I think that the 1976 reference may come from the following. Microsoft had
Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, which may have been available in 1976 (I don't have
release dates handy), used a file system that might have been the beginnings
of the FAT scheme.
Then, I found this reference in a June 1983 article written by Tim Paterson
called "An Inside look at MS-DOS". In that article, there's a sidebar called
"A Short History of MS-DOS" (some paragraphs deleted for brevity):
"...In May 1979, Seattle Computer made the first propotype of its 8086
microprocessor card for the S-100 bus. There were brief discussions with
Digital Research about using one of Seattle Computer's prototypes to aid in
developing CP/M-86, which was to be ready "soon."..."
The article continues:
"Microsoft had already started a strong 8086 software-development program.
The firm was ready to try the 8086 version of Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, which
is a version of its BASIC interpreter with a built-in operating system.
During the last two weeks of May 1979, this BASIC was made completely
functional using the hardware that Seattle Computer provided for Microsoft."
Continuing:
"Seattle Computer shipped its first 8086 cards in November 1979, with
Stand-Alone Disk BASIC as the only software to run on it. The months rolled
by, and CP/M-86 was nowhere in sight. Finally, in April 1980, Seattle
decided to create its own DOS."
And more:
"The first versions of the operating system, called QDOS 0.10, were shipped
in August 1980."
More still:
"In the last few days of 1980, a new version of the DOS was released, now
known as 86-DOS version 0.3. Seattle Computer passed this new version onto
Microsoft, which had bought the non-exclusive rights to market 86-DOS and
had one customer for it at the time."
"In April 1981, Seattle Computer Products released 86-DOS version 1.00,
which was very similar to the versions of MS-DOS that are widely distributed
today."
So, who invented the FAT filesystem we know today? Microsoft
(through Stand-Alone Disk BASIC)? Seattle Computer (through 86-DOS)?
To paraphrase Artie Johnson..."Very interesting".
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Vintage Computer
Festival
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 2:14 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: FAT file system now licensed by MS ?
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Fred N. van Kempen wrote:
> To my own laughter and surprise, Microsoft now claims to have the
> rights to the FAT file system, and intends to execute on a licensing
> program for it, with obvious results.
>
> Wasnt FAT done (in crude format) by MP/M or CP/M86 already *before*
> Microsoft? They claim it was developed by them in 1976, but I seem
> to recall it being mentioned before that, around 1974-ish or so,
> by homebrew people (such as CP/M et al.) ??
>
> --f (who runs FAT on his own PDP-11 OS ;-)
It's a total joke. First of all, the patents referenced on their FAT
licensing website:
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp
...are for long filenames. They have no patent on FAT, and for good
reasons: 1) software patents were not allowed at the time that FAT was
implemented in MS-DOS, and 2) FAT was basically lifted from another OS.
I have no idea why MS would be so stupid as to think people are going to
fall for this, which is basically a sad-assed ruse. Also, I highly
question the history they are promulgating. They claim they developed FAT
in 1976. That seems a bit early. I could be wrong.
Damn losers.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
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Received on Thu Dec 04 2003 - 14:00:21 GMT