Forgot your password?
Cyhist Jan 22 1997 C
Document Actions
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 18:32:12 -0600
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Don Hyde <dhyde@bdcast.com>
Subject: Re: Early Microsoft history
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
At 01:49 PM 1/19/97 -0800, Bob Bickford <rab@well.com> wrote:
>I'm pretty sure Gates and Allen were the first to come up with the technique of writing microcomputer software on minicomputers by emulating the micro's CPU in software. That gave them a big edge over other micro developers, which led to Microsoft becoming the major supplier of BASIC for early micros, which gave Gates the contacts he later needed to sell MS-DOS to cloners.
>
>It just doesn't ring true to me -- I know that emulation goes back a long way, and I'm sure that micros were being emulated throughout the 70s. In fact, in my response I asserted (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that emulation was invented about five minutes after there were two different models of computer in the world. Anyway, perhaps this would make a good topic for the Computer History List to discuss......
>
>--
>Robert Bickford rab@well.com
>"Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary"
I can't believe all the responders who seem to think that they or someone they worked
with just recently invented emulation.
The ENIAC machine is sometimes credited as being the first electronic digital computer. It
was originally programmed with a maze of patchcords, and had a bank of thousands of
10-position rotary switches with which to enter numerical constants.
Programming with all those patchcords proved too time-consuming, so some clever person
patched it to interpret a program which was dialed in via the constant knobs. I think that patch job could just possibly have been the first emulator.
Since this machine lived sometime before 1950, all those dates for early emulators in the
80's, 70's, or even 60's seem pretty far off.
I wish I could cite the book I originally read about this emulator in, but I can't find
it and fear that I must have sold it back when I was a poor student (some decades ago).
I will search the boxes in the basement again, since it was a cyberhistory goldmine.
Don Hyde
Broadcast Electronics, Inc.
Supplying specialized electronics and software to the radio broadcast industry. dhyde@bdcast.com (217)224-9600
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Don Hyde <dhyde@bdcast.com>
Subject: Re: Early Microsoft history
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
At 01:49 PM 1/19/97 -0800, Bob Bickford <rab@well.com> wrote:
>I'm pretty sure Gates and Allen were the first to come up with the technique of writing microcomputer software on minicomputers by emulating the micro's CPU in software. That gave them a big edge over other micro developers, which led to Microsoft becoming the major supplier of BASIC for early micros, which gave Gates the contacts he later needed to sell MS-DOS to cloners.
>
>It just doesn't ring true to me -- I know that emulation goes back a long way, and I'm sure that micros were being emulated throughout the 70s. In fact, in my response I asserted (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that emulation was invented about five minutes after there were two different models of computer in the world. Anyway, perhaps this would make a good topic for the Computer History List to discuss......
>
>--
>Robert Bickford rab@well.com
>"Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary"
I can't believe all the responders who seem to think that they or someone they worked
with just recently invented emulation.
The ENIAC machine is sometimes credited as being the first electronic digital computer. It
was originally programmed with a maze of patchcords, and had a bank of thousands of
10-position rotary switches with which to enter numerical constants.
Programming with all those patchcords proved too time-consuming, so some clever person
patched it to interpret a program which was dialed in via the constant knobs. I think that patch job could just possibly have been the first emulator.
Since this machine lived sometime before 1950, all those dates for early emulators in the
80's, 70's, or even 60's seem pretty far off.
I wish I could cite the book I originally read about this emulator in, but I can't find
it and fear that I must have sold it back when I was a poor student (some decades ago).
I will search the boxes in the basement again, since it was a cyberhistory goldmine.
Don Hyde
Broadcast Electronics, Inc.
Supplying specialized electronics and software to the radio broadcast industry. dhyde@bdcast.com (217)224-9600
______________________________________________________________________
