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Not to be confused with Digital Equipment Corporation.

Digital Research, Inc.
Company typePrivate[1]
IndustrySoftware
Founded1974; 50 years ago (1974) in Pacific Grove, California, United States
FounderGary Kildall
Defunct1991; 33 years ago (1991)
FateAcquired by Novell
Headquarters
Key people
ProductsCompilers, operating systems, graphical user interfaces
Revenue
  • US$45 million (1983)[2]
  • US$36.2 million (1989)[3]
  • US$40.9 million (1990)[3]
  • US$45.5 million (1991)[4]
Number of employees
Websitewww.digitalresearch.biz

Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a privately held American software company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and GEM. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world.[9] Digital Research was originally based in Pacific Grove, California, later in Monterey, California.

History

[edit]
The original Digital Research logo, used from 1977 to the early 1980s
The original Digital Research logo, used from 1977 to the early 1980s

1974–1979: Founding and incorporation

[edit]

In 1972, Gary Kildall, an instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, began working at Intel as a consultant under the business name Microcomputer Applications Associates (MAA).[10] By 1974, he had developed Control Program/Monitor, or CP/M, the first disk operating system for microcomputers.

In 1974 he incorporated as Intergalactic Digital Research, with his wife handling the business side of the operation.[10] The company soon began operating under its shortened name Digital Research.[10] The company's operating systems, starting with CP/M for 8080/Z80-based microcomputers, were the de facto standard of their era. Digital Research's product suite included the original 8-bit CP/M and its various offshoots like MP/M (1979), a multi-tasking multi-user version of CP/M.[citation needed]

1980–1990: CP/M, CP/M-86

[edit]

After Microsoft present MS-DOS that was based on CP/M, Digital Research released CP/M-86, which was the first 16-bit system (1981, adapted to the IBM PC in early 1982), which was meant as direct competitor to MS-DOS. There followed the multi-tasking MP/M-86 (1981), and Concurrent CP/M (1982), a single-user version featuring virtual consoles from which applications could be launched to run concurrently.[11]

In May 1983 Digital Research announced that it would offer PC DOS versions of all of its languages and utilities.[12] It remained influential, with US$45 million in 1983 sales making Digital Research the fourth-largest microcomputer software company.[2] Admitting that it had "lost" the 8088 software market but hoped to succeed with the Intel 80286 and Motorola 68000, by 1984 the company formed a partnership with AT&T Corporation to develop software for Unix System V and sell its own and third-party products in retail stores.[13] Jerry Pournelle warned later that year, however, that "Many people of stature seem to have left or are leaving Digital Research. DR had better get its act together."[14]

In a parallel development Digital Research also produced a selection of programming language compilers and interpreters for their OS-supported platforms, including C, Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN, PL/I, PL/M, CBASIC, BASIC, and Logo.

Digital Research developed CP/M-86 as an alternative to MS-DOS and it was made available through IBM in early 1982. The company later created an MS-DOS clone with advanced features called DR DOS, which pressured Microsoft to further improve its own DOS.

At the time the IBM Personal Computer was being developed, Digital Research's CP/M was the dominant operating system of the day. In 1980, IBM asked Digital Research to supply a version of CP/M written for the Intel 8086 microprocessor as the standard operating system for the PC, which would use the code-compatible Intel 8088 chip. Digital Research, uneasy about the conditions related to making such an agreement with IBM, refused.[citation needed]

Microsoft seized this opportunity to supply an OS, in addition to other software (e.g., BASIC) for the new IBM PC. When the IBM PC arrived in late 1981, it came with PC DOS, an OEM version of MS-DOS, which was developed from 86-DOS, which Microsoft had acquired for this purpose. By mid-1982, MS-DOS was also marketed for use in hardware-compatible non-IBM computers. This one decision resulted in Microsoft becoming the leading name in computer software.

This story is detailed from the point of view of Microsoft and IBM in the PBS series Triumph of the Nerds,[15] and from the point of view of Gary Kildall's friends and coworkers in The Computer Chronicles.[16]

The competition between MS-DOS and DR DOS is one of the more controversial chapters of microcomputer history. Microsoft offered better licensing terms to any computer manufacturer that committed to selling MS-DOS with every system they shipped, making it uneconomical for them to offer systems with another OS, since the manufacturer would still be required to pay a license fee to Microsoft for that system. This practice led to a US Department of Justice investigation, resulting in a decision in 1994 that barred Microsoft from "per-processor" licensing.[17]

Successive revisions of Concurrent CP/M incorporated MS-DOS API emulation (since 1983), which gradually added more support for DOS applications and the FAT file system. These versions were named Concurrent DOS (1984), with Concurrent PC DOS (1984) being the version adapted to run on IBM compatible PCs.[citation needed]

In 1985, soon after the introduction of the 80286-based IBM PC/AT, Digital Research introduced a real-time system, initially called Concurrent DOS 286.

Other single-user operative systems were launched: DOS Plus (1985) and DR DOS (1988). The latter system was marketed as a direct MS-DOS/PC DOS replacement with added functionality. In order to achieve this, it gave up built-in support to run CP/M applications and was changed to use DOS-compatible internal structures. It became a successful product line in itself.[citation needed]

Graphics Environment Manager (1985)

[edit]
Graphics Environment Manager (GEM) Graphic User Interface (GUI) in 1985

In 1985 Digital Research also produced a microcomputer version of the GKS graphics standard (related to NAPLPS) called GSX, and later used this as the basis of their GEM GUI. Less known are their application programs, limited largely to the GSX-based DR DRAW and a small suite of GUI programs for GEM. After the development of GEM, Microsoft introduced Windows 1.0.

Digital Research (and later its successor Caldera) accused Microsoft of announcing vaporware versions of MS-DOS to suppress sales of DR DOS.[citation needed]

FlexOS, Concurrent DOS XM and Concurrent DOS 386

[edit]

Concurrent PC DOS later evolved into the modular FlexOS (1986). This exploited the greater memory addressing capability of the new CPU to provide a more flexible multi-tasking environment. There was a small but powerful set of system APIs, each with a synchronous and an asynchronous variant. Pipes were supported, and all named resources could be aliased by setting environment variables. This system was to enjoy enduring favour in point-of-sale systems.[citation needed]

Other successors of Concurrent DOS were Concurrent DOS XM (1986) and the 32-bit Concurrent DOS 386 (1987).

1990 and 1991: Multiuser DOS

[edit]
Logo of Digital Research used briefly toward the end of its independent existence, from March 1990[18] to 1991
Logo of Digital Research used briefly toward the end of its independent existence, from March 1990[18] to 1991

In 1991 DR presented Multiuser DOS. Digital Research's multi-user family of operating systems was sidelined with the previous single user operative systems.[citation needed]

In one beta release of Windows 3.1, Microsoft included hidden code (later called the AARD code) that detected DR DOS and displayed a cryptic error message.[19][4]

1991–2014: Acquisition by Novell

[edit]
See also: FlexOS, Novell, and Caldera (company)

Digital Research was purchased by Novell for US$80 million in 1991.[20]

primarily for Novell to gain access to the operating system line. FlexOS, this operative system had already been adopted as the basis for the following systems:

Caldera

[edit]
Part of this section is transcluded from Caldera (company). (edit | history)

Caldera, Inc. was a Canopy-funded software company founded in October 1994[21] and incorporated on 25 January 1995[22] by former Novell employees Bryan Wayne Sparks, Ransom H. Love and others to develop the Caldera Network Desktop (CND) and later create a Linux distribution named OpenLinux (COL). The company was originally based in Provo and later in Orem, Utah, USA.

History

[edit]

Their first product in 1995 was Caldera Network Desktop, which was based on Red Hat Linux[23][24] and Novell's Corsair Internet Desktop. It also included LISA (Linux Installation and System Administration),[24] which had been developed by the German Linux Support Team (LST) for their own Linux distribution.[25]

The newer OpenLinux distribution was based on LST Power Linux, a Slackware-derived distribution that had been maintained by LST since 1993[26] and the first to come with a Linux 2.0 kernel.[25]

Looking for a DOS operating system to bundle with their OpenLinux distribution,[21] Caldera, backed up by The Canopy Group as their largest investor, acquired Novell DOS 7 and other Digital Research assets from Novell on 23 July 1996.[27][28] The deal consisted of a direct payment of US$400000 as well as percentual royalties for any revenues derived from DR-DOS to Novell.[29] Caldera filed the Caldera v. Microsoft antitrust lawsuit the same day.[30] This lawsuit related to Caldera's claims of monopolization, illegal tying, exclusive dealing, and tortious interference by Microsoft. An example was that certain beta versions of Windows 3.1 produced technically groundless "non-fatal" fake error messages when installing and running them on DR DOS 6.0 due to a check known as AARD code in order to create fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) and destroy DR DOS' reputation.[19][4][31][32][33][34] Another example was bundling and artificially tying MS-DOS 7 and Windows 4 into a single product (Windows 95) in order to eliminate competition. Caldera later demonstrated that it would have been beneficial for DOS and Windows users to have a choice between MS-DOS and DR-DOS feature-wise, and that it was technically possible to run Windows 4 on DR-DOS 7 simply by faking some new, unnecessarily complex but functionally non-essential internal interfaces through WinGlue.[30][35][36][37][38][39][40] See Microsoft litigation#Caldera v Microsoft.

Since Digital Research's CP/M and MP/M had no commercial value for Caldera, they offered various binaries and sources for download on their site and allowed the redistribution and modification of more collected CP/M files through Tim Olmstead's independent "The Unofficial CP/M Web site" since 1997, for as long as they did not contain any DOS technology.[41][42][43]

Caldera, Inc. supported the Linux-port of Star Division's StarOffice 3.1 with ca. DM 800000 in order to offer the product with their OpenLinux distribution in 1997.[44][45][46][47]

Subsidiaries

[edit]

While active, Caldera, Inc. created a number of subsidiaries.

Caldera UK

[edit]

Under the direction of Roger Alan Gross as General Manager of Caldera's Digital Research Systems Group (DSG) the UK-based development center Caldera UK Ltd. (51°12′19″N 1°28′44″W / 51.20531°N 1.478786°W / 51.20531; -1.478786 (Caldera UK Ltd., Aldwych House, Winchester Street, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 2EA, UK)) was incorporated on 20 September 1996[48] to continue the development of the DR-DOS operating system in a converted barn (51°11′18″N 1°29′15″W / 51.188306°N 1.487498°W / 51.188306; -1.487498 (Caldera UK Ltd., Norman Court Barns, Norman Court Lane, Upper Clatford, Andover, Hampshire, UK)) at the periphery of Andover, Hampshire, UK. Caldera UK developed various DOS-based products including OpenDOS 7.01 (COD), DR-DOS 7.02, DR-DOS 7.03 and DR-WebSpyder.[49]

Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. closed the Caldera UK Ltd. development office in February 1999 soon after the release of DR-DOS 7.03, thereby effectively stopping any DOS development.

Caldera Deutschland

[edit]

Caldera, Inc. incorporated the German Linux Support Team's (LST) configuration manager LISA into Caldera's Network Desktop in 1995.[24]

In 1996 Linux Support Team grew into Stefan Probst's and Ralf Flaxa's company LST Software GmbH (with LST now standing for Linux System Technology[26]) in Erlangen, Germany. This led to a collaboration with Caldera to develop OpenLinux.

LST Software became Caldera's German development center Caldera Deutschland GmbH for Linux-based technologies since May 1997.[25][26]

Caldera Deutschland continued to develop Linux system software for Caldera's Linux-branch until it was closed at the end of 2001 by its US-based mother-house.[26][47]

Caldera Taiwan

[edit]

On 1 June 1998, Caldera, Inc. opened a sales office for its DOS-based products in Taipei, Taiwan, run by Irrana and Henry Huang.[50]

Caldera, Caldera Systems and Caldera Thin Clients

[edit]

On 2 September 1998, Caldera, Inc. announced the creation of two Utah-based wholly owned subsidiaries, Caldera Systems, Inc. and Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., in order to split up tasks and directions.[51]

Under Sparks' lead, the shell company Caldera, Inc. remained responsible for the Caldera v. Microsoft lawsuit. Microsoft lawyers tried repeatedly to have the case dismissed but without success. On 7 January 2000, immediately after the completion of the pre-trial deposition stage (where the parties list the evidence they intend to present), Microsoft settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum,[52][53] which in 2009 was revealed to be US$280000000.[54][55][56][53] Caldera, Inc. ceased to exist soon after.[57]

Caldera Systems, Caldera Holdings, Caldera International, Caldera K.K., and The SCO Group

[edit]
Main article: Caldera International

Caldera Systems, Inc. (CSI), headed by Love as president and CEO since its incorporation in Orem, Utah, on 21 August 1998,[58] targeted the Linux-based software business including OpenLinux, with Caldera Deutschland as their German Linux development center. The company reincorporated in Delaware on 2 March 2000[59] and completed an IPO of its common stock as CALD. On the first day of trading Caldera's shares doubled in value, briefly touching US$33, and by the end of the first day the company had a market capitalisation of US$1100000000. However, at a time when technology IPOs were attracting extremely high valuations, Caldera Systems's performance was generally perceived as a disappointment.[60][61]

The company reorganized in August 2000 and became Caldera International, Inc. (CII) in March 2001.

In May 2001, Caldera International, with investments of Fujitsu and Hitachi, opened the Caldera K.K. (カルデラ株式会社) subsidiary, directed by Makoto Asoh, in Tokyo, Japan.[62]

In August 2002, Caldera International renamed itself into The SCO Group, Inc. under the lead of Darl McBride.

Caldera UK, Caldera Thin Clients, Lineo, and Embedix

[edit]
Main article: Lineo

Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. (CTC), incorporated in August 1998 and originally led by Gross as president and CEO,[51] instead developed DOS- and Linux-based thin clients and solutions for embedded systems. Originally located in Orem[51] and later in Lindon, it was meant to become the US-based "parent" company for Caldera UK Ltd. When Gross resigned and Caldera UK Ltd. was disbanded in February 1999, and when the attempt to relocate the DR-DOS development into the US failed,[63][64] Caldera Thin Clients, under the new lead of Sparks, soon refocused on Linux.[65][66][67]

In April 1999, Caldera Thin Clients released the no longer needed sources to GEM and ViewMAX under the GNU General Public License (GPL).[68]

On 20 July 1999, Caldera Thin Clients was renamed into Lineo, Inc.[65][66][67] Lineo licensed a stripped down OpenLinux distribution from Caldera Systems and named it Embedix.[67] They continued to maintain the former Caldera Thin Clients sales office in Taipei in 1999. In January 2000, Lineo reincorporated in Delaware.

In October 2001, Lineo refreshed and expanded the free CP/M redistribution license after Olmstead's death.[69][70][71][72]

By July 2002, the company had reformed as Embedix, Inc.[73] under the lead of Matthew R. Harris, formerly a Summit Law attorney for Caldera, Inc. Embedix ceased to exist later that year. Some DR-DOS assets fell to the Canopy Group and were acquired by DRDOS, Inc. aka DeviceLogics in 2002. Key parts of the Linux-based Embedix assets were acquired by Motorola's Metrowerks on 17 December 2002.[74][75][76]

Caldera Graphics

[edit]

Totally unrelated to the above-mentioned US-based Caldera companies, there is also a French software company named Caldera, specialized in imaging software for wide format digital printing. In order to better distinguish it from the US-based companies, the French company was also referred to under the name Caldera Graphics SAS for several years. Created in 1991, it has since got back its Caldera trademark from the SCO Group, as well as the caldera.com website since 2010. This French company produces RIP software as well as other solutions dedicated to digital printers and to the Digital Printing industry. The company was taken over by Dover in 2017.[77]

See also

[edit]

References

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  54. ^ Jones, Pamela (2009-11-23). "Exhibits to Microsoft's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment in Novell WordPerfect Case". Groklaw. Archived from the original on 2013-08-21. Retrieved 2011-10-22. […] exhibits attached to Microsoft's Memorandum of Law in support of Microsoft's cross motion for summary judgment in the Novell v. Microsoft antitrust litigation. We finally find out what Microsoft paid Caldera to settle the DrDOS litigation back in 2000: $280 million. We even get to read the settlement agreement. It's attached as an exhibit. […] The settlement terms were sealed for all these years, but […] now that mystery is solved. […] We also find out what Caldera/Canopy then paid Novell from that $280 million: $35.5 million at first, and then after Novell successfully sued Canopy in 2004, Caldera's successor-in-interest on this matter, an additional $17.7 million, according to page 16 of the Memorandum. Microsoft claims that Novell is not the real party in interest in this antitrust case, and so it can't sue Microsoft for the claims it has lodged against it, because, Microsoft says, Novell sold its antitrust claims to Caldera when it sold it DrDOS. So the exhibits are trying to demonstrate that Novell got paid in full, so to speak, via that earlier litigation. As a result, we get to read a number of documents from the Novell v. Canopy litigation. Novell responds it retained its antitrust claims in the applications market. […]
  55. ^ Burt, Thomas W.; Sparks, Bryan Wayne (2000-01-07). "Settlement agreement - Microsoft Corporation and Caldera, Inc. reach agreement to settle antitrust lawsuit" (PDF) (Faxed court document). Case 1:05-cv-01087-JFM, Document 104-8, Filed 2009-11-13; NOV00107061-NOV00107071; LT2288-LT2298; Lan12S311263739.1; Exhibit A. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2018-08-03. […] Microsoft will pay to Caldera, by wire transfer in accordance with written instructions provided by Caldera, the amount of two hundred eighty million dollars ($280,000,000), as full settlement of all claims or potential claims covered by this agreement […] (NB. This document of the Caldera v. Microsoft case was an exhibit in the Novell v. Microsoft and Comes v. Microsoft cases.)
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  57. ^ Collins, Lois M.; Nii, Jenifer (2000-01-16). "Settlement fuels Caldera 'family' - Orem company is 'settling up' with spinoffs thriving". Deseret News. Archived from the original on 2019-11-30. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
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  61. ^ Beale, Matthew (2000-03-22). "Caldera IPO Marks First Linux Disappointment". ECommerce Times. ECT News Network, Inc. Archived from the original on 2017-06-24. Retrieved 2017-06-24.
  62. ^ Business Editors/High-Tech Writers (2001-05-31). "Caldera Establishes Japanese Subsidiary -- Caldera K.K. -- With support from Fujitsu and Hitachi". Orem, UT, USA: Business Wire. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2011-09-04.
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Further reading

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Notable employees

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Several notable employees worked at Digital Research, some of which later made important contributions to the IT industry, such as:

Acquisitions

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Compiler Systems Acquired; Language Division Formed Under Gordon Eubanks, Jr. - Digital Research Acquires Compiler Systems; Will Now Provide the Microcomputer Industry with One-stop Shopping for Total Systems Support" (PDF). Digital Research News - for Digital Research Users Everywhere. 1 (1). Pacific Grove, California, USA: Digital Research, Inc.: 1, 7. November 1981. Fourth Quarter. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2020-01-18.

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Further reading

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