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Birth of 86-DOS – By Nemanja Trifunovic

Events and ideas that led to development of the MS-DOS predecessor

Forty-five years ago, in April 1980, a young employee at Seattle Computer Products began developing a small disk operating system for the new Intel 8086-based board. In late 1970s, personal computers were powered by various 8-bit microprocessors: the so-called “eighters” were based on Intel’s 8080 or its derivative Zilog’s Z80, while the “sixers” used processors from Motorola’s 6800 series or MOS Technology’s 6502 which was designed by the same team of engineers. Though originally hired to improve memory card designs, Paterson quickly recognized an opportunity in the extended S-100 standard and the new CPU and convinced his boss to let him work on developing a 16-bit computer part-time with the hope of being first to market with an Intel 8086 microcomputer..

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