title: Martin Allen (entrepreneur)
text: # Martin Allen (entrepreneur)
  
  Martin A. Allen (1931–2009) was the chairman, co-founder, president, and largest individual stockholder (2,272,866 shares) of Computervision Corp. Its first product, CADDS-1, was aimed at the printed circuit layout, and 2-D drafting markets.
  
  ## Career
  
  ### Computervision Corp.
  
  Martin (Marty) A. Allen co-founded Computervision Corp. in 1969 with Philippe Villers in Boston, MA. In 1980 he lead an effort to create the first Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), build to handle 2-D and 3-D modeling.
  
  ### Retirement
  
  Allen netted $34 million when, at age 57, he sold Computervision Corp. to Prime Computer Inc. on 29 January 1988.
  
  ## Early life and education
  
  Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Allen was raised in California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and obtained the degree in engineering.
  
  