It shouldn't be a big surprise that the
creation or software also went in large but distinguishable steps. Compared
with hardware there were fewer developments that went parallel or overlapping.
In rare cases developments were reinvented sometimes because the development
or invention was not published, even prohibited to be made public (war, secrecy
acts etc.) or became known at the same time and after (legal)discussions the
"other" party won the honors.
Birth of “Software” and the Interactive Minicomputer
According to Jeffery R. Yost, the term “software” was created in the late 1950s and was soon adopted throughout the industry (2011). Coined by statistician John Tukey, the term became a catchall, user-friendly term for the work of computer programmers who were using terminology ranging from “computer program” to “code.” The America Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy describes software as “[t]he programs and instructions that run a computer, as opposed to the actual physical machinery and devices that compose the hardware.” Meanwhile, The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing adds that software is divided into two primary types: system software and program applications. System software includes general program execution processes such as compilers and, most recognizably, the disk operating system (DOS), which has evolved in form in IBM PC-style computers within the last two decades from the ubiquitous Microsoft DOS prompt (MS-DOS) to stylish Windows-based platforms from Microsoft 2000 to Windows Vista. Similarly, Apple has seen countless new releases from the Apple DOS 3.1 of 1977 to the OS X series of recent years. Program applications include everything else, from gaming to multimedia to scientific applications. Finally, software combines lines of source code written by humans with the work of compilers and assemblers in executing machine code.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955, a project called TX-O was given to Ken Olsen. The project hoped to develop smaller research computers out of tiny, powerful transistor technology. MIT programmer Wesley Clark designed the TX-O and with Olsen’s methodical and persistent management helped develop the foundation of Olsen’s dream: “a reliable computer…accessible by one person, inexpensive and low powered, but…compact, fast, and exciting” . After MIT, Olsen and his assistant Harlan Anderson obtained venture capital to found the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to develop interactive minicomputers to sell on the open market. Computer models such as DEC’s Programmed Data Processor series used a concept called “open architecture” to allow personalized software to run everything from submarines to refineries to neon displays at Times Square. DEC used the millions of dollars gained by going public in 1966 to enter into the field of networking by developing “standardized technologies and communication protocols.” IBM machines didn’t have the networking capacity other companies had begun to develop, resulting in the loss of most of its market share. It re-entered the playing field in 1976 by developing minicomputers of its own, entering into a field that so many had not believed in: the personal computer.
Advanced Hardware for Complex Applications
As early as 1939, scientists such as William Shockley theorized that diminutive semiconductors would replace vacuum tubes. Indeed, all of modern electronics is based on Shockley’s ideas. Semiconductors can handle electronic pulses at the rate of billions of times per second, instead of the 10,000-times-persecond speed of the clunky and precarious vacuum tubes. Fairchild Semiconductor entered the market to compete with Shockley Semiconductor, and soon Fairchild became known for an innovation in semiconductors that is now familiar around the world: the use of silicon.
Silicon, “a commonplace mineral that constitutes 90 percent of the earth’s surface” was first used by Fairchild for U.S. Air Force rockets in transistors that needed to withstand intense heat. Additional elements were combined with silicon on flattened transistors to create the first integrated circuits capable of handling multiple devices and increasingly complex software applications. “Silicon Valley” was born as innumerable high-tech companies emerged on the scene, congregating in at the southern end of California's San Francisco Bay area. Perhaps most notably, Integrated Electronics, or Intel, was founded and new advances in memory chips and microprocessors allowed computers to handle software light years more complex than the single mathematical computations of the original mainframes
The Innovators of the Digital Age
Microsoft's MS-DOS was directly modeled on a now lesser-known operating system called CP/M that was developed by University of Washington graduate Gary Kildall’s Digital Research (DRI). Kildall’s work was essential to Bill Gates and Microsoft (which was originally founded to sell the Beginners’ All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming language interpreter for hobbyists to write their own programs), but so were the early personal computer developments of Apple and its subsequent graphical user interface (GUI) that preceded Windows. It is Kildall’s work, nevertheless, that truly shaped Microsoft and much about modern computing. Evans theorizes that had Kildall had his way, the personal computer industry would have had access to multitasking windows-style platforms much sooner and the entire industry would be much more advanced today. Still, Kildall is attributed with the ideas that were “the genesis of the whole third-party software industry”.
Gary Kildall’s style of programming helped drive the transition from mechanical computing into digital computing. Kildall developed open language programming years before IBM’s PC, and a number of months before Apple. In short, before microcomputers even existed, Kildall authored a programming language “for a microcomputer operating system and the first floppy disk operating system” . Intel’s microprocessors were already running everything from microwaves to watches, but Kildall imagined them in home computers running software that would drive networks and wouldn’t be bogged down by hardware compatibility issues. His Programming Language for Microcomputers (PL/M) evolved into the Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M), which contained the first PC prompt, wherein Kildall could open and store files in directories--work that is now down seemingly automatically as users click-and-drag files through virtual space on the computer desktop.
Next, Kildall’s basic input/output system (BIOS) could be easily changed by programmers to adapt to their specific hardware. Kildall’s software advancements were easily adapted into clone systems, though Kildall had largely retained licensing rights to his software through encoded copyright and encryption techniques. One operating system, however, Tim Patterson’s DOS, or the Quick ’n’ Dirty Operating System (QDOS), was developed for Rod Brock’s Seattle Computer Products. QDOS, according to Evans, “was yet another one of the rip-offs of the CP/M design” that would not have necessarily mattered had IBM’s business arrangements not aligned with those of Bill Gates. Spurred by the success of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s Apple products from the late 1970s and 1980s, IBM entered the field of microcomputers. Bill Gates seized the opportunity of Kildall’s delayed CP/M-86 (being designed for the faster Intel chip IBM had decided upon) and purchased Patterson’s operating system in order to strike a deal .
The trouble was, Kildall had already made arrangements with IBM and he thought he had successfully negotiated CP/M a share of the market upon the release of IBM’s new personal computer in 1981. But the final price point of CP/M was six times that of Microsoft’s PC-DOS, effectively flushing CP/M out of the market. Kildall had been betrayed. Ironically, only Kildall knew the limitations of CP/M and PC-DOS. His intentions for multitasking operating software would have revolutionized the industry at that time, but the IBM-Microsoft partnership dominated the American market and they evolved at their own pace. Meanwhile, Kildall kept his operation afloat with his European offices, which embraced the multitasking capacities of his MP/M OS.
While Kildall went on to innovate in areas from CD-ROMs to computer networking, DRI combined the graphic display technology of Atari with the expertise of former Microsoft programmer Kay Nishi and cloned the single-tasking MS-DOS with their DR-DOS. Upon entering the market, DR-DOS not only drove down Microsoft’s price point, but also fixed a number of MS-DOS bugs. This move helped lead to Novell’s acquisition of DRI in 1991 for $120 million. Gates missed the opportunity to acquire DRI for $10 million a few years earlier but, oddly enough, his investment in the ideas of Steve Jobs in 1996 helped Apple enter successful new fields of digital innovation such as the iPod and music downloading software, a field that, of course, Microsoft soon entered. Perhaps most importantly, Microsoft proved the power of owning the operating system. After years of working with IBM as the provider of the software for their hardware, Microsoft surpassed IBM
Birth of “Software” and the Interactive Minicomputer
According to Jeffery R. Yost, the term “software” was created in the late 1950s and was soon adopted throughout the industry (2011). Coined by statistician John Tukey, the term became a catchall, user-friendly term for the work of computer programmers who were using terminology ranging from “computer program” to “code.” The America Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy describes software as “[t]he programs and instructions that run a computer, as opposed to the actual physical machinery and devices that compose the hardware.” Meanwhile, The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing adds that software is divided into two primary types: system software and program applications. System software includes general program execution processes such as compilers and, most recognizably, the disk operating system (DOS), which has evolved in form in IBM PC-style computers within the last two decades from the ubiquitous Microsoft DOS prompt (MS-DOS) to stylish Windows-based platforms from Microsoft 2000 to Windows Vista. Similarly, Apple has seen countless new releases from the Apple DOS 3.1 of 1977 to the OS X series of recent years. Program applications include everything else, from gaming to multimedia to scientific applications. Finally, software combines lines of source code written by humans with the work of compilers and assemblers in executing machine code.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955, a project called TX-O was given to Ken Olsen. The project hoped to develop smaller research computers out of tiny, powerful transistor technology. MIT programmer Wesley Clark designed the TX-O and with Olsen’s methodical and persistent management helped develop the foundation of Olsen’s dream: “a reliable computer…accessible by one person, inexpensive and low powered, but…compact, fast, and exciting” . After MIT, Olsen and his assistant Harlan Anderson obtained venture capital to found the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to develop interactive minicomputers to sell on the open market. Computer models such as DEC’s Programmed Data Processor series used a concept called “open architecture” to allow personalized software to run everything from submarines to refineries to neon displays at Times Square. DEC used the millions of dollars gained by going public in 1966 to enter into the field of networking by developing “standardized technologies and communication protocols.” IBM machines didn’t have the networking capacity other companies had begun to develop, resulting in the loss of most of its market share. It re-entered the playing field in 1976 by developing minicomputers of its own, entering into a field that so many had not believed in: the personal computer.
Advanced Hardware for Complex Applications
As early as 1939, scientists such as William Shockley theorized that diminutive semiconductors would replace vacuum tubes. Indeed, all of modern electronics is based on Shockley’s ideas. Semiconductors can handle electronic pulses at the rate of billions of times per second, instead of the 10,000-times-persecond speed of the clunky and precarious vacuum tubes. Fairchild Semiconductor entered the market to compete with Shockley Semiconductor, and soon Fairchild became known for an innovation in semiconductors that is now familiar around the world: the use of silicon.
Silicon, “a commonplace mineral that constitutes 90 percent of the earth’s surface” was first used by Fairchild for U.S. Air Force rockets in transistors that needed to withstand intense heat. Additional elements were combined with silicon on flattened transistors to create the first integrated circuits capable of handling multiple devices and increasingly complex software applications. “Silicon Valley” was born as innumerable high-tech companies emerged on the scene, congregating in at the southern end of California's San Francisco Bay area. Perhaps most notably, Integrated Electronics, or Intel, was founded and new advances in memory chips and microprocessors allowed computers to handle software light years more complex than the single mathematical computations of the original mainframes
The Innovators of the Digital Age
Microsoft's MS-DOS was directly modeled on a now lesser-known operating system called CP/M that was developed by University of Washington graduate Gary Kildall’s Digital Research (DRI). Kildall’s work was essential to Bill Gates and Microsoft (which was originally founded to sell the Beginners’ All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming language interpreter for hobbyists to write their own programs), but so were the early personal computer developments of Apple and its subsequent graphical user interface (GUI) that preceded Windows. It is Kildall’s work, nevertheless, that truly shaped Microsoft and much about modern computing. Evans theorizes that had Kildall had his way, the personal computer industry would have had access to multitasking windows-style platforms much sooner and the entire industry would be much more advanced today. Still, Kildall is attributed with the ideas that were “the genesis of the whole third-party software industry”.
Gary Kildall’s style of programming helped drive the transition from mechanical computing into digital computing. Kildall developed open language programming years before IBM’s PC, and a number of months before Apple. In short, before microcomputers even existed, Kildall authored a programming language “for a microcomputer operating system and the first floppy disk operating system” . Intel’s microprocessors were already running everything from microwaves to watches, but Kildall imagined them in home computers running software that would drive networks and wouldn’t be bogged down by hardware compatibility issues. His Programming Language for Microcomputers (PL/M) evolved into the Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M), which contained the first PC prompt, wherein Kildall could open and store files in directories--work that is now down seemingly automatically as users click-and-drag files through virtual space on the computer desktop.
Next, Kildall’s basic input/output system (BIOS) could be easily changed by programmers to adapt to their specific hardware. Kildall’s software advancements were easily adapted into clone systems, though Kildall had largely retained licensing rights to his software through encoded copyright and encryption techniques. One operating system, however, Tim Patterson’s DOS, or the Quick ’n’ Dirty Operating System (QDOS), was developed for Rod Brock’s Seattle Computer Products. QDOS, according to Evans, “was yet another one of the rip-offs of the CP/M design” that would not have necessarily mattered had IBM’s business arrangements not aligned with those of Bill Gates. Spurred by the success of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s Apple products from the late 1970s and 1980s, IBM entered the field of microcomputers. Bill Gates seized the opportunity of Kildall’s delayed CP/M-86 (being designed for the faster Intel chip IBM had decided upon) and purchased Patterson’s operating system in order to strike a deal .
The trouble was, Kildall had already made arrangements with IBM and he thought he had successfully negotiated CP/M a share of the market upon the release of IBM’s new personal computer in 1981. But the final price point of CP/M was six times that of Microsoft’s PC-DOS, effectively flushing CP/M out of the market. Kildall had been betrayed. Ironically, only Kildall knew the limitations of CP/M and PC-DOS. His intentions for multitasking operating software would have revolutionized the industry at that time, but the IBM-Microsoft partnership dominated the American market and they evolved at their own pace. Meanwhile, Kildall kept his operation afloat with his European offices, which embraced the multitasking capacities of his MP/M OS.
While Kildall went on to innovate in areas from CD-ROMs to computer networking, DRI combined the graphic display technology of Atari with the expertise of former Microsoft programmer Kay Nishi and cloned the single-tasking MS-DOS with their DR-DOS. Upon entering the market, DR-DOS not only drove down Microsoft’s price point, but also fixed a number of MS-DOS bugs. This move helped lead to Novell’s acquisition of DRI in 1991 for $120 million. Gates missed the opportunity to acquire DRI for $10 million a few years earlier but, oddly enough, his investment in the ideas of Steve Jobs in 1996 helped Apple enter successful new fields of digital innovation such as the iPod and music downloading software, a field that, of course, Microsoft soon entered. Perhaps most importantly, Microsoft proved the power of owning the operating system. After years of working with IBM as the provider of the software for their hardware, Microsoft surpassed IBM
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