Joe Killian, 16/04/2024

(My personal email correspondence with Joe Killian, Tue, 16 Apr 2024 08:10:25 +0200 (CEST))


Hi Thomas,

  Well I guess it could be confusing if you conflate the IMSAI 8080 with the original project goal of a less expensive multiuser auto dealership accounting system. But that would seem unreasonable to me, as the name "IMSAI 8080" was not in anyone's mind until after I was well into the design and needed a name to put on the panel (and came up with that as a suggestion which was accepted), even though there were certainly several ideas and starts in other directions preceding that development.

  I remember the name Doug Earp, though not the person (I must confess here to being singularly poor with people skills). Todd Fischer, however, I remember extremely well. Friends on facebook, though I don't keep in close touch now. Todd was/is quite a character. He was one of a few that we called supertechs at IMSAI. Worked in the service & repair department, very skilled. When IMSAI went bankrupt & was liquidated (A full story in itself), he (& I) were there during the auction sale of the factory contents. Most of that was as you would expect, auctioning off pieces of equipment.
  But when it came to the repair department stuff, there was a room full of racks (like 10 or 20), each with 5 or 6 shelves, all of which were fully loaded with rows and rows of IMSAI fail-test boards. (Yes, this factored into the bankruptcy). To every  one's surprise, the auctioneer didn't auction a shelf full of boards, nor a full rack of boards, but the entire room full of racks as a single unit. An electronics surplus shop owner made a first absurdly low bid, then Todd made a bid. Then the shop owner and Todd again. At that point, the shop owner and Todd realized no one else was bidding on that room full of stuff, and nodded at each other & stopped bidding. I don't remember the final bid, but they got the room full of boards for  a real pittance, like several hundred dollars, and split it between them. (They already knew each other as friends.)
  Todd took his half and set up shop (with fellow repair tech Nancy Frietas) repairing and selling the boards. That business supported Todd & Nancy, and they expanded to manufacturing more pieces as they ran through the repair stock. Todd also trademarked IMSAI, having noticed that Bill Millard never had, and basically called himself the continuation of IMSAI. I'm sure most of this is in what Todd has put on the web. I have admiration for Todd's acumen and boldness in business, not my strengths. I feel more akin to Steve Wozniac or Paul Allen, though not nearly so lucky in partners as they.

  What were the pre IMSAI 8080 directions for improving on the Wang desktop programmable calculators networked to a file-cabinet sized central 5MB disk? What I remember, and it may not be all the ideas & starts, nor necessarily in order, are:
    The LSI-11, as the least expensive variety of the PDP-11,
    The Intel 8080 development system, which we called the blue whale (quite large),
    Some ?? brand of "intelligent" CRT terminal, which incorporated an 8080. I remember programming this and having a lash-up interface to the 8080's RAM (which was also the display RAM, so that when my stack repeatedly overflowed I could see it gradually fill up the screen display).
    The Altair system, which we would have stuck with if it were available to us,
    Designing our own 8080 system.

  At the very beginning of this effort, Bruce Van Natta had been hired for programming, before I returned from my several week break. I don't remember what other programmers were hired in this early phase, perhaps Doug Earp was one of those. Or maybe he was involved with the Wang programmable calculator system? Other than code to interface to/from the disk, I don't recall coding any of the auto dealer accounting stuff. (Though in earlier IMS consulting jobs I did some coding on other accounting programs.)

  As to the IMSAI 8080 being a clone of the MITS Altair, it was that functionally only. Rather different in cabinet and front panel configuration. Some months later, though, I had the "honor" of seeing some other company copy my chassis, right down to mounting holes I had included in case but never used. A real clone.

  Well, hope that clarifies things a bit. I'm sure there are many other stories of the times lurking....
  Best,
Joe