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William Lowe, the 'father of the IBM PC,' dies at 72
CNET ^ | October 28, 2013 8:00 PM PD | Steven Musil

Posted on 10/29/2013 10:24:45 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

After his proposal for a quick market entry via Atari was rejected, Lowe was given one year to design and produce a personal computer that would be market-ready.

William Lowe at a 2007 event marking the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64. (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: hitech
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1 posted on 10/29/2013 10:24:45 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: ShadowAce
fyi
2 posted on 10/29/2013 10:25:33 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Makes me feel old. He didn’t die, his PIC quit. RIP.


3 posted on 10/29/2013 10:28:37 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
As one of the comments notes:

My condolences to the family of Mr Lowe, but the article is mistaken. Philip Don Estridge is the "Father of the IBM PC" and he passed away in a plane crash in 1985.

4 posted on 10/29/2013 10:29:29 AM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: CodeToad

Another one bytes the dust. [sigh]


5 posted on 10/29/2013 10:30:40 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Prior to the introduction of the IBM PC, there were PCs with a hundred IRQs and other great technological features. The IBM PC set a standard, but it was a leap backwards technology wise. IBM wanted to ensure the PC never replaced the mainframe in office settings. I was happy to see IBM leave the PC market.


6 posted on 10/29/2013 10:31:18 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: Fester Chugabrew

He was simply nibbled to death. *goingtohell*


7 posted on 10/29/2013 10:32:38 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: aimhigh

” there were PCs with a hundred IRQs “

The IBM-PC had 256 IRQs.


8 posted on 10/29/2013 10:35:01 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: CodeToad

Had no idea.


9 posted on 10/29/2013 10:39:00 AM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; a fool in paradise

Considering its OS and architecture it should of been called ‘Lowputer’.


10 posted on 10/29/2013 10:41:30 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: CodeToad
” there were PCs with a hundred IRQs “ The IBM-PC had 256 IRQs.

The other PCs had those IRQs available for user addons. The IBM didn't.

11 posted on 10/29/2013 10:43:49 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
There were a lot of propitiatory things IBM did that really screwed them in the long run.

I wonder how many can be blamed on this guy, or did he fight against them?

12 posted on 10/29/2013 10:50:27 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: Slump Tester

did you mean “proprietary?”


13 posted on 10/29/2013 10:53:39 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: aimhigh

The Intel chip provided the IRQs and there were and are 256 of them. You might be thinking about the hardware interrupts, which there were 15 available. (16 total but one, IRQ 2, was used to chain two PICs together. Each PIC had 8 interrupt lines.)


14 posted on 10/29/2013 10:54:36 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

How would the computer world be different if IBM handled the PC like their typical in-house projects with secret schematics and custom chips (or renumbered standard chips with non-standard pinouts)?


15 posted on 10/29/2013 11:00:24 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Everyone get online for Obamacare on 10/1. Overload the system and crash it hard!)
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To: Slump Tester

Lowe argued for an open design, thinking third party products such as hardware add-ons and software would create a larger market, licensing opportunities, and dominance of the market, would outweigh a closed design and high licensing fees IBM was known for. He was right.

What he didn’t count on was losing a lawsuit about the ability to black box the BIOS that would allow other companies to clone the PC.

Black boxing was the process in which there were two teams; one would discover the capabilities of the BIOS and another would build a new BIOS completely from generic technical requirements the first team wrote. The second team would never lay eyes on or touch a real BIOS.

In other words, the second team would create a new BIOS using a list of features the first team discovered but never directly copying from the IBM BIOS.

IBM thought for sure they’d win that lawsuit, but they didn’t. That lawsuit opened the doors for all kinds of intellectual property theft. One good thing is that it did lead to further patent laws protecting software. Patent laws are not perfect yet but it helped.


16 posted on 10/29/2013 11:02:13 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Yeah - looks like the spell checker bit me!


17 posted on 10/29/2013 11:03:51 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: KarlInOhio

The PC would have died as it was expensive. Other companies like Acorn Computers (Ironic that the IBM was code named ‘Acorn’) now produces the ARM chip which is used in most hand held devices like cell phones. There would have still been massive competition but I think the market would have stagnated for a number of years. However, we might have had some great breakthroughs in technology instead of the same-old PC we’ve had. I love the PC but what might have been otherwise?


18 posted on 10/29/2013 11:05:14 AM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: CodeToad
You might be thinking about the hardware interrupts,

You are correct. The IBM PC greatly limited the hardware interrupts.

19 posted on 10/29/2013 11:06:44 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: RightGeek
My condolences to the family of Mr Lowe, but the article is mistaken. Philip Don Estridge is the "Father of the IBM PC" and he passed away in a plane crash in 1985.

---

Total change of topic, and technically I suppose are right, but to me "passing away" in a "plane crash" don't seem to belong in the same sentence.

No biggie, just sayin'

20 posted on 10/29/2013 11:07:16 AM PDT by freedomlover
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