IBM PC (5150) the BIOS (Basic Input/Output August 12Th Aug
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The only proprietary part was IBM PC (5150) the BIOS (Basic Input/Output August 12th Aug. 12, 1981 System), but IBM published enough of its technical details At the NYC Waldorf-Astoria, and that other manufacturers could Dorothy Elizabeth in Boca Raton, Florida, IBM eventually create PC released the IBM PC (aka the compatibles; the so-called Denning IBM 5150). It had been “clones”. developed in under a year by the In 1982, the MPC 1600-1 [June Born: Aug. 12, 1945; “Project Chess” [Oct 20] team 00] and the Compaq Portable Michigan ??, USA led by Don Estridge [June 23]. [Nov 4] were announced, and in In the mid 1980s, Denning and It featured an Intel 8088 CPU 1984, Phoenix Technology’s Peter G. Neumann developed the [July 1], 16 KB of RAM, and a released a legal copy of the BIOS Intrusion Detection Expert mono display. It used a tape [July 10]. The clone market System (IDES) that went on to cassette drive for external helped solved the PC's price become the basis for many memory, but this was later problem, through competition. cyber-security applications. It replaced by (a rather costly) The PC's popularity did have one employed a rule-based system to 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. detect problems, along with a major drawback – any non- statistical anomaly component clones aimed at the home or based on profiles of users and small business markets quickly systems. dropped from favor, and disappeared. Denning was one of several academics asked to review the The IBM PC could run several Skipjack encryption algorithm different OSes, but Microsoft’s for the Clipper chip [April 16]. MS-DOS [next entry] (renamed They found no problems with PC-DOS) was the least expensive the algorithm itself, but were (at $40) and therefore the most less than enthusiastic about the popular. government ownership of the Crucially for Microsoft, IBM cryptographic key. allowed it to license MS-DOS IBM PC 5150 running MS-DOS Denning is married to Peter J. [Sept 30] to other companies, 5.0. Photo by Boffy b. CC BY-SA [Jan 6]. and so the PC-compatible 3.0. manufacturers naturally went to Microsoft for their OS needs. The general consensus after the Ultimately Microsoft gained Echo 1 release was that the machine almost complete control of the Aug. 12, 1960 was expensive and OS market. underpowered. For instance, it Echo 1, the world’s first had no graphics capabilities out communication satellite, was of the box, no hard drive, and no MS-DOS is PC DOS launched on this day. It was sound chip. Compared to the essentially a large metalized much cheaper, and more Aug. 12, 1981 balloon (some 30 meters in colorful, Commodore 64 [Jan 7], diameter) in low Earth orbit so it it hardly seemed a contender. Prev: [July 27] was easily visible to the unaided Despite these reservations, the Microsoft had licensed MS-DOS eye. Microwave signals were system became an instant hit, 1.1 to IBM, who installed it as PC bounced off it rather than being with over 65,000 units sold in DOS 1.0 on their new IBM PC retransmitted as in modern the first four months. One [previous entry]. satellites. It was nicknamed the reason was the IBM brand, but MS-DOS was based on 86-DOS ‘satelloon’ by project members, the machine's long term success (aka QDOS), which was derived a portmanteau of satellite and was probably due to its simple, from CP/M [June 22]. Microsoft balloon. fully documented, hardware. It had licensed 86-DOS from utilized no custom chips, just a On August 15, it was used to Seattle Computer Products standard Intel 8088 hooked to make a long-distance phone call (SCP) on [Sept 22] 1980, and RAM and a simple 8-bit bus between William Victor in the Tim Paterson [June 1], who had (later called the ISA bus [March Jet Propulsion Lab [Nov 16] in developed 86-DOS at SCP, joined 2]). This made it easy for third California and William C. Jakes Microsoft in May. Jr. at Bell Labs [Jan 1] in New parties to create add-on cards, Jersey. which sold well precisiely It's somewhat unfair to say these because the basic PC was lacking three OSes were the "same". For in functionality. instance, they ran on different processors: CP/M was for the Intel 8080/ Zilog Z80, 86-DOS 1 for the 8086, and MS-DOS was DOS began to fade from view. was supposed to be a donkey aimed at the IBM PC’s 8088. MS- Windows ME removed the manifesting in the middle of the DOS also had two other notable capability to boot MS-DOS 8.0, road.” differences from CP/M: but retained the ability to make Incidentally, Neil Konzen would improved disk sector buffering a separate bootable DOS floppy. later become Microsoft’s and the FAT file system. The MS Windows 32-bit OSes technical lead for its Another difference was the [July 27] (Windows NT, 2000, XP involvement with the Apple Mac dropping of the ":" in MS-DOS to and newer) dropped MS-DOS, [Jan 24]. identify device names (e.g. CON but provided an emulator to run Also of note was that "Donkey’ for the console, PRN for the DOS applications and provide a sported similar gameplay to printer, AUX for auxillary). This DOS command prompt window. Mattel Auto Race [?? 1976], the forced DOS to disallow the Starting with Windows 10 [July first handheld, fully digital, LED creation of ordinary files with 29], the ability to create a DOS game device. those names, making it startup disk was removed. impossible to create a file called "aux.txt" for instance. Amazingly, this restriction still Abort, Retry, Fail? exists, even in MS Windows 10. Gates’ Donkey Aug. 12, 1981 Within a year, Microsoft had Aug. 12, 1981 licensed MS-DOS to over 70 MS-DOS [previous entries!!] Donkey, often known by its file other companies. This was only introduced the error message: name DONKEY.BAS, was possible because the system “Abort, Retry, Fail?” (often called included with early versions of utilized CP/M’s clever BIOS idea; the ARF). MS- DOS [previous entry]. Gary Kildall [May 19] had come A missing disk (or an open disk up with BIOS as a way to The game requires the player to drive door) was defined by MS- separate out all the low-level move a car between traffic lanes DOS as a critical error, which hardware dependent functions, to avoid a series of donkeys. It caused the ARF to appear and such as character and disk I/O, was written by Bill Gates [Oct the OS to wait for user input. which made it easier to port the 28] and Neil Konzen, primarily higher-level MS-DOS to demonstrate BASIC’s gasp- Several other problems were functionality across to different inducing color graphics and deemed critical (e.g. a disk read hardware. For example, sound. error), and so, rather puzzlingly, Microsoft sold a development kit the same ARF appeared. Also, According to Gates: “It was that would (fairly easily) many people were confused by myself and Neil at four in the compile a version of MS-DOS the wording, seeing no morning with this prototype with a manufacturer’s own I/O difference between aborting and IBM PC sitting in this small drivers. failing. room. IBM insisted that we had Another reason for MS-DOS' to have a lock on the door and As of 2020, Windows 10 [July popularity was that Microsoft we only had this closet that had 29] still generates a similar put considerable effort into a lock on it, so we had to do all error message, but the dialog improving it. For instance, our development in there and it box is much prettier, and the version 1.25, released in 1982, was always over 100 degrees.” wording has been finessed. Now added support for double- you can choose between sided disks, thereby “Cancel”, “Try Again”, and eliminating the need to “Continue”. manually turn the disks over to access the reverse ARF is probably the most side. famous error message in computing. Other contenders Version 2.0 (1983) added are: directories, supported IBM’s huge 10 MB hard "The Blue Screen of disk drive [March 8] and could Death" (BSoD) [July 27]; handle 5.25-inch floppies. This Donkeys on a road. Photo by "HTTP 404 Page Not Found": was quickly followed by version Porto Neto. CC BY-SA 4.0. the rumor that 404 refers to a 2.11 later the same year which room at CERN [Sept 29] is added support for foreign and Apple’s Andy Hertzfeld [April 6] false. The CERN office extended characters. By this wasn’t that impressed with the numbering system allocates time, the OS's source code was game: “The player was supposed the first digit to a building (i.e. five times bigger than in version to be driving a car down a slowly building 4), and the second 1.0, at around 20,000 lines. scrolling, poorly rendered ”road“, and could hit the space two to the office number. As MS Windows [Nov 20] bar to toggle the jerky motion. There is no room “04” in became more reliable [May 22], Every once in a while, a brown building “4”, the numbering and less like "sugarcoating", MS- blob would fill the screen, which starts at “410”; 2 "PC LOAD LETTER": a 1990s error message, seen on early versions of HP’s LaserJet [May 5].