UW EE alum Tom Rolander displays his DRI employee badge #1. (Gary was badge #0)
On Friday, IEEE dedicated a “Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing” plaque honoring 1972 UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall at the site of his company Digital Research Inc. (DRI) in Pacific Grove, CA. Hundreds attended the event – including an amazing number of former DRI employees.
David Laws, Tom Rolander, and Gordon Eubanks reminisce about Gary and DRI at a ceremony at Pacific Grove City Hall
The IEEE Milestone plaque honoring UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall for the creation of CP/M
Unveiling of the Milestone plaque – secured with punched paper tape and a floppy disk
801 Lighthouse Avenue, former DRI Headquarters Office and site of the Milestone plaque
Tom Rolander, UW EE alum and DRI badge #1, speaks outside 801 Lighthouse Avenue, former DRI Headquarters Office and site of the Milestone plaque
UW EE alum Tom Rolander, DRI badge #1, flanked by Gary’s son Scott and daughter Kristin
DRI’s CP/M was the dominant microcomputer operating system throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until Microsoft purchased QDOS (a CP/M lookalike) from UW CSE bachelors alum Tim Paterson and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS. Gary was an innovator: CP/M was the first microcomputer disk operating system (previous systems used only sequential media such as paper and magnetic tape), and introduced the BIOS layer (which allowed easy porting of the OS across a wide range of microprocessor and system architectures).
(In remarks at the event, several speakers also commented on the breakthroughs in programming language compiler technology embodied in Gary’s Ph.D. thesis, supervised by UW CSE’s Hellmut Golde.)
IEEE program for the event here.
Wonderful tribute in IProgrammer, with many linked resources, here.
Excellent GeekWire article here.
Computer History Museum article “Gary Kildall and the 40th Anniversary of the Birth of the PC Operating System” here.
KAZU (Monterey Bay NPR) pre-dedication interview here.
California Report post-dedication interview here.
Seattle Times article here.
Monterey Herald article here.
Previous CSE News post with additional information here.
On Friday, 1972 UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall will be honored by IEEE with a “Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing” plaque at the site of his company Digital Research Inc. in Pacific Grove, CA.
Kildall’s CP/M was the first microcomputer operating system, and the dominant OS throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until Microsoft purchased QDOS (a CP/M lookalike) from UW CSE bachelors alum Tim Paterson and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS.
– See more at: http://news.cs.washington.edu/#sthash.0wg2K9ii.dpuf
On Friday, 1972 UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall will be honored by IEEE with a “Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing” plaque at the site of his company Digital Research Inc. in Pacific Grove, CA.
Kildall’s CP/M was the first microcomputer operating system, and the dominant OS throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until Microsoft purchased QDOS (a CP/M lookalike) from UW CSE bachelors alum Tim Paterson and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS.
– See more at: http://news.cs.washington.edu/#sthash.0wg2K9ii.dpuf
On Friday, 1972 UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall will be honored by IEEE with a “Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing” plaque at the site of his company Digital Research Inc. in Pacific Grove, CA.
Kildall’s CP/M was the first microcomputer operating system, and the dominant OS throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until Microsoft purchased QDOS (a CP/M lookalike) from UW CSE bachelors alum Tim Paterson and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS.
– See more at: http://news.cs.washington.edu/#sthash.0wg2K9ii.dpuf
On Friday, 1972 UW CSE Ph.D. alum Gary Kildall will be honored by IEEE with a “Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing” plaque at the site of his company Digital Research Inc. in Pacific Grove, CA.
Kildall’s CP/M was the first microcomputer operating system, and the dominant OS throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, until Microsoft purchased QDOS (a CP/M lookalike) from UW CSE bachelors alum Tim Paterson and licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS.
– See more at: http://news.cs.washington.edu/#sthash.0wg2K9ii.dpuf