Phillip Franklin produced an excellent history of PC OS development. I
might quibble with emphasis in some areas but that's about all. Some
additional comments.
>IBM and Microsoft were jointly working on what was commonly
>called OS/2. Basically it would replace DOS hence the name OS/2.
IBM started the development of OS/2 since it needed a reliable,
multi-tasking operating system so that new products (such as ATM's)
could be built on low cost PC hardware. Microsoft asked to be
included. While many think OS/2 is dead you'd be surprised to know how
many ATM's are controlled by OS/2. Banks may be one of the last
bastions of OS/2 usage.
>OS/2 was thought about way before Apple had released it's Lisa or Mac.
Very much so. I was brought in to build a system test team in August,
1985. Much of the system had already been designed and a great deal of
development was already underway.
> I don't think these companies ever had an official bad word to say to
one >another. In fact, much of the money needed to create the Power
PC chip from >Motorola came from IBM. So IBM actually had a large
stake in development of
>the Power PC Macs.
Actually, a very large stake since IBM supplied not only the money for
Power PC development but also the first chip design. Motorola had a
fine chip fab plant but didn't have the design expertise for a really
high performance CPU. When Apple realized that the Motorola 68000 line
was running out of gas they approached IBM for a new CPU since the Power
PC chip was already known. That started a close business relationship
with IBM. By 1992 I was having meetings with Apple folks on common,
multi-media data standards.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
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