Gary Kildell gave life to the microprocessor.

1972, he came across an advertisement on the bulletin board of Washington University: "25 dollars for a microcomputer". Because of teaching needs, he bought it, which is a 4-bit microprocessor of Intel 4004 and the first computer to use chips. Even then, no one thought microprocessors were useful, including Intel. Previously, he had been using the IBM 360 system computer worth $3 million from the Naval Academy. Kildare plans to make a navigation calculator with this chip. His father has always wanted a device that can calculate the navigation triangle. Kildare tried to write some technical programs on 4004, but soon realized that the instruction set was limited. He also asked whether Intel was interested in the program he compiled on 4004. Although Intel is not particularly interested in navigation applications, they find his math program attractive.

In the past, computer data storage, data processing and data control were separated. The appearance of microprocessor makes it three in one. So the program also needs to be miniaturized. Kildare created a new "microprogram" for 4004 on DEC's PDP- 10 microcomputer by two steps. 1973, visit the microcomputer department of Intel. At that time, the newly established company had only a few shabby houses. Kildare gets along well with Intel people. As an Intel consultant, he takes one day off every week. Not only does he like his new job, but he is also fascinated by microprocessors. Soon, Intel let him try the newly released 8008. In just a few months, kildare created the revolutionary microprocessor programming language PL/M in PC history, which gave the microprocessor real life and opened the channel between the microprocessor and the microcomputer. It is easily accepted and used in a large number of development system software such as word processors, editors and assembly languages. Then, kildare began to develop different versions of PL/m for 8080 microprocessor, which replaced 8008 and became the real beginning of the microcomputer revolution.

At that time, Intel felt that the microprocessor had no future, and of course it was indifferent to kildare's plan. Intel also lost a great opportunity to have both a microprocessor and an operating system. Gave the other half to Microsoft.

After the advent of Intel 8008, we made several microcomputers called Intellec-8. As part of the kildare Prize, Intel gave him a computer, which he put at the back of the classroom and became the first microcomputer laboratory in the Naval Graduate School. Curious students come to play for a few hours after class. When 8008 was upgraded to 8080, Intellec-8 became Intellec-80, and its performance was improved by 10 times. Intel added a monitor and a high-speed paper tape reader. Kildare and the students were greatly encouraged. At this time, it happened that Allen Shugart, who invented the 8-inch floppy disk by IBM, immediately developed the operating system and control program CP/M of microcomputer together with a student of Gordon departuss, which was the first disk operating system (DOS) in the world.

Of course, at that time, no one could foresee the future glory of the PC industry. Kildare, like Intel's designers, believes that microcomputers will eventually be used in household mixers and food evaporators. Kildare once wrote a game program for 4004 with several programmers. They found robert noyce, the head of Intel Corporation, to promote the project. Noyce disagreed. Noyce is convinced that the future of microprocessors lies in other aspects. He said seriously, "As far as clocks and watches are concerned."

The development of CP/M is very strange. At that time, while teaching, kildare took part in a project in Ben Cooper to study astrology. They are neither interested in nor believe in astrology, and they all think it is obvious nonsense. But I believe it will sell well. So Cooper built the machine and kildare programmed it. This machine is put in the grocery store, eating coins and printing fortune-telling horoscope. Kildare thinks this machine is simply beautiful.

The two inventors put this machine in many places in San Francisco. But the customer is very dissatisfied, because the machine eats coins and the paper is blocked into a ball. They don't know what to do. Later, kildare said: "This is a complete failure in business."

However, the astrology machine has put some programs in kildare, namely CP/M, into commercial testing for the first time. In the process, he also rewrote the tools for debugging and assembling programs, which are the key parts of the operating system. He also created a basic language assembler, which conforms to the translator of instruction code.

In the mid-1970s, there were two influential companies in the field of microcomputers. One is MITS which produces Altair 8800, and the other is IMSAI which is silent today. Both companies used 8080, so they began to compete on the operating system. The former cooperated with Gates, while the latter developed a very simple DOS in Basic language, but it was not easy to use and was not compatible with other microcomputers. The latter asked kildare to purchase the CP/M license for $25,000, and immediately covered Gates' "masterpiece".