Gary Kildall
Born	May 19, 1942 Seattle, Washington
Died	July 11, 1994 Monterey, California
Occupation	Computer scientist
Spouse	Dorothy McEwen Kildall Karen Kildall

Gary Arlen Kildall (May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994) was an early American microcomputer entrepreneur who created the CP/M operating system and founded Digital Research, Inc. Kildall was one of the first people to see microprocessors as fully capable computers rather than equipment controllers and to organize a company around this concept.^[1] Although he is mainly remembered in connection with the 1980 events that led to CP/M's decline and the rise of Microsoft, his career in computing spanned more than two decades. Image File history File links GaryKildall. ... May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King Incorporated December 2, 1869 Mayor Greg Nickels (NP) Area    - City 369. ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Nickname: The Cradle of History, Californias First City Location of Monterey, California County Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala Area    - City 11. ... Computer science (informally: CS or compsci) is, in its most general sense, the study of computation and information processing, both in hardware and in software. ... May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... The Commodore 64 was one of the most popular microcomputers of its era, and is the best selling home computer of all time. ... An entrepreneur (a loanword from French introduced and first defined by an Irish economist named Richard Cantillon) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. ... CP/M is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... Digital Research, Inc. ... A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a programmable digital electronic component that incorporates the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single semiconducting integrated circuit (IC). ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... Microsoft is one of few companies engaging itself in the console wars Where they are up against sony, nintendo, and of course sharps new console which may cause a threat. ...

Early life

Gary Kildall was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington, where his family operated a seafaring school. He was a descendant of Norwegian immigrants, Norwegian Americans. Gary attended the University of Washington hoping to become a mathematics teacher, but became increasingly interested in computer technology. After receiving his degree, he fulfilled a draft obligation to the United States Navy by teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.^[2] Being within a few hours' drive of Silicon Valley, Kildall heard about the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He bought one of the processors and began writing experimental programs for it. To learn more about the processors, he went to work at Intel as a consultant on his days off. Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King Incorporated December 2, 1869 Mayor Greg Nickels (NP) Area    - City 369. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The Norwegian-Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... USN redirects here. ... The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, United States is a graduate school operated by the United States Navy. ... Nickname: The Cradle of History, Californias First City Location of Monterey, California County Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala Area    - City 11. ... A view of downtown San Jose, the self-proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley. ... The Intel 4004, a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corp. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... A consultant (from the latin consultus meaning legal expert) is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise such as accountancy, technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance, public affairs, communication, or more esoteric areas of knowledge, for example engineering of different kinds...

Kildall briefly returned to UW and finished his doctorate in computer science in 1972, then returned to NPS. He published a paper that introduced the theory of data-flow analysis used today in optimizing compilers,^[3] and he continued to experiment with microcomputers and the emerging technology of floppy disks. Intel lent him systems using the 8008 and 8080 processors, and in 1973 he developed the first high-level programming language for microprocessors, called PL/M.^[2] 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.^[2] Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Data-flow analysis is a technique for gathering information about the possible set of values calculated at various points in a computer program. ... Compiler optimization techniques are optimization techniques that have been programmed into a compiler. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... Intel 8008 The Intel 8008 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April, 1972. ... Intel C8080A processor. ... A high-level programming language is a programming language that, in comparison to low-level programming languages, may be more abstract, easier to use, or more portable across platforms. ... The PL/M programming language (an acronym of Programming Language for Microcomputers) is a medium-level language developed by MAA (later Digital Research) in 1972 on behalf of Intel for its microprocessors. ...

Business career

CP/M

Kildall and his wife Dorothy established a company, originally called "Intergalactic Digital Research," to market CP/M through advertisements in hobbyist magazines. Digital Research licensed CP/M for 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 that enabled CP/M to run on different systems without modification.^[2] The IMSAI 8080 microcomputer, manufactured by IMS Associates, Inc. ... Altair 8800 The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080A CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold over ten times that many in the... De facto is a Latin expression that means in fact or in practice. It is commonly used as opposed to de jure (meaning by law) when referring to matters of law or governance or technique (such as standards), that are found in the common experience as created or developed without... BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System also incorrectly known as Basic Integrated Operating System. ...

CP/M's quick success took Kildall by surprise, and he was slow to update it for high density floppy disks and hard disks. After hardware manufacturers talked about creating a rival operating system, Kildall started a rush project to develop CP/M 2.^[4] By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M ran on 3000 different computer models and DRI had $5.4 million in yearly revenues.^[2] Floppy disk format and density refer to the logical and physical layout of data stored on a floppy disk. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ...

IBM dealings

IBM approached Digital Research in 1980, at Bill Gates's suggestion, to license a version of CP/M called CP/M-86 for its upcoming IBM PC. Gary knew about the meeting, but he missed the first part while he and colleague Tom Rolander used Kildall's private plane to deliver software to manufacturer Bill Godbout.^[1][5] Instead the IBM representatives met with Dorothy, who managed the company's business affairs. Before explaining the purpose of their visit they insisted that DRI accept a standard non-disclosure agreement that required it not to reveal anything about the meeting and allowed IBM unfettered use of any information that DRI might disclose. On the advice of DRI attorney Gerry Davis, Dorothy refused to sign the agreement without Gary's approval. Gary returned in the afternoon and signed the agreement so negotiations could go forward, but accounts disagree about whether he personally met with the IBM representatives or was merely at DRI while the negotiations were in progress.^[6] International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... For other persons named Bill Gates, see Bill Gates (disambiguation). ... CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also called a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), confidentiality agreement or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties which outlines confidential materials or knowledge the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict from generalized use. ...

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 license 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 the PL/I programming language for Data General.^[7] Or, 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 an IBM colleague recalled that he said so at the time. He accepted that someone else in his group might have been on the same flight, but noted that he flew back to Seattle to talk with Microsoft again.^[5] A royalty is a sum paid to the creator of performance art for the use of that art. ... PL/I (Programming Language One, pronounced pee el one) is an imperative computer programming language designed for scientific, engineering, and business applications. ... Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Sams related the story to Gates, who had already agreed to provide a BASIC interpreter and several other programs for the PC. Gates's impression of the story was that Gary capriciously "went flying," as he would later tell reporters.^[8] Sams left Gates with the task of obtaining an operating system, so he suggested using the CP/M clone QDOS from Seattle Computer Products. Paul Allen negotiated a licensing deal with SCP, had QDOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as PC-DOS.^[6] Screenshot of Atari BASIC, an early BASIC language for small computers. ... QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) was the working title for 86-DOS, an operating system developed and marketed by Seattle Computer Products for its Intel 8086-based computer kit. ... Seattle Computer Products (SCP) is a Seattle, Washington computer hardware company. ... Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American entrepreneur whose fortune was founded when he formed Microsoft with Bill Gates. ... IBM PC-DOS was one of the three major operating systems that dominated the personal computer market from about 1985 to 1995. ...

Kildall obtained a copy of PC-DOS, examined it, and concluded that it was a rip-off of CP/M. He took this information to Gerry Davis, but Davis told him that intellectual property law for software was not clear enough to pursue legal action (Davis later said that under current case law, he would have sued).^[9] Instead Kildall confronted IBM with the threat of legal action, and IBM agreed to offer CP/M-86 as an option for the PC in return for a release of liability.^[10] When the IBM PC was introduced, IBM sold the operating system as an unbundled (but necessary) option. One of the operating system options was PC-DOS, priced at US$40. A new port of CP/M, called CP/M-86, was offered a few months later and priced at $240, but sold poorly against DOS.^[1] CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. ...

Later work

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 the company waned. He worked in various experimental and research projects, such as a version of CP/M with multitasking and an implementation of the Logo programming language.^[2] He hoped that Logo, an educational dialect of LISP, would supplant BASIC in education, but this did not happen.^[11] After seeing a demonstration of the Apple Lisa, Kildall oversaw the creation of DRI's own graphical user interface, called GEM Desktop. In 1983 he started hosting a public television program on the side, called Computer Chronicles, that followed trends in personal computing. Multitasking may refer to any of the following: Computer multitasking - the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks by a computers central processing unit. ... Logo turtle graphic The Logo programming language is a functional programming language. ... Lisp is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive fully-parenthesized syntax. ... The Apple Lisa was a revolutionary personal computer designed at Apple Computer during the early 1980s. ... A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced gooey), is a particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer which employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to represent the information and actions available to the user. ... GEM redirects here. ... Public broadcasting (also known as public service broadcasting or PSB) is the dominant form of broadcasting around the world, where radio, television, and potentially other electronic media outlets receive funding from the public. ... Hosted by Stewart Cheifet (with co-host Gary Kildall in the 1980s), Computer Chronicles was the worlds most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the personal computer revolution. ...

Novell acquired DRI in 1991 in a deal that netted millions for Kildall. He started a new company, KnowledgeSet, which adapted optical disk technology for computer use and produced Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia.^[6] Novell was also the name of a road bicycle racing team. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In computing, sound reproduction, and video, an optical disc is flat, circular, usually polycarbonate disc whereon data is stored. ...

Personal life

Kildall's colleagues recall him as creative, easygoing, and adventurous. In addition to flying, he loved sports cars, auto racing, and boating. He had a lifelong love of the sea. With his profits from the Novell acquisition he purchased a lakeside ranch in Austin, Texas and maintained an oceanside house in California. In Austin he volunteered to assist children with AIDS.^[1][2] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Racing cars redirects here. ... Boating on the Royal Military Canal at Hythe. ... Nickname: Live Music Capital of the World Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Country United States State Texas County Travis County Mayor Will Wynn Area    - City 669. ... For information on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome , see AIDS For the cues given by riders to their horse, see riding aids. ...

They also note that Kildall's interest was primarily in inventing and writing programs that mattered to him, and not in building an industry or a large company.^[1][10] Although he 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 and fading memories of his contributions. A legend grew around the fateful IBM-DRI meeting (encouraged principally by Gates), suggesting that he had irresponsibly taken the day off for a recreational flight, and he tired of constantly having to refute it.^[7] In later years he had occasional private outbursts of bitterness over being upstaged by Microsoft.^[2]

Kildall was particularly annoyed when the University of Washington asked him, as a distinguished graduate, to attend their computer science program anniversary in 1992, but gave the keynote speech to college dropout Gates. In response he started writing his memoir, Computer Connections.^[9] The unpublished memoir expressed his frustration that people did not seem to value elegance in software,^[11] and it said of Gates, "He is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry." In an appendix he called DOS "plain and simple theft" because its first 26 system calls worked the same as CP/M's.^[12] Harold Evans used the memoir as a source for a chapter about Kildall in the 2004 book They Made America, concluding that Microsoft had robbed Kildall of his inventions.^[7] IBM veterans from the PC project disputed the book's description of events, and Microsoft described it as "one-sided and inaccurate."^[9] In computing, a system call is the mechanism used by an application program to request service from the operating system, or more specifically, the operating system kernel. ... Harold Evans Sir Harold Matthew Evans (born June 28 1928) is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. ...

Death

On July 8, 1994, Kildall sustained an injury at a Monterey restaurant and refused treatment. The circumstances of the injury remain unclear, with various sources claiming he fell from a chair, fell down steps, or was assaulted. He died three days later at the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula, and the coroner's report identified the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head consistent with a fall. There was also evidence that he had experienced a heart attack, but an autopsy did not conclusively determine the cause of death.^[12][13][14] He was buried in Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in North Seattle. The Monterey Peninsula in central California is comprised of the cities of Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, and the private community of Pebble Beach. ... A coroner is either the presiding officer of a special court, a medical officer or an officer of law responsible for investigating deaths, particularly those happening under unusual circumstances. ... In medicine, blunt force trauma is a type of physical trauma caused by impact from a blunt object. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

Recognition

In March 1995, Kildall was posthumously honored by the Software Publishers Association (now the Software and Information Industry Association) for his contributions to the microcomputer industry:^[2] To meet Wikipedias quality standards and conform with our NPOV policy, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

• Introduction of operating systems with preemptive multitasking and windowing capabilities and menu-driven user interfaces.
• Creation of the first diskette track buffering schemes, read-ahead algorithms, file directory caches, and RAM disk emulators.
• Introduction of a binary recompiler in the 1980s.
• The first programming language and first compiler specifically for microprocessors.
• The first microprocessor disk operating system, which eventually sold a quarter million copies.
• The first computer interface for video disks to allow automatic nonlinear playback, presaging today's interactive multimedia.
• The file system and data structures for the first consumer CD-ROM.
• The first successful open system architecture by segregating system-specific hardware interfaces in a set of BIOS routines, making the whole third-party software industry possible.

At the time 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."^[1] Pre-emptive multitasking is a form of multitasking in which processes are not allowed to take an indefinitely long time to complete execution in the CPU. Each process, in turn, is granted a portion of CPU time (usually called a time slice, on the order of milliseconds). ... An open system may refer to more than one thing: In computing, an open system (computing) is a computer operating system that provides interoperability, portability or both, particularly Unix systems. ... BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System also incorrectly known as Basic Integrated Operating System. ... For other persons named Bill Gates, see Bill Gates (disambiguation). ...

References

Hosted by Stewart Cheifet (with co-host Gary Kildall in the 1980s), Computer Chronicles was the worlds most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the personal computer revolution. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days remaining. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... BusinessWeek is a business magazine published by McGraw-Hill. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

External links

• Digital Research tribute to Dr. Kildall
• "Kildall, Industry Pioneer" in Microprocessor Report vol 8, no. 10, August 1, 1994 (pdf format)
• Internet archive of defunct Digital Research website
• The Gary Kildall Legacy by Sol Libes
• Computer Chronicles - Gary Kildall Special. Originally broadcast in 1995.