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Tim Paterson

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Tim Paterson
Born(1956-06-01)1 June 1956(age 68)
Alma materUniversity of Washington
Occupation(s)Computer programmer,software designer
Known forZ-80 SoftCard,86-DOS,MSX-DOS

Tim Paterson(born 1 June 1956) is an Americancomputer programmer,best known for creating86-DOS,an operating system for theIntel 8086.This system emulated theapplication programming interface(API) ofCP/M,which was created byGary Kildall.86-DOS later formed the basis ofMS-DOS,the most widely used personal computeroperating systemin the 1980s.

Biography

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Paterson was educated in theSeattle Public Schools,graduating fromIngraham High Schoolin 1974. He attended theUniversity of Washington,working as a repairtechnicianfor The Retail Computer Store in theGreen Lakearea ofSeattle,Washington, and graduatedmagna cum laudewith a degree in Computer Science[1]in June 1978. He went to work forSeattle Computer Productsas a designer and engineer.[1]He designed the hardware of Microsoft'sZ-80 SoftCardwhich had aZ80CPU and ran theCP/Moperating system on anApple II.

A month later, Intel released the8086CPU, and Paterson went to work designing anS-1008086 board, which went to market in November 1979. The only commercial software that existed for the board was Microsoft'sStandalone Disk BASIC-86.The standard CP/M operating system at the time was not available for this CPU and without a true operating system, sales were slow. Paterson began work on QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) in April 1980 to fill that void, copying theAPIsof CP/M from references, including the published CP/M manual, so that it would be highly compatible. QDOS was soon renamed as86-DOS.Version0.10was complete by July 1980. By version1.14,86-DOS had grown to4000lines of assembly code.[2]In December 1980,Microsoftsecured the rights to market 86-DOS to other hardware manufacturers.[3]

While acknowledging that he made 86-DOS compatible with CP/M,[4]Paterson has maintained that the 86-DOS program was his original work and has denied allegations that he referred to CP/M code while writing it.[5]When a book appeared in 2004 claiming that 86-DOS was an unoriginal "rip-off" of CP/M,[6]Paterson sued the authors and publishers fordefamation.[7][8] The judge found that Paterson failed to "provide any evidence regarding 'serious doubts' about the accuracy of theGary Kildallchapter. Instead, a careful review of theLefernotes... provides a research picture tellingly close to the substance of the final chapter "and the case was dismissed on the basis that the book's claims wereconstitutionally protectedopinions and not provably false.[9]Gary KildallGary Kildall - The Man That Should Have Been Bill Gates - Part II

Paterson left SCP in April 1981 and worked for Microsoft from May 1981 to April 1982. Microsoft renamed 86-DOS to MS-DOS on 27 July 1981. After a brief second stint with SCP, Paterson started his own company,Falcon Technology,a.k.a.Falcon Systems.[1]In 1983, Microsoft contracted Paterson to port MS-DOS to theMSXcomputers standard they were developing withASCII Corporation.Paterson accepted the contract to help fund his company and completed the work on theMSX-DOSoperating system in 1984.[10]Falcon Technology was bought by Microsoft in 1986 to reclaim one out of two issued royalty-free licenses for MS-DOS (the other belonging to SCP),[11]eventually becoming part ofPhoenix Technologies.[1]Paterson worked a second stint with Microsoft from 1986 to 1988,[1]and a third stint from 1990 to 1998, during which time he worked onVisual Basic.[1]

After leaving Microsoft a third time, Paterson founded another software development company, Paterson Technology, and also made several appearances on theComedy CentraltelevisionprogramBattleBots.Paterson has also raced rally cars in theSCCAPro Rallyseries, and even engineered his owntrip computer,which he integrated into the axle of a four-wheel-drivePorsche 911.

References

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  1. ^abcdefSchulman, Andrew; Michels, Raymond J.; Kyle, Jim;Paterson, Tim;Maxey, David;Brown, Ralf D.(1990).Undocumented DOS: A programmer's guide to reserved MS-DOS functions and data structures(1 ed.).Addison-Wesley.ISBN978-0-201-57064-9.ark:/13960/t14n8vs6f.Retrieved2022-11-26.(xviii+694+viii pages, 2 5.25 "-floppies) Errata:[1][2]
  2. ^Zbikowski, Mark;Allen, Paul;Ballmer, Steve;Borman, Reuben; Borman, Rob; Butler, John; Carroll, Chuck; Chamberlain, Mark; Chell, David; Colee, Mike; Courtney, Mike; Dryfoos, Mike; Duncan, Rachel; Eckhardt, Kurt; Evans, Eric; Farmer, Rick;Gates, Bill;Geary, Michael; Griffin, Bob; Hogarth, Doug; Johnson, James W.; Kermaani, Kaamel; King, Adrian; Koch, Reed; Landowski, James; Larson, Chris; Lennon, Thomas; Lipkie, Dan;McDonald, Marc;McKinney, Bruce; Martin, Pascal; Mathers, Estelle; Matthews, Bob; Melin, David; Mergentime, Charles; Nevin, Randy; Newell, Dan; Newell, Tani; Norris, David; O'Leary, Mike;O'Rear, Bob;Olsson, Mike; Osterman, Larry; Ostling, Ridge; Pai, Sunil;Paterson, Tim;Perez, Gary; Peters, Chris;Petzold, Charles;Pollock, John;Reynolds, Aaron;Rubin, Darryl; Ryan, Ralph; Schulmeisters, Karl; Shah, Rajen; Shaw, Barry; Short, Anthony; Slivka, Ben; Smirl, Jon; Stillmaker, Betty; Stoddard, John; Tillman, Dennis; Whitten, Greg; Yount, Natalie; Zeck, Steve (1988). "Technical advisors".The MS-DOS Encyclopedia: versions 1.0 through 3.2.By Duncan, Ray; Bostwick, Steve; Burgoyne, Keith; Byers, Robert A.; Hogan, Thom; Kyle, Jim;Letwin, Gordon;Petzold, Charles;Rabinowitz, Chip; Tomlin, Jim; Wilton, Richard; Wolverton, Van; Wong, William; Woodcock, JoAnne (Completely reworked ed.). Redmond, Washington, USA:Microsoft Press.p. 20.ISBN978-1-55615-049-4.LCCN87-21452.OCLC16581341.(xix+1570 pages; 26 cm) (NB. This edition was published in 1988 after extensive rework of the withdrawn 1986 first edition by a different team of authors.[3]While mostly based on DOS 3.2, this book has an appendix covering changes introduced with DOS 3.3.)
  3. ^"86-DOS version 0.3 (1980-11-15) License Agreement between Seattle Computer Products and Microsoft"(PDF).1981-01-06.Archived(PDF)from the original on 2020-02-18.Retrieved2013-04-01.(NB. Published as part of theComes v. Microsoftcase as exhibit #1.)
  4. ^Paterson, Tim(June 1983)."An Inside Look at MS-DOS - The design decisions behind the popular operating system".BYTE.16-Bit Designs. Vol. 8, no. 6. pp.230.ISSN0360-5280.Retrieved2013-10-19.(NB. The article uses "MS-DOS" throughout to refer to both 86-DOS and MS-DOS, but mentions QDOS and 86-DOS in a sidebar article, "A Short History of MS-DOS".)[4][5]
  5. ^Paterson, Tim(1994-10-03)."From the Mailbox: The Origins of DOS"(PDF).Microprocessor Report.Vol. 8, no. 13.MicroDesign Resources.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2003-12-04.Retrieved2006-11-20.
  6. ^Evans, Harold;Buckland, Gail;Lefer, David(2004).They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators.Little, Brown and Company.ISBN978-0-316-27766-2.[6][7]
  7. ^The Associated Press(2005-03-02). Seattle Post-Intelligencer (ed.)."Programmer sues author over role in Microsoft history".USA Today.Seattle, Washington, USA.Archivedfrom the original on 2020-02-18.Retrieved2006-11-20.
  8. ^United States District Court for the Western District of Washington(2007-07-25) [2005-02-28]."Paterson v. Little, Brown, and Co., et al. - Order"(PDF).Seattle Times.Seattle, Washington, USA. Case 2:05-cv-01719-TSZ Document 29. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2018-10-03.Retrieved2014-12-21.
  9. ^Orlowski, Andrew (2007-07-30)."MS-DOS paternity suit settled - Computer pioneer Kildall vindicated, from beyond the grave".The Register.The Channel.Archivedfrom the original on 2020-02-07.Retrieved2007-07-31.
  10. ^Paterson, Tim(2014-02-17)."The History of MSX-DOS".Jorito, Maggoo, John Hassink, MSX Resource Center.Archivedfrom the original on 2020-02-18.Retrieved2014-05-31.
  11. ^Lach, Eric (1986-09-29)."Microsoft buys major assets of Falcon, reclaims royalty-free MS-DOS license".InfoWorld- The PC News Weekly.Vol. 8, no. 39. Redmond, Washington, USA:Popular Computing, Inc.,CW Communications, Inc.p. 27.ISSN0199-6649.Retrieved2014-08-13.
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