But he quickly realized that there had to be a way to control how the chip interacted with the rest of the computer system. In 1971, Kindall had made a programming language for Intel's first CPU, the 4004. Gary was a meek and mild-mannered man, but despite being unassuming, he had already paved the way for operating systems and personal computers. When IBM told Gates what they were doing, he remarked that Microsoft didn't have an operating system. The 25-year-old programmer would point IBM in the direction of Gary Kildall ( A Man who could be Bill Gates). Bill Gates had to keep IBM's plan a secret, and he couldn't tell a single soul. While building their PC in 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to build the operating system. Before saying a word about the project, IBM asked Bill Gates, who was initially mistaken for the office intern, to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Every decision here impacts the rest of all history, and herein lies one of the saddest stories in computer history.īill Gates vs The Man who could have been Bill Gates So what software was going to run it? This was the battle for one operating system that would rule them all. IBM was the biggest tech company at the time, so any PC that they made would have an incredible impact on the world. In 1980, IBM had PC hardware cobbled together, the only thing needed was software to run on it. With this method, instead of building a computer from scratch, they managed to have a complete product within a year. Using non-IBM parts was very unusual for the company. When they got to work, the decision was made to use off-the-shelf parts to speed up the design process. This small team was assigned the task of creating a business-oriented personal computer. The answer came in the form of a small, secret team within the company. It was going to take them years just to come up with a PC design, so how were they going to compete on time? They were bureaucratic and very slow when it came to making decisions. The problem with IBM was that it was a huge company. By 1980, IBM had turned their attention to Apple's success in the PC market, and realised that they were wrong about the PC. This was the opportunity of all opportunities. IBM, which was in the corporate computer business of selling large mainframes, just saw dollar signs. The PC industry was already worth 1 billion dollars just three years after it began.
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