Brand: Ashton-Tate
Founded by: George Tate & Hal Lashlee
Headquarters: USA (Torrance)
Since: 1980
Until: 1991

Ashton-Tate was a US software company famous for developing the dBase database application and the Framework office suite.

Designed by Wayne Ratliff, dBase was a database manager that, at one point, held a monopoly in its market.

Framework, designed by Robert Carr, was office suite that combined the functions of a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics manager, file manager, and communication software that brought together several terminal emulators. A macro language called FRED (for FRamework EDitor) completed the package.

Ashton-Tate grew from a small garage company into a multinational corporation with software development centers throughout the United States and Europe. It became one of the “Big Three” software companies, alongside Microsoft and Lotus.

After the death (from a heart attack) of George Tate, Ashton-Tate was sold to Borland in 1991.

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