[Info-vax] OT: Paul Allen and Bill Gates

[Neil Rieck]

On May 7, 9:16 pm, Rich Alderson <n... at alderson.users.panix.com>
wrote:
> Neil Rieck <n.ri... at sympatico.ca> writes:
> > I've been reading Paul Allen's book "Idea Man: A Memoir by the
> > Cofounder of Microsoft" for the past few days now and it contains lots
> > of stuff I didn't know like:
> > 1) Harvard student, Monte Davidoff, developed floating point math
> > routines for the PDP-8 and was hired by Gates and Allen to add them to
> > Altair BASIC.
>
> The PDP-8/e running at Living Computer Museum was originally put together by a
> gent who was recreating the system on which he learned to program in high
> school.  When he was a sophomore and began programming on the system (running
> TSS/8, inspired by Tops-10), there was a senior who was the de facto operator
> by the name of Monte Davidoff.  Monte has confirmed the story to me.
>
> > 2) Microsoft wrote the TRS-80 BASIC, AppleSoft BASIC, and Commodore
> > BASIC. (I knew Steve Wozniak had written Integer BASIC for the Apple ]
> > [ but never knew who wrote AppleSoft)
> > 3) Their preferred development platform was a DEC PDP-10 running
> > TOPS-10. This was true at Harvard all the way through the Albuquerque
> > days (where they leased time from a school) until they moved to
> > Washington where they bought a new DEC 2020 (DECSYSTEM-20)
>
> We restored an 8800 to running condition so that Paul Allen could recreate the
> feel of loading a paper tape of the original BASIC (recovered from his own
> DECtapes by yours truly).  He compiled the 8080 simulator on our 2065, punched
> the tape on an ASR-33, then loaded it into the 8800.  (This was the 8800 and
> Teletype used in the Leslie Stahl interview, part of which was filmed at the
> museum.)
>
> > 4) Why they developed the Z80 Softcard and how it caused Apple ]
> > [ sales to soar while bringing in additional software revenues to
> > Digital Research (for CP/M) and Microsoft (for the various languages
> > which already ran on the 8080).
>
> http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org
>
> --
> Rich Alderson                                   n... at alderson.users.panix.com
>     the russet leaves of an autumn oak/inspire once again the failed poet/
>     to take up his pen/and essay to place his meagre words upon the page...

This is real neat information and its good to hear that "working
computer museums" exist.

I "assumed" that Paul Allen had used his own tapes to boot his own
8080 used in the Leslie Stahl (60 Minutes) interview. Thanks for the
update.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363070n

My first "hands on" system was an Interdata-70 which was an IBM
(architectural) clone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata

When it was retired in 1978, I saved it from the junk-pile where it
sat in my basement for the next 20 years (including manuals,
application software on cassette tape, diagnostic software on paper
tape, etc.) In an action which could only be considered insanity, I
junked it all in 1999.

My advice to anyone with access to any working mini or micro system
(especially units with binary front panel switches) is to get them
into a museum.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/