<story><title>MSX-DOS</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX-DOS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavlov</author><text>Everybody has heard of MS-DOS, but Microsoft’s backport to 8-bit systems is more obscure.&lt;p&gt;Since MS-DOS was practically a CP&amp;#x2F;M clone for 16-bit computers, Microsoft realized they could port it to 8-bit and it would be a binary-compatible cleanroom CP&amp;#x2F;M clone. And that’s what they did. It was sold as a standard for Japanese home computers — MSX, a predecessor of Xbox in both nomenclature and target market.&lt;p&gt;The person tasked with creating this 8-bit port was Tim Paterson, the original creator of MS-DOS. Usually the story of IBM PC and Microsoft paints Paterson as a victim of Gates’s licensing machinations, but this MSX-DOS episode shows he continued to have a profitable relationship with Microsoft:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;’On 10 August 1983, Paul Allen called Tim Paterson, original author of 86-DOS and MS-DOS 1.x, asking him to do a &amp;quot;Z80 version of MS-DOS&amp;quot; for the MSX standard. At the time, Paterson was busy trying to get the first product of his startup Falcon Systems ready to go, so he suggested a few other developers, but Allen said he had already asked. Allen was in a hurry to get it done and nobody else could meet his timeline. Allen and Paterson finally agreed, and on 17 August, they signed an agreement to do &amp;quot;Z80 MS-DOS 1.25&amp;quot; for US$100,000 and the rights for Paterson&amp;#x27;s company to distribute MS-DOS 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 with a hardware product without royalty.’&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>justsomehnguy</author><text>&amp;gt; Usually the story of IBM PC and Microsoft paints Paterson as a victim of Gates’s licensing machinations&lt;p&gt;Slight offtopic:&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m always amused by &amp;#x27;Gates had nothing [aside the money from his parents] and M$ was successful only because he ripped Paterson&amp;#x27; story.&lt;p&gt;When I point to what MS already did by then I only hear crickets.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The &lt;i&gt;1980&lt;/i&gt; year-end sales total $8,000,000. The 1980 Calendar Year employee headcount totals 40 people.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Other products released in &lt;i&gt;1980&lt;/i&gt;: Basic Compiler 5.3, TRS-DOS COBOL and Basic, muLISP and muMATH, TRS-80 Editor&amp;#x2F;Assember, XMacro-86 Cross Assembler, COBOL-80 Compiler 4.0, BASIC Interpreter for Z8000, Olympic Decathlon (game), M&amp;#x2F;SORT, FORTRAN &amp;amp; COBOL for Apple II, RAMcard (memory expander for the Apple II)&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;learn.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;shows&amp;#x2F;history&amp;#x2F;history-of-microsoft-1980&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;learn.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;shows&amp;#x2F;history&amp;#x2F;history-of-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>MSX-DOS</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX-DOS</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavlov</author><text>Everybody has heard of MS-DOS, but Microsoft’s backport to 8-bit systems is more obscure.&lt;p&gt;Since MS-DOS was practically a CP&amp;#x2F;M clone for 16-bit computers, Microsoft realized they could port it to 8-bit and it would be a binary-compatible cleanroom CP&amp;#x2F;M clone. And that’s what they did. It was sold as a standard for Japanese home computers — MSX, a predecessor of Xbox in both nomenclature and target market.&lt;p&gt;The person tasked with creating this 8-bit port was Tim Paterson, the original creator of MS-DOS. Usually the story of IBM PC and Microsoft paints Paterson as a victim of Gates’s licensing machinations, but this MSX-DOS episode shows he continued to have a profitable relationship with Microsoft:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;’On 10 August 1983, Paul Allen called Tim Paterson, original author of 86-DOS and MS-DOS 1.x, asking him to do a &amp;quot;Z80 version of MS-DOS&amp;quot; for the MSX standard. At the time, Paterson was busy trying to get the first product of his startup Falcon Systems ready to go, so he suggested a few other developers, but Allen said he had already asked. Allen was in a hurry to get it done and nobody else could meet his timeline. Allen and Paterson finally agreed, and on 17 August, they signed an agreement to do &amp;quot;Z80 MS-DOS 1.25&amp;quot; for US$100,000 and the rights for Paterson&amp;#x27;s company to distribute MS-DOS 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 with a hardware product without royalty.’&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>prox</author><text>MSX was not a Japanese standard for home computers, although it was the home turf and simply was the most successful there. MSX was meant as a worldwide standard to replace the then current crop of computers with a interchangeable standard. (Atari and C64) were closed technologies.</text></comment>