PC BIOS - Revision history

FrankRahman at 00:21, 15 January 2026

2026-01-15T00:21:04Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:21, 15 January 2026
Line 1:		Line 1:
			==From IBMs Perspective==
	From Dr David Bradley (the engineer behind the IBM BIOS):		From Dr David Bradley (the engineer behind the IBM BIOS):
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
Line 9:		Line 10:
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

			==Phoenix BIOS==
	<blockquote>Some companies (Compaq, for one) wrote their own BIOSes, but few matched IBM's. The computers suffered compatibility problems and the compatible market remained small. But in 1984, says Alan Painter, a Phoenix sales representative, "Phoenix provided the first commercially available PC-XT BIOS." Companies such as AMI followed suit, Painter says, "and that's when the PC-compatible market was created."<br>		<blockquote>Some companies (Compaq, for one) wrote their own BIOSes, but few matched IBM's. The computers suffered compatibility problems and the compatible market remained small. But in 1984, says Alan Painter, a Phoenix sales representative, "Phoenix provided the first commercially available PC-XT BIOS." Companies such as AMI followed suit, Painter says, "and that's when the PC-compatible market was created."<br>
	(https://web.archive.org/web/20120310002756/http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F1994%2Fjuly94%2Fpcn0713%2Fpcn0713.asp)		(https://web.archive.org/web/20120310002756/http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F1994%2Fjuly94%2Fpcn0713%2Fpcn0713.asp)
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

			"Since its introduction in May 1984, the Phoenix BIOS has given dozens of companies - including Tandy Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and AT&T - an entree to the IBM-compatible personal computer market."<br>
			(InfoWorld, 9 March 1987)

			==AMI==
			AMI wasn't formed until 1985. (https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/226) He also states that "Phoenix was the only game in town" when they began.

FrankRahman at 20:09, 14 January 2026

2026-01-14T20:09:20Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:09, 14 January 2026
Line 7:		Line 7:
	The BIOS as a protection mechanism was an after the fact method. And easy to work around, as Compaq and Phoenix and others quickly showed. So we could get the low hanging fruit and force the cloners to do a little bit of work.<br>		The BIOS as a protection mechanism was an after the fact method. And easy to work around, as Compaq and Phoenix and others quickly showed. So we could get the low hanging fruit and force the cloners to do a little bit of work.<br>
	(https://www.stayforever.de/ibm-pc-a-conversation-with-dr-david-bradley/)		(https://www.stayforever.de/ibm-pc-a-conversation-with-dr-david-bradley/)
			</blockquote>

			<blockquote>Some companies (Compaq, for one) wrote their own BIOSes, but few matched IBM's. The computers suffered compatibility problems and the compatible market remained small. But in 1984, says Alan Painter, a Phoenix sales representative, "Phoenix provided the first commercially available PC-XT BIOS." Companies such as AMI followed suit, Painter says, "and that's when the PC-compatible market was created."<br>
			(https://web.archive.org/web/20120310002756/http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F1994%2Fjuly94%2Fpcn0713%2Fpcn0713.asp)
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

FrankRahman: Created page with "From Dr David Bradley (the engineer behind the IBM BIOS):
Stay Forever: Did you expect DOS-based clone machines to be available so soon – or weren’t you expecting them at all, since your BIOS should act as a "copy protection" mechanism? Dr. Dave: Poor planning on our part. Based on the S100 experience we should have expected clones very quickly. But that would have required us to assume that the PC would be a world changing product and we were just hopi..."

2026-01-14T19:18:31Z

Created page with "From Dr David Bradley (the engineer behind the IBM BIOS): <blockquote> Stay Forever: Did you expect DOS-based clone machines to be available so soon – or weren’t you expecting them at all, since your BIOS should act as a "copy protection" mechanism? Dr. Dave: Poor planning on our part. Based on the S100 experience we should have expected clones very quickly. But that would have required us to assume that the PC would be a world changing product and we were just hopi..."

New page

From Dr David Bradley (the engineer behind the IBM BIOS):
<blockquote>
Stay Forever: Did you expect DOS-based clone machines to be available so soon – or weren’t you expecting them at all, since your BIOS should act as a "copy protection" mechanism?

Dr. Dave: Poor planning on our part. Based on the S100 experience we should have expected clones very quickly. But that would have required us to assume that the PC would be a world changing product and we were just hoping for a successful one. So we (or at least me) weren’t expecting them at all.

The BIOS as a protection mechanism was an after the fact method. And easy to work around, as Compaq and Phoenix and others quickly showed. So we could get the low hanging fruit and force the cloners to do a little bit of work.<br>
(https://www.stayforever.de/ibm-pc-a-conversation-with-dr-david-bradley/)
</blockquote>