Saturday, April 14, 2012

Basic for the 8080

Most people believe that the first BASIC published by Bill Gates was for the 8080, which accounts for the last 4 digits of the main phone number for Microsoft Corporation. However, I'm almost certain that I saw a Microsoft logo banner on the Basic interpreter that I used for a project I did when I was in graduate school. My recollection of that project, while a bit fuzzy (We're talking 1978 - 34 years ago!), is that the CPU in the machine on which I developed it was an Intel 4004, and that the interpreter displayed a Microsoft copyright notice when it loaded. Nevertheless, since the 8080 had been around since 1974, it might well have been the CPU in that box.