Gary Arlen Kildall was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur who created the CP/M operating system and founded Digital Research, Inc. (DRI).
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.Although his career in computing spanned more than two decades, he is mainly remembered in connection with IBM's unsuccessful attempt in 1980 to license CP/M for the IBM PC.
IBM dealings
IBM approached Digital Research in 1980, at Bill Gates' suggestion, to license a forthcoming version of CP/M called CP/M-86 for the IBM PC. Gary left licensing negotiations to Dorothy, as he usually did, while he and colleague Tom Rolander used Gary's private airplane to deliver software to manufacturer Bill Godbout.Before the IBM representatives could explain 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 tried to move the discussion with IBM forward, but accounts disagree on whether he signed the non-disclosure agreement, as well as whether he met with the IBM representatives or was merely at DRI while discussions were in progress.
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. 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.
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.[10] Sams left Gates with the task of finding a usable operating system, and a few weeks later he proposed using the CP/M clone 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Paul Allen negotiated a licensing deal with SCP, had 86-DOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as 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 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 (but necessary) option. One of the operating system options was PC-DOS, priced at US$40. CP/M-86 shipped a few months later at $240, but sold poorly against DOS.
Hazy Memories
What's hard to find is the truth. A dozen interviews by BusinessWeek with people on all sides paint a blurry picture of those crucial days in the summer of 1980. While Kildall claims in his memoir that he met with IBM that first day and reached a handshake agreement, DRI's own lawyer at the time, Gerry Davis, says there was no deal. One of the IBMers who visited DRI that day insists he didn't talk to Kildall, but another, Jack Sams, now retired, says it's possible he was introduced to Kildall, although he doesn't remember it. Sams says faulty memories and self-serving accounts make it nearly impossible to tell exactly what happened during those chaotic weeks. "Back in those days, there was a lot of misinformation that was deliberate," he says, pointing out that IBM originally claimed it had made the PC all by itself. "We spun it, Kildall spun it, and Microsoft spun it."
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