
	    PC pioneer Kildall dies in Monterey
	    By Rory J. O'Connor

	    Kildall lost to Gates with IBM
	    Personal computer giant remembered for deal he didn't make

	Personal computer pioneer Gary Kildall, who but for a single
	failed business deal might have enjoyed the wealth and fame of
	Bill Gates, died Monday night in a Monterey hospital at age
	52.

	Kildall was admitted late Sunday to the Community Hospital of
	the Monterey Peninsula. He died around 9 p.m. Monday, said Jean
	Tierney, the hospital's administrative supervisor.  She said
	the hospital did not know the cause of death.

	Kildall apparently was taken to the hospital after suffering a
	concussion in a fall, said Thomas Rolander, a longtime friend
	and former business associate of Kildall. While an autopsy
	report is still incomplete, Rolander said evidence indicates
	Kildall suffered a fatal heart attack.  It is unclear if the
	two conditions were related.

	Kildall's career spans the history of the personal computer,
	which he was instrumental in popularizing in the 1970s.

	"Gary's technical contributions in the beginning days of
	microcomputing were order-of-magnitude enhancements to the
	capabilities with which we were working," said Jim Warren, a
	Woodside consultant who played a key role in early
	microcomputing.  "The were enhancements both in technical power
	and in equitable consumer-oriented pricing and support
	practices."

	In 1972, Kildall was an associate professor of computer science
	at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and a
	consultant for Intel Corp., which the year before had created
	the world's first microprocessor chip. Kildall wrote a version
	of the PL/I programming language that worked on the chip, the
	Intel 4004.  A year later, frustrated with the difficulty of
	making the 4004 work with disk drives and other computer
	components, he wrote the first personal computer operating
	system.

	A PC Breakthrough

	The program, called Control Program for Micro-Computers and
	shortened to CP/M, offered hobbyists a way to use their
	microcomputers, as they were then called, in the same way as
	larger minicomputers and mainframes. Before, the computers were
	programmed in laborious ways, like flipping switches on the
	front panel of the machines. With CP/M, they could type
	instructions on a keyboard, store data on a floppy disk or tape
	recorder and view results on a screen or printer.

	Digital Research, the company started in 1976 by Kildasll and
	his first wife, Dorth McEwen, sold CP/M for $75 each.  Kildall,
	who disliked business, said in a 1981 interview that he hoped
	"just to support my computer habits" with the proceeds.

	But the typical minicomputer operating system at the time sold
	for at least $10,000, and Intel's own operating system for
	microcomputers cost $800.  CP/M soon became the standard
	operating system for personal computers, which could be bought
	for as little as a thousand dollars.  By 1981, Kildall was one
	of the best known figures in the $2 billion personal computer
	business, and his $10 million company had sold 250,000 copies
	of CP/M.

	Negotiated with IBM

	However, Kildall is probably best remembered for being on the
	losing end of one of the biggest deals in computer history.

	In 1980, IBM contacted Digital Research, hoping to persuatde it
	to produce a new version of CP/M for the personal computer IBM
	was secretly developing.  Kildall didn't think much of IBM"s
	chances but met with the company anyway.

	"IBM wanted to take the market away from Apple, and they looked
	at them and saw that the SoftCard (a CP/M add-in card for the
	Apple II) was an important part of it," Kildall said in a 1991
	interview.

	Negotiations went badly, Rolander said. IBM wanted Digital
	Research to sign a non-disclosure agreement but refused to sign
	one in return.  IBM wanted to pay a flat fee for CP/M, with no
	royalties, and change the software's name.

	Silicon Valley legend has it that Kildall, a passionate private
	pilot, missed a crucial meeting because he decided to go flying
	instead. While Kildall did fly that morning, Rolander said, he
	attended the afternoon meeting.

	IBM decided to hedge its bets.  During a visit to tiny
	Microsoft Corp., to obtain a version of its BASIC programming
	language, IBM inquired if the company also could provide an
	operating system.

	Microsoft moves in

	Even though he didn't have one, Microsoft founder Bill Gates
	readily agreed to IBM's request. He bought a CP/M clone called
	DOS from Seattle Computer Products, a company run by a friend
	of Gates, for $250,000.  That program became MS-DOS, proably
	the most widely used software in the world, and helped turn
	Gates into a billionaire.

	Kildall had earlier sued Seattle Computer Products for
	copyright infringement. When he confronted IBM with the fact,
	IBM responded that it would agree to license CP/M as well -- if
	Kildall agreed never to sue.  He did, only to discover when the
	IBM PC was introduced that the price of DOS was $40, while the
	price of CP/M-86 was $200 more.

	"It was only through inadequately sharp business hustling that
	MS-DOS took the IBM cake when, by rights, CP/M should have done
	so," Warren said.

	But hard-nosed business was not Kildall's style.

	"Basicly I am a gadget-oriented person," Kildall said in 1981.
	"I like to work with gadgets, dials and knobs. I'm not a very
	competitive person.  I'm forced into it."

	Kildasll remained active in the industry until his death. He
	was Digital Research chairman until 1991, when Novell Inc.
	bought the company. He started an early multimedia company in
	Monterey in 1985, and later moved to Austin, Texas, to persue
	the field. He recently returned to Monterey and spent the last
	year and a half writing an unpublished book on the computer
	industry called "Computer Connections."

	Kildall was born in Seattle on May 19, 1942, and studied
	computer science at the University of Washington, eventually
	earning a Ph.D.  He then took his post at the Naval
	Postgraduate School.

	Kildall met McEwen while in high school. The two married in
	1963 and were divorced 20 years later. Kildall married his
	second wife, Karen, in 1986.  They were recently divorced.

	Kildall is survived by two children; Scott, of San Fransisco,
	and Kristin, of Seattle; his mother, Emma; and a sister, Patti
	Guberlet, both of Seattle.

	Kildall, who was also race car enthusiast who collected and
	rebuilt Grand Prix cars, will be cremated after a memorial
	service later this week.  Details are incomplete.
