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StateWORKS

History

The history and important milestones of the StateWORKS development are:

  • 1986 - 1990: Definition of the VFSM concept by F. Wagner and first implementation in E-Pascal on PDP-rtVax computer for SDS (Single Disk Sputtering) and Cluster Line machines at BALZERS AG (now Unaxis), Liechtenstein.
  • 1991: Application of the E-Pascal implementation for the development of the Virtual Inline Systems VIS-750 at Pfeifer AG, Germany.
  • 1990 - 1991: Introduction of VFSM Technology for telecommunication applications at AT&T (now Lucent), Naperville, USA. AT&T designed a complete development and execution system for internal use. The software was written in C and has been used, on an ever-increasing scale since that time, to develop switching systems. By mid-1997, over 600 programmers had been trained in this technology.
  • 1992: The paper F. Wagner: “VFSM Executable Specification” presented at CompEuro 1992, The Hague, Holland.
  • 1994 - 1995: Two patents (U.S. Patent No. 5,301,100 and 5,463,543) granted by the Patent and Trademark Office, USA.
  • 1991 - 1993: Implementation of VFSM-Technology on TSM system (Z280 microcontroller) and on Lynx-System (real-time UNIX for PC).
  • 1992 - 1996: Development of StateWORKS (development and runtime system for Windows NT operating system; RTDB (real-time database) developed by R. Schmuki). This product was distributed by SW Software, Buchs, Switzerland.
  • 1994 - 1997: Development of Gantner control system for Coffee Roasting Factory (Zumtobel, Dornbirn, Austria) and building control (Büro Fürrer and Sihl+Eika, Zürich, Switzerland) by AUMAT Software in Austria.
  • 1994: Book by F. Wagner: “The Virtual Finite State Machine: Executable Control Flow Specification”.
  • 1994 - 1997: Introduction of VFSM Technology and StateWORKS tools at the Technical University of Lausitz, Senftenberg, Germany, by Prof. F. Wagner.
  • 1996: Trademark “StateWORKS”, No: 395 33 236.2, granted by DPMA, Munich, Germany.
  • 1997: The paper Flora-Holmquist, A.R., Morton, E., O’Grady, M.G., Staskauskas, M.G., “The Virtual Finite-State Machine Design and Implementation Paradigm”, Bell Labs Technical Journal (1997): 97-113.
  • 1997 - 2000: Development of a new software generation for Optoelectronic Measurement Devices using StateWORKS, Focus (UBM), Ettlingen, Germany.
  • 2000 - 2002: Improvements in development tools. Introduction of the runtime system with the COM interface.
  • 2001 - 2004: Application of StateWORKS for robot control systems, Data Physics, Filderstadt, Germany.
  • 2002: Application of StateWORKS for the implementation of a proprietary RS. ITP protocol for data transmission in wireless sets, Rohde & Schwarz, Munich, Germany.
  • 2003: Introduction of StateWORKS Studio and StateWORKS System products. Major improvements to development tools, including XML export, terminal client, and debug extensions for monitors, etc.
  • 2004 - 2005: Introduction of the runtime systems for different variants of Windows: Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE. Expansion of the runtime system onto the Linux platform.
  • 2005 - 2006: Book by F. Wagner, R. Schmuki, T. Wagner, P. Wolstenholme: “Modeling Software with Finite State Machines: A Practical Approach”.
  • 2006: Compiler for translating the StateWORKS specification results into C code, developed by V. Marolda. This work is aimed at embedded systems. The compiler was first used in a project for multi-ingredient dosing and mixing automation (70 I/Os, 300 parameters, 19 units, 17 different VFSM designs with a total of 39 VFSM instances).
  • 2010-2011: Design and implementation of TechnoDoor, a control system in France, using an RTDB-based application and the C# RtdbUI library. The I/O interface is built using IOboard.net ↗ components.
  • 2011: Addition of the thinStates compiler to StateWORKS Studio. The thinState compiler generates C-code as an implementation of the specified system of state machines. It may be used in microcontroller applications.
  • 2014: The company “SW Software” closed due to the retirement of the main engineering team.
  • 2024: StateWORKS taken over by A. Wagner with the direct consent of the founder.