FAT file system now licensed by MS ?

I think that the 1976 reference may come from the following. Microsoft had Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, which may have been available in 1976 (I don't have release dates handy), used a file system that might have been the beginnings of the FAT scheme. Then, I found this reference in a June 1983 article written by Tim Paterson called "An Inside look at MS-DOS". In that article, there's a sidebar called "A Short History of MS-DOS" (some paragraphs deleted for brevity): "...In May 1979, Seattle Computer made the first propotype of its 8086 microprocessor card for the S-100 bus. There were brief discussions with Digital Research about using one of Seattle Computer's prototypes to aid in developing CP/M-86, which was to be ready "soon."..." The article continues: "Microsoft had already started a strong 8086 software-development program. The firm was ready to try the 8086 version of Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, which is a version of its BASIC interpreter with a built-in operating system. During the last two weeks of May 1979, this BASIC was made completely functional using the hardware that Seattle Computer provided for Microsoft." Continuing: "Seattle Computer shipped its first 8086 cards in November 1979, with Stand-Alone Disk BASIC as the only software to run on it. The months rolled by, and CP/M-86 was nowhere in sight. Finally, in April 1980, Seattle decided to create its own DOS." And more: "The first versions of the operating system, called QDOS 0.10, were shipped in August 1980." More still: "In the last few days of 1980, a new version of the DOS was released, now known as 86-DOS version 0.3. Seattle Computer passed this new version onto Microsoft, which had bought the non-exclusive rights to market 86-DOS and had one customer for it at the time." "In April 1981, Seattle Computer Products released 86-DOS version 1.00, which was very similar to the versions of MS-DOS that are widely distributed today." So, who invented the FAT filesystem we know today? Microsoft (through Stand-Alone Disk BASIC)? Seattle Computer (through 86-DOS)? To paraphrase Artie Johnson..."Very interesting". Rich -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 2:14 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: FAT file system now licensed by MS ? On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Fred N. van Kempen wrote: It's a total joke. First of all, the patents referenced on their FAT licensing website: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp ...are for long filenames. They have no patent on FAT, and for good reasons: 1) software patents were not allowed at the time that FAT was implemented in MS-DOS, and 2) FAT was basically lifted from another OS. I have no idea why MS would be so stupid as to think people are going to fall for this, which is basically a sad-assed ruse. Also, I highly question the history they are promulgating. They claim they developed FAT in 1976. That seems a bit early. I could be wrong. Damn losers. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]