Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
universe—fromOSstonetworkingsoftwaretoutilities, fromwordprocessorstodatabase
programs to spreadsheets.
In the early days of the PC, IBM hired Microsoft to provide most of the core software for
the PC. IBM developed the hardware, wrote the basic input/output system (BIOS), and
hired Microsoft to develop the disk operating system (DOS) as well as several other pro-
grams and utilities for the PC. In what was later viewed as perhaps the most costly busi-
nessmistake inhistory,IBMfailedtosecureexclusive rightstotheDOSithadcontracted
from Microsoft, either by purchasing it outright or by an exclusive license agreement. In-
stead, IBM licensed it nonexclusively, which subsequently allowed Microsoft to sell the
sameMS-DOScodeitdevelopedforIBMtoanyothercompanythatwasinterested.Early
PCclonerssuchasCompaqeagerlylicensedthisOScode,andsuddenlyconsumerscould
purchase the same basic MS-DOS OS with several different company names on the box.
In retrospect, that single contractual error made Microsoft the dominant software com-
pany it is today and subsequently caused IBM to lose control of the very PC standard it
had created.
As a writer (of words, not software), I can appreciate what an incredible oversight this
was.Imaginethatabookpublishercomesupwithagreatideaforapopularbookandthen
contractswithanauthortowriteit.Then,byvirtueofapoorlywrittencontract,theauthor
discovers that he can legally sell the same book (perhaps with a different title) to all the
competitors of the original publisher. Of course, no publisher I know would allow this to
happen; yet that is exactly what IBM allowed Microsoft to do back in 1981. By virtue of
its deal with Microsoft, IBM lost control of the software it commissioned for its new PC.
It is interesting to note that in the PC business, software enjoys copyright protection,
whereas hardware can be protected only by patents, which are much more difficult, time-
consuming, and expensive to obtain. And in the case of U.S. patents, they also expire 20
years after filing. According to the U.S. patent office, “any new and useful process, ma-
chine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement there-
of”canbepatented.ThisdefinitionmadeitdifficulttopatentmostaspectsoftheIBMPC
because it was designed using previously existing parts that anybody could purchase off
the shelf. In fact, most of the important parts for the original PC came from Intel, such as
the 8088 processor, 8284 clock generator, 8253/54 timer, 8259 interrupt controller, 8237
DMA (direct memory access) controller, 8255 peripheral interface, and 8288 bus control-
ler. These chips made up the heart and soul of the original PC motherboard.
Because the design of the original PC was not wholly patented and virtually all the parts
were readily available, almost anybody could duplicate the hardware of the IBM PC. All
one had to do was purchase the same chips from the same manufacturers and suppliers
IBM used and design a new motherboard with a similar circuit. IBM made it even easier
