(1) An open source integrated development environment (IDE) from the Eclipse Foundation. Running under Windows, Mac and Linux, Eclipse is widely used to write Java programs; however, plugins customize Eclipse for more than two dozen other programming languages. In 2001, IBM started the Eclipse consortium, and three years later, it was spun off as an independent foundation. See
NetBeans.
(2) (ECLIPSE) An early series of 32-bit minicomputers from Data General. The development of the initial 32-bit ECLIPSE MV/8000 was the subject of Tracy Kidder's best-selling book, "Soul of a New Machine" published in 1981 by Little, Brown and Company.