Allegro Software History – 1996 to Present

Allegro Software Development Corporation was founded in February 1996 with the intention of bringing the advantages of standard Internet applications to the management of network devices. Recognizing the limitations of current network device management solutions and convinced that existing Web server products were inadequate, Allegro developed the RomPager^® Embedded Web Server Engine and Web Application Toolkit specifically for embedded environments. Features include a small memory footprint, compression for pages and images, support for the latest HTML and HTTP standards, flexible security models and file system support offering a generalized asynchronous I/O interface for flash, disk, RAM and network file access.

1996

RomPager^®, introduced by Allegro in the spring of 1996, enables embedded device vendors to provide network management that leverages the ubiquitous Web browser interface. Using a standard Web browser as the client allows them to quickly prototype sophisticated management applications and rapidly deliver consistent cross-platform solutions. By leveraging the browser as the application interface, the requirement for developing, distributing and maintaining custom device management client software is eliminated. Additionally, putting the interface in the device itself make sure that the management application matches the current capabilities of the device.

1997

In December 1997, Allegro delivered several additions to its embedded Internet applications product line. These included version 2.0 of RomPager^®, RomMailer, and RomPager^® Remote Host. The new version of RomPager^® added support for HTTP 1.1, external authentication interfaces, and enhanced HTML page creation tools. RomMailer, an email agent for embedded device management, is a significant step in the use of Internet applications to manage network devices. With RomMailer, devices can send email status reports or event alerts to any Internet email reader.

1998

In April 1998, Allegro added RomPOP, an email agent that allows devices to receive Internet messages. With RomPOP, new software revisions can be downloaded to devices by email; and printers with RomPOP can accept print jobs by email. Email messages can be plain text or messages with attachments such as graphics, audio, configuration files, etc.

1999

In March 1999, Allegro announced version 3.0 of the product line which added a series of enhancements to the RomPager^®, RomMailer, and RomPOP products, and introduced two additional products. RomWebClient™ is a general purpose HTTP object retrieval client that provides embedded devices the ability to retrieve remote objects from Web servers using the HTTP protocol. RomDNS is a Domain Name Services client which provides embedded devices the ability to perform a variety of name-based and address-based queries to Domain Name Servers.

In September 1999, Allegro announced RomXML^®, the first XML Framer/Parser designed for the embedded marketplace. With a small memory footprint of 10Kb, it is now practical to harness the power of XML with embedded devices.

2000

In September 2000, Allegro announced the RomUPNP family of toolkits, which are small memory footprint implementations of the UPnP™ 1.0 protocol. Allegro also announced the RomCLI™ toolkit for building text-based Cisco-style command line interfaces.

2001

In July 2001, Allegro released RomPager^® Secure, an add-on option for it’s RomPager^® Web servers to provide SSL/TLS access.

2002

In February 2002, Allegro added RomWebClient™ Secure, which adds SSL/TLS access to the HTTP client product.

2003

In January 2003, Allegro released RomCLI™ Secure, an add-on option to RomCLI™ to provide SSH access.

In July 2003, Allegro renamed the RomUPNP product family to RomPlug^® and introduced the RomPlug^® Media kits which implement the UPnP AV specifications.

In December 2003, Philips and Allegro announced a partnership to make the Allegro RomPlug^® UPnP technology available for the Philips Nexperia semiconductor family.

2004

In January 2004 Allegro demonstrated the Allegro Media Server, a software application to link personal computers that use the Apple iTunes software, with the world of networked UPnP digital media players.

In May 2004, Allegro added RomPlug^® MediaControl to the family of UPnP digital media technology kits.

In December 2004, Allegro released the Allegro Media Server version 1.00 which links personal computers that use the Apple iTunes software with the world of networked UPnP digital media players.

2005

Throughout the year – Allegro released additional RomPlug^® Device Toolkits to help OEM manufacturers rapidly develop and deploy UPnP devices.

2006

In May 2006, Microsoft announced that Allegro has been selected to provide UPnP/DLNA and security technology for its Media Center Extender (PIKA) SDK and is being used in the XBOX-360.

2007

In April 2007, Allegro released version 4.6 of the RomPager^® family with significant functionality and interoperability updates to the RomPlug^® UPnP technology. Additionally, Allegro released the RomTime toolkit (client and server) for implementing SNTP.

In September 2007, Allegro announced RomXOAP. Further extending the capabilities of RomXML, RomXOAP provides developers with an embedded software toolkit enabling design engineers to incorporate SOAP-based technology into their embedded designs.

2008

In June 2008, Allegro expanded the UPNP/DLNA offerings with link protection toolkits to support DTCP-IP and WMDRM-ND.

2009

In March 2009, Allegro’s RDMC 101 product was selected as a Reference Digital Media Controller (DMC) to launch the DLNA certification process for the 3-box model.

2010

In April 2010, Allegro announced that their RomPlug^® UPnP/DLNA technology was shipping in 50+ DLNA Certified products.

In September 2010, Allegro announced a close partnership with Express Logic that bundles a free version of the popular RomPager^® web server technology with Express Logic’s high-performance NETx embedded TCP/IP stack.

2011

In January 2011, Allegro’s RDMS 202 and RDMS 202D are among the first to be DLNA Certified with additional support for DLNA Protected Streaming capabilities.

2012

In January 2012 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Allegro announced the release of RomCert™, an embedded software solution to automate the management of security certificates in embedded systems. Additionally, Allegro announced full integration and support of Suite B cryptography with the RomPager^® family of products.

2013

In February 2013 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Allegro announced their FIPS validation effort.

In December 2013 Allegro announced it had earned FIPS level 2 validation for the Allegro Cryptography Engine, ACE™

2014

In February 2014 again at the RSA Conference, Allegro announced the Advanced Edition (AE) product suite targeting next-generation embedded systems connectivity and advanced security with FIPS-validated security and IPv6 connectivity.

In September 2014 Allegro announced support for VidiPath, the latest expansion of DLNA^® interoperability guidelines for connected Consumer Electronics (CE) devices.

2015

In April 2015, Allegro expanded support for securely storing data on IoT devices with the release of pre-integrated support for encrypting data-at-rest leveraging the FIPS validated cryptography found in ACE™.

2016

Allegro’s UPnP/DLNA technology plays an integral role in the functionality and overall performance of an award-winning consumer electronics wireless speaker system.

2017

Allegro Software achieves an additional FIPS validation for ACE™ that takes into consideration the latest implementation guidance recommendations from NIST.

2018

Allegro works with International Cryptography Module Conference to establish IoT focused cryptography track.

2019

In May Allegro announces expanded framework to support hardware based entropy for ACE™ in addition to earning additional FIPS validation from NIST

2020

In February 2020 Allegro announced support for TLS v1.3 in addition to compatibility APIs for OpenSLL so vendors can leverage investments in Open Source while using commercially available FIPS validated components. Allegro also announced an integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and their IoT gateway allowing customers to again leverage FIPS validated cryptography and TLS v1.3 secure communications along with AWS-IoT cloud enabled resources.

Security and Connectivity for the IoT Edge

Many companies have discovered the advantages of connecting devices to the Internet. Allegro customers include many of the leading developers of computer systems and networking equipment such as 3Com, Agilent, American Power Conversion, Andover Controls, Bose, Brocade, Casio, Cisco, D-Link, Honeywell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nortel, Siemens, Sony, Sumitomo, and Xerox.

These customers and others have found that the Allegro family of products are well suited for embedding in devices like printers, digital media devices, routers, RAID disk arrays, UPS systems, automated building control systems, and remote access servers. Over 275,000,000 embedded devices have been shipped with the Allegro EdgeAgent Suite of products.