Ward Christensonr, one of the best known early microcomputer programmers.  Christensen, along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading to an important cultural era of digital community-building that prestaged much of our online world today. BBSes introduced many home computer users to multiplayer online gaming, message boards, and online community building in an era before the Internet became widely available to people outside of science and academia.  Christensen invented XMODEM, a 1977 file transfer protocol that made much of the later BBS world possible by breaking binary files into packets and ensuring that each packet was safely delivered over sometimes unstable and noisy analog telephone lines. It inspired other file transfer protocols that allowed ad-hoc online file sharing to flourish. 

 He died in his house around October 10, 2024

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Don Lancaster, one of the best known microcomputer industry writers, peacefully passed away at age 83 on June 7, 2023, in Mesa, Arizona. Don’s contributions to the world of microcomputers were famous. Probably his most notable early achievement was the creation of the “TV Typewriter,” a revolutionary device that utilized transistor-transistor logic (TTL) to display text on a TV screen. The TV Typewriter first appeared in the September 1973 issue of Radio Electronics.  This creation became the basis and the title for one of his earliest published books "The TV Typewriter".

Don authored well over 2,200 technical papers and 44 books covering a wide-range of topics related to computers and electronics. His contributions could also be found in the pages of leading electronics magazines of the 1960s through to the 2000s.   His first article appeared in the April 1963 issue of Electronics World.  He also was the author behind the wildly popular Hardware Hacker series in Radio-Electronics Magazine from January 1988 until June 1995.  Don’s contributions to the Apple community were enormous. Among his 44 books are the Apple II-centric Assembly Language Cookbook volumes, as well as AppleWriter-in-Depth, released in 1984 by A.P.P.L.E. These and other contributions over the years to the community will be forever cherished by us all.

Intel can be seen as the original Silicon Valley startup that became a major tech megalith has continued to keep abreast of  technological development for the past half century. Intel was founded by Gordon Moore and his longtime colleague Robert Noyce in July 1968. With Noyce at the overall helm, Moore initially served as executive vice president until 1975, when he became president. In 1979, Moore was named CEO and Chairman of the board. He relinquished the CEO position in 1987, but and continued as chairman until 1997, when he became Chairman Emeritus, finally stepping down in 2006.

With Moore as the company's "virtuoso of technology" it was Intel that brought us the first microprocessors, dubbed "computers on a chip" introducing the 4004 in 1971 followed in the next year by the 8008. These were the very first of the "Intel Inside" chips whose power and functionality increased exponentially.

Internet Pioneer Larry Roberts Passed Away.
I regret to say that Larry Roberts who lead the team that created ARPAnet passed away on Dec. 26th 2018 at the age of 81. ARPAnet eventually went on to become what we now know as the  Internet".

He got the idea of computer-to-computer networks in the 1960s. He successfully implemented ARPAnet using the then revolutionary data packet switching concept to handle traffic. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981, when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982, the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was introduced as the standard networking protocol on the ARPANET. In the early 1980s the NSF funded the establishment of national supercomputing centers at several universities and provided interconnectivity in 1986 with the NSFNET project, which also created network access to the supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990,  it was super-seeded by the Internet. 

Roberts left ARPA in 1973. He helped commercialize packet switching technology through his company Telenet, and spent some of his post-Telenet career aiming to improve the quality of internet networking. His companies Caspian Networks (since defunct) and Anagran have revolved around boosting quality of service for technologies like video streaming. His influence can be felt across the internet to this day.




Bill Godbout Killed in California Fire. 
I regret to say that Bill Godbout was killed in a wild brush fire on November 11, 2018 in Northern California.  He was a legend in the early days of S100 bus  microcomputers. He started in the S-100 board business in 1976 by selling RAM memory boards out of his Godbout Electronics mail order business. His contacts and experience in getting chips fast and at good prices help him get going quickly and allowed Godbout Electronics to fill a market need for boards that Altair, IMSAI and even Processor Technologies could not meet in those early days.  

In the end Godbout/CopmuPro had more different types of S-100 RAM boards than anybody else in the business. All their boards were static RAM boards. As the business grew they evolved into most other S-100 board types eventually putting together complete S-100 systems. Their S-100 boxes were arguably the most solid and reliable ever made. His innovative products played a large part in the success of the S-100. Bill played a major role in setting the specs for the S-100 bus IEEE-696 standard, being one of its authors.  See here for more details and a list of Godbout/Compupro boards.




Paul Allan Passed Away
I'm sad to say that Paul Alan co-founder of  Microsoft passed away on October 16, 2018.   All of us from the S100 Computers era will remember him (and Bill Gates) fondly for their early work on Microsoft Basic along with Ed Roberts of MITS. 
Paul was the founder and Chairman of an investment group called Vulcan Inc., which managed his various business and philanthropic efforts. He had numerous multibillion-dollar investments in technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, and private spaceflight ventures. He owned two professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers.

Paul was the founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Institute for Cell Science. He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare and community services. 
Our sympathies go out to his family and friends.


   


Wayne Green, Byte and other Computer Magazines Publisher Passed Away
I'm sad to say that Wayne Green founder of 73 magazine; Byte magazine; Kilobaud; 80 Micro magazine for the TRS-80 and others passed away on October 30, 2015.   Many of us from the S100 Computers era well remember receiving our weekly copy of Byte and Kilobyte.  These two magazines in particular played a catalytic role in bringing together the home brew computer community.  Our sympathies go out to his family and friends.

Electrical and Electronic Engineers Plaque to Honor Gary Kildall
Pacific Grove, CA.   4/25/2014