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Traf-O-Data è stata la prima società costituita da Bill Gates e Paul Allen, con la partecipazione di Paul Gilbert, nel 1972. Fu fondata per commercializzare un computer capace di leggere ed elaborare i dati degli apparecchi di rilevamento del traffico.
Traf-O-Data was a business partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert in the 1970s that processed traffic data using microprocessors. It was a precursor to Microsoft Corporation and taught them how to write software for computers.
- Overview
- Traffic counting
- Traf-O-Data hardware
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Traf-O-Data was a business partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert that existed in the 1970s. The objective was to read the raw data from roadway traffic counters and create reports for traffic engineers. The company had only modest success but the experience was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft Corporation a few years ...
State and local governments frequently perform traffic surveys with a pneumatic road tube traffic counter. Rubber hoses are stretched across a road and wheels of passing vehicles create air pulses that are recorded by a roadside counter. In the 1970s the counts were mechanically recorded on a roll of paper tape. The time and number of axles were punched as a 16-bit pattern into the paper tape. (The common Teletype paper tape uses only 8 bits.) Cities would hire private companies to translate the data into reports that traffic engineers could use to adjust traffic lights or improve roads.
Gates and Paul Allen were high school students at Lakeside School in Seattle. The Lakeside Programmers Group got free computer time on various computers in exchange for writing computer programs. Gates and Allen thought they could process the traffic data cheaper and faster than the local companies. They recruited classmates to manually read the hole-patterns in the paper tape and transcribe the data onto computer cards. Gates then used a computer at the University of Washington to produce the traffic flow charts. (Paul Allen's father was a librarian at UW.) This was the beginning of Traf-O-Data.
The next step was to build a device to read the traffic tapes directly and eliminate the tedious manual work. The Intel 8008 microprocessor was announced in 1972 and they realized it could read the tapes and process the data. Allen had graduated and was enrolled at Washington State University. Since neither Gates nor Allen had any hardware design experience, they were initially stumped.
Gates and Allen had a friend, Paul Wennberg, who, like they, loitered at Control Data Corporation near the University of Washington, cadging open time on the mainframe computer. Wennberg, later the founder of the Triakis Corporation, was an electrical engineering student at the University of Washington. In the course of events Gates and Allen mentioned they were looking for somebody to build them a computer for free. They needed somebody good enough to build a computer from parts and the diagrams found in a computer magazine. Wennberg talked to his friend, Wes Prichard, who suggested to Wennberg that Gates and Allen head over to the UW Physics building, now known as Mary Gates Hall, to talk to Paul Gilbert, another electrical engineering student, who worked in the high-energy tracking laboratory. It was there that Paul Gilbert was approached by the duo to become a partner in Traf-O-Data.
That year Gilbert, piece by piece, wire-wrapped, soldered, and assembled from electrical components the working microcomputer. Miles Gilbert, Paul Gilbert's brother, a graphic designer and draftsman, helped the fledgling company by designing the company's logo. Gates and Allen started writing the software. To test the software while the computer was being designed, Paul Allen wrote a computer program on WSU's IBM System/360 that would emulate the 8008 microprocessor.
Although the plan had been to manufacture and sell the machines, the State of Washington later offered free traffic processing services to cities, ending the need for private contractors, and all three principals moved on to other projects. The real contribution of Traf-O-Data was the experience that Gates and Allen gained, skills they used to write Altair BASIC for the MITS Altair 8800 computer.
Traf-O-Data was a company founded by Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert in the 1970s to process traffic data with a microcomputer. It was a precursor to Microsoft Corporation and helped them develop Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800.
18 lug 2022 · In fact… neither. Before Microsoft was even a gleam in Bill Gates’ eye, he and Paul Allen started another computer company: Traf-O-Data. The original Traf-O-Data logo. It all started back in the early 1972 at Lakeside High School in Seattle, WA.
- Bryan Lunduke
How was the Traf-O-Data Intel 8008 simulator developed? What references (documents, machines) were used? How did they ensure that it was a faithful emulation before their machine was built?
28 lug 2024 · Traf-O-Data was conceived in the early 1970s when Gates and Allen noticed that Seattle’s traffic engineers struggled with processing and analyzing traffic flow data collected by roadway...
25 mar 2017 · Traf-O-Data was a startup in the 1970s that developed a computer system to count traffic. Paul Gilbert, a UW engineering student, was their partner who built the microcomputer from scratch.