2500, the 2600 was conceived as both a musical instrument and a didactic tool for learning about electronic music. Instead of the 2500's unreliable and arcane pin matrix, the 2600 used a more traditional patch cord routing architecture that provided users with a clear visual indication of signal flow. The 2600 was produced from 1971 until 1982, the year that ARP ceased to exist as a company. ARP went public in 1973, based on the success of the 2600 and the ARP Odyssey. The company's annual sales peaked at $7 million in 1977, but differences of opinion in the management team, the costly development of the Avatar guitar synthesizer, and product sales figures that fell far short of the company's sales projections led to financial difficulties for the company and its eventual liquidation in September 1981. ARP's demise was financially devastating to Pearlman and his family, who together lost nearly $500,000 in cash and $1 million in paper assets. Pearlman went on to found and serve as Chief Executive Officer at Selva Systems Inc., a computer graphics software company. Later, Pearlman advised Way Out Ware's Jim Heintz on the development of the TimewARP 2600 software re-creation of the ARP 2600. This is the only ARP 2600 software re-creation that Pearlman endorsed. Awards In 1978, Worcester Polytechnic Institute presented the Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award to Pearlman for professional achievement in his field. At the AES convention in New York in October, 2010, Keyboard magazine editor-at-large Craig Anderton presented Alan R. Pearlman with a commemorative plaque naming him a "Keyboard Legend." Pearlman accepted with Jim Heintz of Way Out Ware, the developers of the TimewARP 2600, a software recreation of the ARP 2600 on whose development Pearlman consulted. Death Pearlman died in Newton, Massachusetts on January 5, 2019, at the age of 93. References External links The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation Alan R. Pearlman NAMM Oral History Program Interview (2006) till.com List of ARP Instruments, Inc. Patents https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/obituaries/alan-r-pearlman-dead.html 1925 births 2019 deaths Inventors of musical instruments Worcester Polytechnic Institute alumni Businesspeople from New York City Military personnel from New York City 20th-century American businesspeople