Parallax, Inc. (company)
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| Parallax, Inc. | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1987 Rocklin, California |
| Headquarters | Rocklin, California |
| Key people | Chip Gracey, President |
| Industry | Technology |
| Products | Basic Stamp, SX, Parallax Propeller |
| Website | www.parallax.com |
Parallax, Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, Propeller microcontrollers, microcontroller accessories (such as LCDs, sensors, RF modules, etc.), educational robot kits, and educational curriculum. It also distributes the SX microcontroller.
Originally established in 1987, in Rocklin, CA, Parallax, Inc. manufactured products such as the ISEPIC, TopRAM, and the first third-party Microchip PIC Programmer. In 1992, the BASIC Stamp 1 microcontroller module was released. The BASIC Stamp was so named because it was about the size of a postage stamp. Programmed in PBASIC, the BASIC Stamp found an audience in electronic hobbyists with powerful I/O commands that made it easy to connect to other electronic components. In 1995, the BASIC Stamp 2 module was added to the product lineup. The user base has become diverse, including everyone from scientists and hobbyists to engineers and entrepreneurs. By 2002, there were over three million BASIC Stamp microcontrollers in use around the world.
In 1997, the Stamps in Class program was created to provide educational resources that addressed the needs of electronic students ages 14 and up. Stamps In Class curriculum was designed to introduce students and educators to BASIC Stamp microcontrollers using software basics and simple hardware, integrating the two without a tremendous financial investment. The most popular tutorial is for the Boe-Bot robot, a simple yet versatile rolling robot that has a BASIC Stamp brain.
In 1998, Parallax, Inc. formed a partnership with Ubicom (formerly Scenix Semiconductor) to develop tools and BASIC Stamps using their new SX microcontrollers. Company founder Chip Gracey designed the SX-Key Programming Tool to make programming Ubicom’s SX chips affordable. And in 2005, Parallax, Inc. and Ubicom formed an agreement in which Parallax, Inc. is the exclusive supplier of the SX microcontroller.
In 2006, after eight years of development time, Parallax launched their Parallax Propeller Microcontroller. A powerful multicore system that can do real-time simultaneous multiprocessing. It uses eight 32-bit cores called "cogs" controlled by a bus controller called the "Hub". It can be programmed in assembler, or in the interpreted "Spin programming language". It comes with a software library of objects for a various sets of I/O devices, such as UARTS and even a video display controller emulated fully in software.
