it helpful. Universities, research institutes and financial services firms were among early users.

Disspla

Disspla is a package of data plotting subroutines that can be used from high level languages. It was also acquired by Computer Associates.

Tellaplan

In 1983 ISSCO introduced Tellaplan, "a project planning, report and schedule charting system for Tell-A- Graf users in IBM MVS or CMS or Digital Equipment Corp. VAX computers" atop which they built "two visual project management software packages" three years later.

References

{{reflist Defunct software companies of the United States Proprietary software Graphics software