CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/kildall/garymem1

Text File | 1994-08-22 | 6.6 KB | 151 lines

        PC pioneer Kildall dies in Monterey
        By Rory J. O'Connor

        Kildall lost to Gates with IBM
        Personal computer giant remembered for deal he didn't make

    Personal computer pioneer Gary Kildall, who but for a single
    failed business deal might have enjoyed the wealth and fame of
    Bill Gates, died Monday night in a Monterey hospital at age
    52.

    Kildall was admitted late Sunday to the Community Hospital of
    the Monterey Peninsula. He died around 9 p.m. Monday, said Jean
    Tierney, the hospital's administrative supervisor.  She said
    the hospital did not know the cause of death.

    Kildall apparently was taken to the hospital after suffering a
    concussion in a fall, said Thomas Rolander, a longtime friend
    and former business associate of Kildall. While an autopsy
    report is still incomplete, Rolander said evidence indicates
    Kildall suffered a fatal heart attack.  It is unclear if the
    two conditions were related.

    Kildall's career spans the history of the personal computer,
    which he was instrumental in popularizing in the 1970s.

    "Gary's technical contributions in the beginning days of
    microcomputing were order-of-magnitude enhancements to the
    capabilities with which we were working," said Jim Warren, a
    Woodside consultant who played a key role in early
    microcomputing.  "The were enhancements both in technical power
    and in equitable consumer-oriented pricing and support
    practices."

    In 1972, Kildall was an associate professor of computer science
    at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and a
    consultant for Intel Corp., which the year before had created
    the world's first microprocessor chip. Kildall wrote a version
    of the PL/I programming language that worked on the chip, the
    Intel 4004.  A year later, frustrated with the difficulty of
    making the 4004 work with disk drives and other computer
    components, he wrote the first personal computer operating
    system.

    A PC Breakthrough

    The program, called Control Program for Micro-Computers and
    shortened to CP/M, offered hobbyists a way to use their
    microcomputers, as they were then called, in the same way as
    larger minicomputers and mainframes. Before, the computers were
    programmed in laborious ways, like flipping switches on the
    front panel of the machines. With CP/M, they could type
    instructions on a keyboard, store data on a floppy disk or tape
    recorder and view results on a screen or printer.

    Digital Research, the company started in 1976 by Kildasll and
    his first wife, Dorth McEwen, sold CP/M for $75 each.  Kildall,
    who disliked business, said in a 1981 interview that he hoped
    "just to support my computer habits" with the proceeds.

    But the typical minicomputer operating system at the time sold
    for at least $10,000, and Intel's own operating system for
    microcomputers cost $800.  CP/M soon became the standard
    operating system for personal computers, which could be bought
    for as little as a thousand dollars.  By 1981, Kildall was one
    of the best known figures in the $2 billion personal computer
    business, and his $10 million company had sold 250,000 copies
    of CP/M.

    Negotiated with IBM

    However, Kildall is probably best remembered for being on the
    losing end of one of the biggest deals in computer history.

    In 1980, IBM contacted Digital Research, hoping to persuatde it
    to produce a new version of CP/M for the personal computer IBM
    was secretly developing.  Kildall didn't think much of IBM"s
    chances but met with the company anyway.

    "IBM wanted to take the market away from Apple, and they looked
    at them and saw that the SoftCard (a CP/M add-in card for the
    Apple II) was an important part of it," Kildall said in a 1991
    interview.

    Negotiations went badly, Rolander said. IBM wanted Digital
    Research to sign a non-disclosure agreement but refused to sign
    one in return.  IBM wanted to pay a flat fee for CP/M, with no
    royalties, and change the software's name.

    Silicon Valley legend has it that Kildall, a passionate private
    pilot, missed a crucial meeting because he decided to go flying
    instead. While Kildall did fly that morning, Rolander said, he
    attended the afternoon meeting.

    IBM decided to hedge its bets.  During a visit to tiny
    Microsoft Corp., to obtain a version of its BASIC programming
    language, IBM inquired if the company also could provide an
    operating system.

    Microsoft moves in

    Even though he didn't have one, Microsoft founder Bill Gates
    readily agreed to IBM's request. He bought a CP/M clone called
    DOS from Seattle Computer Products, a company run by a friend
    of Gates, for $250,000.  That program became MS-DOS, proably
    the most widely used software in the world, and helped turn
    Gates into a billionaire.

    Kildall had earlier sued Seattle Computer Products for
    copyright infringement. When he confronted IBM with the fact,
    IBM responded that it would agree to license CP/M as well -- if
    Kildall agreed never to sue.  He did, only to discover when the
    IBM PC was introduced that the price of DOS was $40, while the
    price of CP/M-86 was $200 more.

    "It was only through inadequately sharp business hustling that
    MS-DOS took the IBM cake when, by rights, CP/M should have done
    so," Warren said.

    But hard-nosed business was not Kildall's style.

    "Basicly I am a gadget-oriented person," Kildall said in 1981.
    "I like to work with gadgets, dials and knobs. I'm not a very
    competitive person.  I'm forced into it."

    Kildasll remained active in the industry until his death. He
    was Digital Research chairman until 1991, when Novell Inc.
    bought the company. He started an early multimedia company in
    Monterey in 1985, and later moved to Austin, Texas, to persue
    the field. He recently returned to Monterey and spent the last
    year and a half writing an unpublished book on the computer
    industry called "Computer Connections."

    Kildall was born in Seattle on May 19, 1942, and studied
    computer science at the University of Washington, eventually
    earning a Ph.D.  He then took his post at the Naval
    Postgraduate School.

    Kildall met McEwen while in high school. The two married in
    1963 and were divorced 20 years later. Kildall married his
    second wife, Karen, in 1986.  They were recently divorced.

    Kildall is survived by two children; Scott, of San Fransisco,
    and Kristin, of Seattle; his mother, Emma; and a sister, Patti
    Guberlet, both of Seattle.

    Kildall, who was also race car enthusiast who collected and
    rebuilt Grand Prix cars, will be cremated after a memorial
    service later this week.  Details are incomplete.