IP: also WORTH READING History of 8008?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Bob is an old and valued friend djf

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Robert M. McClure" <rmm () unidot com>
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 13:48:54 -0700
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: WORTH READING History of 8008?

Let me add a few bits to the Datapoint (Computer Terminal
Corporation) story.  Essentially, the story as related by Gordon
Peterson is correct and there are but a few details to add and/or
correct.

I was, so to speak, present at the creation, and am the principal
architect of the first Computer Terminal Corporation product, the
Model 3300, which we described as a glass teletype.  I had just
set up shop as a consultant in early 1967 when I was called by
an old friend, Charles W. Skelton who asked for an appointment.
Charley (as he was called) was a former boss of mine at Texas
Instruments, and he brought with him another old friend, J. P.
(for Philip) Ray.  Phil was a former student of mine at the University
of Texas when I was a graduate instructor in EE and was later
an associate at a company called International Data Systems.

Charley started the meeting by noting that he and Phil and another
person (August Roche) who I did not know previously had raised
the money to start a company, called Computer Terminal Corporation,
to design and manufacture computer terminals.  The only problem,
according to Charley, was that none of them had ever seen a computer
terminal and had no idea what to do, and that all the money raising
presentation had been clipped from various issues of Business Week,
Fortune, etc.  Basically, they asked if I had any ideas.  As it turned
out, I did.  The time sharing computer business was just getting off
the ground at that time and the principal terminals in use were Model
33 Teletypes.  I suggested that the first product be essentially a
complete emulation of the Model 33 protocol, on the ground that this
would not require the time sharing computer operators to modify their
software, which would be a big plus.  The name Datapoint 3300 was
chosen for this terminal.

This, in fact, was what was done.  Phil, who took over the company
when Charley had a dispute with one of the investors, also wanted a
first class industrial design and when to Raymond Loewy associates
in New York.  The associate actually assigned to the project was
a young industrial designer named John Frassanito.  Jack designed
the 3300 and substantially every piece of equipment that CTC (later
Datapoint) ever manufactured.  (He has also done, and still does,
a lot of design work for NASA as well.)  There were several subsequent
models of the "dumb" terminal.

Gus Roche was the first Director of Engineering, but after Phil moved
up to CEO, he became the Chief Operating Officer.  Gus sought to
hire and then did hire Vic Poor as Director of Engineering.  Vic pushed
the company, now Datapoint, into the programmable computer business.
As Gordon related, Vic was the principal designer of the 2200, and Harry
Pyle a major contributor.  A slight error crept into the story at this
point.
While Harry was a major part of the software effort, much of the early
software, including the operating system, was designed and written by
Mike Green, another former student of mine who I had introduced to
Datapoint.  (For the historical record, Mike subsequently went to medical
school, and currently practices in Minneapolis.)

Discussions between Phil and myself led to the program to get the
2200 CPU reduced to silicon by Texas Instruments and Intel.  I felt
sure that that would ultimately be the way to go, but didn't realize the
long struggle that it would take to get their.  As was noted, TI did not
successfully build a processor (but did apply for and receive several
patents on the monolithic implementation of several of the features in
the 2200 CPU).  Intel did succeed, but by the time they had Datapoint
had moved on to a faster and less expensive implementation using
conventional TTL logic, so the Intel processor (the 8008) was never
used by Datapoint.

I would note in passing that a major contributor is several areas was
the head of manufacturing for Datapoint, Dick Norman, who considerably
simplified the construction, assembly and test of Datapoint products and
(perhaps regrettably) reduced the cost of manufacturing the CPU board
to the point that monolithic processors of the day simply could not compete.

It is with regret that I note that several of the major participants in this
drama are no longer with us, most notably Phil Ray, Gus Roche, and
Dick Norman.

Bob McClure



------ End of Forwarded Message

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/