Seattle Computer Products

Seattle Computer Products. Founded in 1978 by Rod Brock, it was a small but influential manufacturer of S-100 bus computer hardware based in Seattle. The company is historically significant for developing 86-DOS, an operating system that became the foundation for MS-DOS and, consequently, a cornerstone of the IBM PC platform and the dominance of Microsoft. Its operations ceased in 1985 after the sale of its remaining assets.

History

The company was established in 1978 by entrepreneur Rod Brock, operating from a location in the Tukwila industrial area south of Seattle. Initially focused on producing S-100 bus expansion cards, it soon began manufacturing its own line of Intel 8086-based computer systems to capitalize on the emerging 16-bit market. As a competitor to early systems from companies like IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation, it found a niche among hobbyists and small businesses. The pivotal shift in its trajectory came with the internal development of a disk operating system for its hardware, a project led by programmer Tim Paterson. Following the landmark deal with Microsoft for its operating system, the company continued producing hardware before eventually winding down operations in the mid-1980s.

Products

Its primary hardware offerings were S-100 bus microcomputers built around the Intel 8086 microprocessor. The flagship product was the **Seattle Computer Gazelle**, a system that notably featured a hardware design allowing it to run software for the earlier Intel 8080 processor. Other models included the **Seattle Computer Mightyframe** and various memory expansion and I/O cards for the S-100 bus. These systems were sold primarily through mail order and direct sales, competing in a market that included Cromemco, North Star Computers, and early IBM PC clones. The company's most famous and impactful product, however, was not hardware but the software it developed to run on it: the Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS), later refined and renamed 86-DOS.

QDOS and 86-DOS

In 1980, programmer Tim Paterson began developing a new disk operating system for the company's Intel 8086 computers. Dubbed **QDOS** (Quick and Dirty Operating System), it was functionally similar to Digital Research's popular CP/M operating system but written entirely from scratch for the new 16-bit architecture. Paterson's design replicated CP/M's application programming interface (API) and file system structure, ensuring compatibility with existing CP/M software tools like the Microsoft BASIC interpreter. He later refined the system, renaming it **86-DOS**. This operating system's clean, CP/M-compatible design and ownership by a small company made it an attractive asset for Microsoft, which was seeking an OS for a confidential project with IBM.

Relationship with Microsoft

The relationship with Microsoft proved transformative. In late 1980, Microsoft, under contract to provide an operating system for IBM's upcoming Personal Computer, needed a suitable 16-bit OS. Microsoft licensed 86-DOS from the company in a deal worth approximately $25,000. Bill Gates and Paul Allen then purchased all rights to the software in July 1981 for an additional $50,000. Microsoft heavily modified the code, creating MS-DOS, which it then licensed to IBM as PC DOS. This deal was instrumental in establishing the IBM PC compatible standard and fueled the rise of Microsoft as a software giant, while the original developers received a comparatively modest financial return for their foundational work.

Legacy

Its legacy is inextricably linked to the dawn of the IBM PC compatible era. The 86-DOS software, created in a small workshop, became the direct progenitor of MS-DOS, which dominated the personal computer market for over a decade. This story is a classic example in the history of personal computing of how a pivotal technology from a small firm was leveraged by a larger partner to achieve industry-defining scale. The tale of Tim Paterson's development work and the subsequent acquisition by Microsoft is frequently cited in discussions of business strategy and intellectual property within the Silicon Valley and technology sectors. While the company itself faded, its core software innovation helped shape the technological landscape of the late 20th century.

Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States Category:Companies based in Seattle Category:History of computing hardware