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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 5/5/2005 |
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An excerpt from
The History of the Microcomputer Revolution - Part 11 - IBM's Secret IBM had
been watching the emerging PC marketplace. By 1980 the company had made a
couple feeble attempts at their own PC products. One was the IBM 5100
computer which was a big desktop with a tiny 3”screen, and the Datamaster - another future failure. IBM also had
entertained the notion of buying the game company Atari and its early PC
line. IBM's
chairman at the time decided to take a different approach, and gathered a
group of the company's renegade successful managers - wild ducks in IBM-speak
- to start a secret project code named Manhattan. Its mission was to explore
building a PC that the market really wanted, and to try to end the
embarrassment of the world's largest computer company being beaten out by
long haired California kids and unknown tiny startup companies, and to build
it in a non-IBM company way. The IBM
team approached Microsoft under pretense of doing a market survey, requesting
Microsoft to sign a non-disclosure agreement which would enable IBM to
disavow the meeting ever happened - and asked Bill Gates for his opinions on
what a PC should have and do. Gates had no problem with IBM's secrecy, and
had many opinions as to what a PC should be like. His ideas
included using the new Intel 8086 16 bit processor for better performance,
and desiring the computer to have better graphics and several other features
not found in the current generation of PC's. IBM soon returned with the
admission that they were interested in building their own PC and were
considering using many of Gates' ideas. They
asked if Microsoft would be able to write a special version of Basic for this
PC project - and Microsoft readily agreed. This new generation PC would need
an operating system, so naturally Gates told IBM to contact his friend Gary Kildall
at Digital Research - who had written CP/M. Herein
lies one of the most interesting stories of the microcomputer revolution, but
briefly IBM never met with Killdall, and returned
to Microsoft still looking for an operating system. Wanting desperately
to be part of this new project, Microsoft committed to writing the operating
system also - although they had never written one before. . Microsoft
soon realized that they knew nothing about writing an operating system and
began to panic, but someone remembered talking to a Seattle hardware hacker named
Tim Patterson who worked for a local company named Seattle Computer Products.
He had written his own operating system for the 8086-based processor
and he had named it QDOS -
for quick and dirty operating system. Microsoft
ended up buying this operating system in what many have called the deal of the
century for a mere $ 50K, and we all know what impact IBM's new PC had on the world. Microsoft
also introduced the concept of licensing their software, as opposed to
selling it outright, which enabled them to become the world’s largest
software company. For Raw
Bytes, this is Frank Delaney “Frank
Delaney’s “History of the Microcomputer Revolution”
was written back in 1995, which was the 20th anniversary of the
PC.” And is available on his website, www.mtamicro.com 2005 now marks the 30th anniversary. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html (509)624-7230 |
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