Gary Arlen Kildall (; May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994) was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur. During the 1970s, Kildall created the operating system CP/M among other operating systems and programming tools, and subsequently founded Digital Research, Inc. to market and sell his software products. He is considered a pioneer of the personal computer revolution.
In 1974 in Pacific Grove, California, Kildall demonstrated the first working prototype of CP/M, which would later become the dominant operating system for microcomputers for a time. Together with his invention of the BIOS (Basic Input Output System), his operating system allowed a microprocessor-based computer to communicate with disk storage. Kildall was among the earliest individuals to recognize microprocessors as fully capable computers. During the 1980s, Kildall also appeared on PBS as co-host of Computer Chronicles, a weekly informational program that discussed the latest developments in personal computing.
Early life Gary Arlen Kildall was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington, where his family operated a seamanship school. His father, Joseph Kildall, was a captain of Norwegian heritage. His mother Emma was of half Swedish ancestry, as Kildall's grandmother was born in Långbäck, Sweden, in Skellefteå Municipality, but emigrated to Canada at 23 years of age.
Education
Kildall earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1967 and a master's degree in Computer Science in 1968, both from the University of Washington. At one time, he had hoped to become a mathematics teacher. During his studies, Kildall became increasingly interested in computer technology and enrolled to attain a Ph.D. in Computer Science.
Kildall fulfilled his draft obligation by teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Kildall briefly returned to UW and finished his doctorate in computer science in 1972.
Intel lent him systems using the 8008 and 8080 processors, and in 1973, he developed the first high-level programming language for microprocessors, named PL/M. For Intel he also wrote 8008 and 8080 instruction set simulators named INTERP/8 and INTERP/80. He created the operating system CP/M the same year to enable the 8080 to control a floppy disk drive, combining for the first time all the essential components of a computer at the microcomputer scale. He demonstrated CP/M to Intel, but Intel had little interest and chose to market PL/M instead.
Business career
Kildall's early career and software projects are described in the book Programmers at Work, a collection of interviews published by Microsoft Press.
CP/M
In 1973 Kildall and Kathryn Strutynski developed the language PL/M to produce CP/M, one of the first operating systems for personal computers.They used as reference their experience with the IBM mainframe computers and the operating system VM.
Kildall and his wife Dorothy established a company, originally named "Intergalactic Digital Research" (later renamed as Digital Research, Inc.), to market the operating system CP/M by advertisements in hobbyist magazines. Digital Research licensed CP/M for the IMSAI 8080, a popular clone of the Altair 8800. As more manufacturers licensed CP/M, it became a de facto standard and had to support an increasing number of hardware variations. In response, Kildall pioneered the concept of a BIOS, a set of simple programs stored in computer hardware (ROM or EPROM microprocessor) that enabled CP/M to operate on different systems without modification.
CP/M's quick success surprised Kildall, and he was slow to update it for high density floppy disks and hard disk drives. After hardware manufacturers discussed creating a rival operating system, Kildall started a rush project to develop CP/M 2. By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M operated on different computer models and DRI had million in yearly revenues.
Between 1983 and 1984, Digital Research offered several of their business and educational applications for the IBM PC on bootable floppy diskettes bundled with SpeedStart CP/M, a reduced version of CP/M-86 as a bootable runtime environment.
IBM dealings IBM approached Digital Research in 1980, at Bill Gates' suggestion, to negotiate the purchase of a forthcoming version of CP/M named CP/M-86 for the IBM PC. Gary had left initial negotiations to his wife, Dorothy, as he usually did, while he and Tom Rolander, a colleague and developer of the operating system MP/M, used Gary's private airplane to deliver software to manufacturer Bill Godbout. Before the IBM representatives would explain the purpose of their visit, they insisted that Dorothy sign a non-disclosure agreement. On the advice of DRI attorney Gerry Davis, Dorothy refused to sign the agreement without Gary's approval. Gary returned in the afternoon and tried to resume the discussion with IBM; accounts disagree on whether he signed the non-disclosure agreement, as well as whether he ever met with the IBM representatives.
Various reasons have been given for the two companies failing to reach an agreement. DRI, which had only a few products, might have been unwilling to sell its main product to IBM for a one-time payment rather than its usual royalty-based plan. Dorothy might have believed that the company could not deliver CP/M-86 on IBM's proposed schedule, as the company was busy developing an implementation of the PL/I programming language for Data General. Also possible, the IBM representatives might have been annoyed that DRI had spent hours on what they considered a routine formality. According to Kildall, the IBM representatives took the same flight to Florida that night that he and Dorothy took for their vacation, and they negotiated further on the flight, reaching a handshake agreement. IBM main negotiator Jack Sams insisted that he never met Gary, and one IBM colleague has confirmed that Sams said so at the time. He accepted that someone else in his group might have been on the same flight, and noted that he flew back to Seattle to talk with Microsoft again.
Sams related the story to Gates, who had already agreed to provide a BASIC interpreter and several other programs for the PC. Gates' impression of the story was that Gary capriciously "went flying", as he would later tell reporters. Sams left Gates with the task of finding a usable operating system, and a few weeks later he proposed using the operating system 86-DOS— an independently developed operating system that implemented Kildall's CP/M application programming interface— from Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Paul Allen negotiated a licensing deal with SCP. Allen had 86-DOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as IBM PC DOS.
Kildall obtained a copy of PC DOS, examined it, and concluded that it infringed on CP/M. When he asked Gerry Davis what legal options were available, Davis told him that intellectual property law for software was not clear enough to sue. Instead Kildall only threatened IBM with legal action, and IBM responded with a proposal to offer CP/M-86 as an option for the PC in return for a release of liability. Kildall accepted, believing that IBM's new system (like its previous personal computers) would not be a significant commercial success. When the IBM PC was introduced, IBM sold its operating system as an unbundled option. One of the operating system options was PC DOS, priced at . PC DOS was seen as a practically necessary option; most software required it and without it the IBM PC was limited to its built-in Cassette BASIC. CP/M-86 shipped a few months later six times more expensive at , and sold poorly against DOS and enjoyed far less software support.
Multi-Programming Monitor Control Program (MP/M)
With the loss of the IBM deal, Gary and Dorothy were pressured to bring in more experienced management, and Gary's influence over the company waned. He worked in various experimental and research projects, such as a version of CP/M with multitasking , created by Digital Research developer Tom Rolander in 1979. Kildall also worked on an implementation of the Logo programming language. He hoped that Logo, an educational dialect of LISP, would supplant BASIC in education, but it did not.
FlexOS
In 1985 Digital Research developed FlexOS, a modular real-time multiuser multitasking operating system (RTOS).
Graphics Environment Manager (GEM)
After seeing a demonstration of the Apple Lisa, Kildall oversaw the creation of DRI's own graphical user interface, named Graphics Environment Manager (GEM), which was introduced on February 28, 1985. Novell acquired DRI in 1991 in a deal that netted millions for Kildall.
Kildall resigned as CEO of Digital Research on 28 June 1985, but remained chairman of the board.
Computer Chronicles
Kildall co-hosted a public television program produced by PBS named Computer Chronicles. It discussed trends in personal computing. Gary co-hosted the program for seven years during the first eight seasons from 1983 to 1990. After this time the program continued through its 19th season, with the last episode broadcast on June 25, 2002.
Activenture
In 1984 Gary started another company, Activenture, which adapted optical disc technology for computer use, using as reference the Red Book developed by Sony and Phillips in 1980. In 1985 the CD-ROM was presented by Philips and Sony, the same year Activenture was renamed KnowledgeSet.
The Electronic Encyclopedia
In June 1985 Activenture released The Electronic Encyclopedia, a CD-ROM version of Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia. The first computer encyclopedia, it included pictures in 1990 and added audio and videos in 1992. The encyclopedia was acquired by Banta Corporation; its last CD-ROM version was published in 2003.
Prometheus Light and Sound (PLS)
Kildall's final business venture, known as Prometheus Light and Sound (PLS) and based in Austin, Texas, developed a modular PBX communication system that integrated land-line telephones with mobile phones (called "Intelliphone") to reduce the then-high online costs and to remotely connect with home appliances.
Prometheus Light and Sound system included a UUCP-based store and forward system to exchange emails and files between the various nodes and was planned to include TCP/IP support at a later time.
Computer Animation
According to Brian Halla, Intel's technical liaison to Digital Research in the 1970s, Gary Kildall showed him a VAX 11/780 running in his house generating a Coke bottle spinning. According to Halla, Kildall sold it a few months later to Pixar.
Computer Connections In 1992, Kildall was invited to the University of Washington computer science program's 25th anniversary event. As a distinguished graduate of the program, Kildall was disappointed when asked to attend simply as an audience member. He also took offense at the decision to have the main speech done by Bill Gates, a Harvard University dropout who had donated to UW, but had never attended.
In response, Kildall began writing a memoir, entitled Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry. The memoir, which Kildall sought to publish, expressed his frustration that people did not seem to value elegance in computer software.
Writing about Bill Gates, Kildall described him as "more of an opportunist than a technical type, and severely opinionated, even when the opinion he holds is absurd".
In an appendix, he termed DOS "plain and simple theft" because its first 26 system calls worked the same as CP/M's. He accused IBM of contriving the price difference between PC DOS and CP/M-86 in order to marginalize CP/M.