BIOS Milestones

• Early 1970ies: Gary Kildallג€™s 50 mile commute

  • Intelג€™s 8080, Interp/80, PL/M
  • Intelג€™s Intellec-8 (microprocessor + memory + terminal port ג€“ storage)
  • IBMג€™s (8 inch, $500) floppy disk
  • John Torode ג€“ floppy controller, Gary Kildall ג€“ CP/M (Control Program/Monitor)

• 1976: Intel loses interest, Imsai (and a 100 other companies) need an OS

  • Kildall splits CP/M into hardware-independent part and hardware-specific BIOS

• Around 1980: IBM in Boca Raton make the PC (Acorn) ג€“ in 1 year

  • Broke every IBM rule by making an open system, published all specs
  • Published ג€“ and copyrighted! - BIOS code

• 1981: Rod Canion, Jim Harris, and Bill Murto at Houstonג€™s House of Pies

  • Business plans on placemat: Mexican restaurant, build HDs, car key finder
  • Winner: reverse engineer BIOS to make a 100% IBM-compatible PC
  • Investment: 15 senior programmers, several months, $1MM

• Around 1982: Phoenix sells IBM-compatible BIOS chips for $25