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55-535: Gary Arlen Kildall ( / ˈ k ɪ l d ˌ ɔː l / ; May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994) was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur. During the 1970s, Kildall created the CP/M operating system among other operating systems and programming tools , and subsequently founded Digital Research, Inc. to market and sell his software products. In 1974 in Pacific Grove , Kildall demonstrated

110-652: A PhD , M.S. , Bachelor's degree in computer science, or other similar fields like Information and Computer Science (CIS), or a closely related discipline such as mathematics or physics . Computer scientists are often hired by software publishing firms, scientific research and development organizations where they develop the theories and computer model that allow new technologies to be developed. Computer scientists are also employed by educational institutions such as universities . Computer scientists can follow more practical applications of their knowledge, doing things such as software engineering. They can also be found in

165-440: A UUCP -based store and forward system to exchange emails and files between the various nodes and was planned to include TCP/IP support at a later point in time. According to Brian Halla, Intel's technical liaison to Digital Research in the 1970s, Gary Kildall showed him a VAX 11/780 running in his house generating a Coke bottle spinning. According to Halla, Kildall sold it a few months later to Pixar . Kildall self-described as

220-429: A " greaser " during high school, and his colleagues recall him as creative, easygoing, and adventurous. In addition to flying, he loved sports cars , auto racing , and boating , and had a lifelong love of the sea. I think I’ll make a cassette tape of the ‘IBM Flying Story.’ I’ll carry a few copies in my jacket to give out on occasion. There’s only one problem. I [will] tell this story [to someone], and after I’m done,

275-824: A bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1967 and a master's degree in Computer Science in 1968, both from the University of Washington . At one point, he had hoped to become a mathematics teacher. During his studies, Kildall became increasingly interested in computer technology and enrolled to attain a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Kildall fulfilled his draft obligation by teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California . Kildall briefly returned to UW and finished his doctorate in computer science in 1972. Intel lent him systems using

330-452: A format of (usually 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch) floppy disks which could typically hold 35-40 tracks of nine 512- byte (or 18 256-byte) sectors each. Only one side of the disc was used, although some users did discover that punching additional holes into the disc jacket would allow the creation of a "flippy" disc which could be manually turned over to store additional data on the reverse side. Single-sided disks began to become obsolete after

385-506: A gap must be left between sectors to allow a rewritten sector to be larger without over-writing the following sector. Commodore's Amiga used an unusual format which got closer to the disk's raw (unformatted) capacity by eliminating the gaps between sectors and simplifying the identification data. This meant that individual sectors could not be rewritten; the Amiga would simply rewrite the entire track. Formatted capacity numbers are based on

440-448: A hole). If the motor is spinning any slower than the highest acceptable speed, which is usually the case, the data will fit in fewer than 360 degrees, resulting in a gap at the end of the track. Additionally, if a sector were to be rewritten on a drive running faster than the drive was running when the track was formatted, the new data would be larger (occupy more degrees of rotation) than the original sector. Therefore, during formatting

495-442: A minute that [Bill] Gates made it 'big time' because of his technical savvy. Gary Kildall, Computer Connections Writing about Bill Gates, Kildall described him as "more of an opportunist than a technical type, and severely opinionated, even when the opinion he holds is absurd." In an appendix, he called DOS "plain and simple theft" because its first 26 system calls worked the same as CP/M's. He accused IBM of contriving

550-465: A modular real-time multiuser multitasking operating system ( RTOS ). After seeing a demonstration of the Apple Lisa , Kildall oversaw the creation of DRI's own graphical user interface , called GEM , it was introduced on February 28, 1985. Novell acquired DRI in 1991 in a deal that netted millions for Kildall. Kildall resigned as CEO of Digital Research on 28 June 1985, but remained chairman of

605-844: A play A Mild Concussion . Later, with Stewart Cheifet , a second version of the play was written under the title The Forgotten Computer Genius . The play looks at the final days of a computer genius. Computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science . Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on specific areas (such as algorithm and data structure development and design, software engineering , information theory , database theory , theoretical computer science , numerical analysis , programming language theory , compiler , computer graphics , computer vision , robotics , computer architecture , operating system ), their foundation

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660-638: A possible homicide," said police Sgt. Frank Sollecito. "I'm not going to flat-out say it's a homicide". Kildall's body was cremated . His remains were buried in Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park , in north Seattle. Following the announcement of Kildall's death, Bill Gates commented that he was "one of the original pioneers of the PC revolution" and "a very creative computer scientist who did excellent work. Although we were competitors, I always had tremendous respect for his contributions to

715-646: A weekly informational program that covered the latest developments in personal computing. Gary Kildall was born and grew up in Seattle , Washington , where his family operated a seamanship school. His father, Joseph Kildall, was a captain of Norwegian heritage. His mother Emma was of half Swedish descent, as Kildall's grandmother was born in Långbäck, Sweden, in Skellefteå Municipality , but emigrated to Canada at 23 years of age. Kildall earned

770-533: Is file-system and configuration specific and always lower than the formatted capacity, since the file system occupies a number of the available sectors for control structures as well. Most floppy disks used by PCs use the FAT12 file system format, which imposes certain practical defaults on the logical geometry in order to be recognizable by all operating systems. Sometimes disks may use a more exotic file system. SSDD originally referred to Single Sided, Double Density,

825-507: Is the theoretical study of computing from which these other fields derive. A primary goal of computer scientists is to develop or validate models, often mathematical, to describe the properties of computational systems ( processors , programs, computers interacting with people, computers interacting with other computers, etc.) with an overall objective of discovering designs that yield useful benefits (faster, smaller, cheaper, more precise, etc.). Most computer scientists are required to possess

880-409: Is used for magnetic recording). An additional hole is punched near one of the sector holes to identify the start of the track. A sensor in the drive detects the holes in the magnetic media as they align with a hole in the disk jacket. Data is generally written at a fixed number of bits per second, with only a very small percentage of variation due to component tolerances, so given the nominal speed that

935-405: Is used for sector identification and for gaps (empty spaces) between sectors and at the end of the track. In hard-sectored 8-inch and 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch formats, each track is divided into a particular number of sectors determined when the disk is manufactured. Holes are punched in the magnetic media to indicate where each sector should start (in an area closer to the center of the disk than

990-566: The 8008 and 8080 processors, and in 1973, he developed the first high-level programming language for microprocessors, called PL/M . For Intel he also wrote 8008 and 8080 instruction set simulators named INTERP/8 and INTERP/80 . He created CP/M the same year to enable the 8080 to control a floppy drive, combining for the first time all the essential components of a computer at the microcomputer scale. He demonstrated CP/M to Intel, but Intel had little interest and chose to market PL/M instead. In 1973 Kildall and Kathryn Strutynski developed

1045-548: The IMSAI 8080 , a popular clone of the Altair 8800 . As more manufacturers licensed CP/M, it became a de facto standard and had to support an increasing number of hardware variations. In response, Kildall pioneered the concept of a BIOS , a set of simple programs stored in the computer hardware (ROM or EPROM chip) that enabled CP/M to run on different systems without modification. CP/M's quick success took Kildall by surprise, and he

1100-614: The PL/I programming language for Data General . Also possible, the IBM representatives might have been annoyed that DRI had spent hours on what they considered a routine formality. According to Kildall, the IBM representatives took the same flight to Florida that night that he and Dorothy took for their vacation, and they negotiated further on the flight, reaching a handshake agreement. IBM lead negotiator Jack Sams insisted that he never met Gary, and one IBM colleague has confirmed that Sams said so at

1155-544: The Red Book developed by Sony and Phillips in 1980. In 1985 the CD-ROM was presented by Philips and Sony , the same year Activenture was renamed KnowledgeSet . In June 1985 Digital Research released The Electronic Encyclopedia , it was a CD-ROM version of Grolier 's Academic American Encyclopedia . It was the first computer encyclopedia , it included pictures in 1990 and audio and videos in 1992. The encyclopedia

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1210-656: The IBM PC on bootable floppy diskettes bundled with SpeedStart CP/M, a reduced version of CP/M-86 as a bootable runtime environment . IBM approached Digital Research in 1980, at Bill Gates ' suggestion, to negotiate the purchase of a forthcoming version of CP/M called CP/M-86 for the IBM PC . Gary had left initial negotiations to his wife, Dorothy, as he usually did, while he and colleague and developer of MP/M operating system Tom Rolander used Gary's private aeroplane to deliver software to manufacturer Bill Godbout . Before

1265-424: The IBM representatives would explain the purpose of their visit, they insisted that Dorothy sign a non-disclosure agreement . On the advice of DRI attorney Gerry Davis, Dorothy refused to sign the agreement without Gary's approval. Gary returned in the afternoon and tried to move the discussion with IBM forward, and accounts disagree on whether he signed the non-disclosure agreement, as well as whether he ever met with

1320-427: The IBM representatives. Various reasons have been given for the two companies failing to reach an agreement. DRI, which had only a few products, might have been unwilling to sell its main product to IBM for a one-time payment rather than its usual royalty -based plan. Dorothy might have believed that the company could not deliver CP/M-86 on IBM's proposed schedule, as the company was busy developing an implementation of

1375-522: The PC industry. His untimely death was very unfortunate and his work will be missed." In March 1995, Kildall was posthumously honored by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) for his contributions to the microcomputer industry: In April 2014, the city of Pacific Grove installed a commemorative plaque outside Kildall's former residence, which also served as the early headquarters of Digital Research. Steve Hauk wrote

1430-545: The PC project disputed the book's description of events, and Microsoft described it as "one-sided and inaccurate." In August 2016, Kildall's family made the first seven chapters of Computer Connections available as a free public download. On July 8, 1994, at the age of 52, Kildall sustained a head injury at the Franklin Street Bar & Grill, a biker bar in Monterey, California. The exact circumstances of

1485-486: The board. Kildall co-hosted a public television program produced by PBS called Computer Chronicles . It followed trends in personal computing. Gary co-hosted the program for seven years during the first eight seasons from 1983 to 1990. After this time the program continued through its 19th season, with the last episode aired on June 25, 2002. In 1984 Gary started another company, Activenture , which adapted optical disc technology for computer use, using as reference

1540-474: The company waned. He worked in various experimental and research projects, such as a version of CP/M with multitasking ( MP/M ), created by Digital Research developer Tom Rolander in 1979. Kildall also worked on an implementation of the Logo programming language . He hoped that Logo, an educational dialect of LISP , would supplant BASIC in education, but it did not. In 1985 Digital Research developed FlexOS ,

1595-489: The connection between the two is unclear. "Medical evidence of chronic alcoholism was found during the autopsy" Initial news reports and police investigation viewed Kildall's death as a possible homicide. According to the coroner's report, Kildall's fatal injury may have taken place "as a result of foul play," and the case was referred to the Monterey Police Department. "We're going to investigate it as

1650-539: The day off for a recreational flight. In later years, Kildall privately expressed bitter feelings about being overshadowed by Microsoft, and began suffering from alcoholism . Selling DRI to Novell had made Kildall a wealthy man, and he moved to the West Lake Hills suburb of Austin. His Austin house was a lakeside property, with stalls for several sports cars, and a video studio in the basement. Kildall owned and flew his own Learjet and had at least one boat on

1705-572: The decision to give the keynote speech to Bill Gates, a Harvard dropout who had donated to UW, but had never attended. In response, Kildall began writing a memoir, entitled Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry . The memoir, which Kildall sought to publish, expressed his frustration that people did not seem to value elegance in computer software. Don't think for

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1760-449: The disk rotates it is possible to calculate the number of degrees a given number of bytes will occupy when written. In practice the motor speed varies, especially from one drive to another, resulting in those bytes occupying more degrees of the track at high motor speeds or fewer degrees at low motor speeds. When a soft-sectored disk is low-level "formatted", each track is written with a number of bytes calculated to fit within 360 degrees at

1815-425: The disk sleeve to make them usable as flippy disks . A combination floppy disk and optical disc , known as a Floptical disk exists. The size of a 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (90 mm) disk, they are capable of holding close to 20.8 MB, but need a special drive. The formatted disk capacity is always less than the "raw" unformatted capacity specified by the disk's manufacturer, because some portion of each track

1870-463: The field of information technology consulting , and may be seen as a type of mathematician, given how much of the field depends on mathematics. Computer scientists employed in industry may eventually advance into managerial or project leadership positions. Employment prospects for computer scientists are said to be excellent. Such prospects seem to be attributed, in part, to very rapid growth in computer systems design and related services industry, and

1925-534: The first working prototype of CP/M. Together with his invention of the BIOS (Basic Input Output System), his operating system allowed a microprocessor-based computer to communicate with a disk storage. Kildall was among the earliest individuals to recognize microprocessors as fully capable computers. He is considered a pioneer of the personal computer revolution . During the 1980s, Kildall appeared on PBS as co-host (with Stewart Cheifet ) of Computer Chronicles ,

1980-425: The hardware platform. Variables included the size of media (nominal 8-inch, 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch, 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch and others), encoding of data on the media (FM, MFM, M²FM, GCR), the number of disk tracks, one or two sides, the number of sectors in each track, and hard- or soft-sectoring. Even media that was physically interchangeable between two systems might not have been usable owing to particulars of

2035-404: The highest expected motor speed. Special bit patterns are written right before the location where a sector should start, and serve as identifiers, similar to the punched holes used by hard-sectored disks. Thus, the full constellation of punched holes is not needed, and only a single hole is retained, to indicate the start of the track ( 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch disks use an alignment pin rather than

2090-466: The injury are unclear. Various sources have claimed he fell from a chair, fell down steps, or was assaulted because he had entered the establishment wearing Harley-Davidson leathers. Harold Evans, in They Made America , states that Kildall "stumbled and hit his head" inside the premises, and "was found on the floor." Following the injury, Kildall was discharged from the hospital twice. He

2145-465: The introduction of IBM PC DOS 1.1 in 1982, which added support for double-side diskette drives with capacity of 320 KB to the IBM  5150 PC . In 1983 PC DOS 2.0 pushed the formatting capacity to 180 KB single-sided or 360 KB double-sided by utilizing 9 instead of only 8 sectors per track. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, many different disk formats were used, depending on

2200-646: The lake. While in Austin he also participated in volunteer efforts to assist children with HIV/AIDS . He also owned a mansion with a panoramic ocean view in Pebble Beach, California , near the headquarters of DRI. In 1992, Kildall was invited to the University of Washington computer science program's 25th anniversary event. As a distinguished graduate of the program, Kildall was disappointed when asked to attend simply as an audience member. He also took offense at

2255-476: The language PL/M to produce CP/M , one of the first operating systems for personal computers , they used as reference their experience with the IBM mainframe computers and the operating system VM . Kildall and his wife Dorothy established a company, originally called "Intergalactic Digital Research" (later renamed as Digital Research, Inc. ), to market the operating system CP/M through advertisements in hobbyist magazines. Digital Research licensed CP/M for

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2310-442: The logical format used. GCR was also used on some platforms, but typically in a "double" density form. 8- and 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch floppy disks were available with both soft sectoring and hard sectoring . Because of the similarity in magnetic characteristics between some disk types, it was possible to use an incorrectly certified disk in a soft sectored drive. Quad density 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch disks were rare, so it

2365-573: The operating system options was PC DOS, priced at US$ 40. PC DOS was seen as a practically necessary option; most software titles required it and without it the IBM PC was limited to its built-in Cassette BASIC . CP/M-86 shipped a few months later six times more expensive at US$ 240, and sold poorly against DOS and enjoyed far less software support. With the loss of the IBM deal, Gary and Dorothy found themselves under pressure to bring in more experienced management, and Gary's influence over

2420-408: The price difference between PC DOS and CP/M-86 in order to marginalize CP/M. Kildall had completed a rough draft of the manuscript by the end of 1993, but the full text remains unpublished. Journalist Harold Evans used the memoir as a primary source for a chapter about Kildall in the 2004 book They Made America , concluding that Microsoft had robbed Kildall of his inventions. IBM veterans from

2475-580: The resulting number of logical sectors and the byte payload they can carry, that is, they depend on the physical parameters and modulation, but are independent of a particular file system. Sometimes floppies are superformatted to use more tracks or sectors per track to accommodate slightly more data. Some floppy-based Linux distributions utilize such techniques. For comparison purposes, formatted capacities given in this section assume standard disk geometries as they are supported by common operating systems in their default configuration. The maximum usable capacity

2530-495: The same person [will say], ‘Yeah, but did you go flying and blow IBM off?’ Gary Kildall, Computer Connections Although Kildall preferred to leave the IBM affair in the past and to be known for his work before and afterward, he continually faced comparisons between himself and Bill Gates, as well as fading memories of his contributions. A legend grew around the fateful IBM-DRI meeting, encouraged by Gates and various journalists, suggesting that Kildall had irresponsibly taken

2585-435: The software publishing industry, which are projected to be among the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy. Floppy disk format Different floppy disk types had different recording characteristics, with varying magnetic coercivity (measured in oersteds , or in modern SI units in amperes per meter), ferrite grain size, and tracks per inch (TPI). TPI was not a part of the physical manufacturing process; it

2640-591: The task of finding a usable operating system, and a few weeks later he proposed using the operating system 86-DOS —an independently developed operating system that implemented Kildall's CP/M API —from Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Paul Allen negotiated a licensing deal with SCP. Allen had 86-DOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as IBM PC DOS . Kildall obtained a copy of PC DOS, examined it, and concluded that it infringed on CP/M. When he asked Gerry Davis what legal options were available, Davis told him that intellectual property law for software

2695-417: The time. He accepted that someone else in his group might have been on the same flight, and noted that he flew back to Seattle to talk with Microsoft again. Sams related the story to Gates, who had already agreed to provide a BASIC interpreter and several other programs for the PC. Gates' impression of the story was that Gary capriciously "went flying", as he would later tell reporters. Sams left Gates with

2750-430: Was a certification of how closely tracks of data could be spaced on the medium safely. The term density has a double meaning for floppy disks. Originally, single density and double density indicated a difference in logical encoding on the same type of physical media: FM for single, and MFM for double. Subsequent use of the term "density" referred to physical characteristics of the media, with MFM assumed to be

2805-507: Was acquired by Banta Corporation , its last CD-ROM version was published in 2003. . Kildall's final business venture, known as Prometheus Light and Sound (PLS) and based in Austin, Texas , developed a modular PBX communication system that integrated land-line telephones with mobile phones (called "Intelliphone") to reduce the then-high online costs and to remotely connect with home appliances. Prometheus Light and Sound system included

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2860-425: Was not clear enough to sue. Instead Kildall only threatened IBM with legal action, and IBM responded with a proposal to offer CP/M-86 as an option for the PC in return for a release of liability. Kildall accepted, believing that IBM's new system (like its previous personal computers) would not be a significant commercial success. When the IBM PC was introduced, IBM sold its operating system as an unbundled option. One of

2915-614: Was not uncommon to use higher quality double density disks, which were usually capable of sustaining the 96 TPI formatting of quad density, in drives such as the Commodore 8050 . Disks were available in both single and double sided forms, with double sided formats providing twice the storage capacity. Like TPI, "double sided" was mostly a certification indicator, as the magnetic media was usually recordable on both sides. Many (but not all) certified "double sided" 8- and 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch floppies had an index hole on both sides of

2970-547: Was pronounced dead at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula , on July 11, 1994. An autopsy, conducted on July 12, did not conclusively determine the cause of death. Evans states that Kildall's head injury triggered a cerebral hemorrhage , causing a blood clot to form inside the skull. A CP/M Usenet FAQ states that Kildall was concussed due to his injury, and died of a heart attack ;

3025-456: Was slow to update it for high density floppy disks and hard disk drives . After hardware manufacturers talked about creating a rival operating system, Kildall started a rush project to develop CP/M 2 . By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M ran on 3000 different computer models and DRI had US$ 5.4 million in yearly revenues. Between 1983 and 1984, Digital Research offered several of their business and educational applications for

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