Editing Seattle Computer Products

{{Short description|1970s–1980s American microcomputer hardware company}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox company 
| name           = Seattle Computer Products
| logo           = Seattle Computer Products logo.svg
| successor      =  
| fate           = 
| location       = [[Tukwila, Washington|Tukwila]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]]
| foundation     = 
| defunct        = 
| key_people     = Rodney Maurice Brock,<br />[[Tim Paterson]] 
| industry       = [[Microcomputer]] hardware and [[software industry|software]]
| products       = [[S-100 bus|S-100]] [[8086]] boards, [[86-DOS]]
| website        =
}}
[[Image:RodBrockCard.JPG|thumb|right|Rod M. Brock's business card]]
'''Seattle Computer Products''' ('''SCP''') was a [[Tukwila, Washington|Tukwila]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[microcomputer]] hardware company which was one of the first manufacturers of [[computer system]]s based on the [[16-bit]] [[Intel 8086]] [[Central processing unit|processor]].<ref name="Conner_1998"/> Founded in 1978,<ref name="ith">{{cite web |url=https://www.ithistory.org/db/companies/seattle-computer-products |title=Seattle Computer Products |date=15 December 2015 |publisher=[[IT History Society]] |accessdate=7 September 2023}}</ref> SCP began shipping its first [[S-100 bus]] 8086 CPU boards to customers in November 1979,<ref name="Wallace_1992"/> about 21 months before [[IBM]] introduced its [[IBM Personal Computer|Personal Computer]] which was based on the slower [[Intel 8088|8088]] and introduced the 8-bit [[ISA bus]]. SCP shipped an [[operating system]] for that hardware about a year before the release of the PC, which was modified by [[Microsoft]] for the PC and renamed [[IBM PC&nbsp;DOS]]. SCP was staffed partly by high-school students from nearby communities who soldered and assembled the computers. Some of them would later work for Microsoft.

=={{anchor|Rod Brock}}Corporate history==
Twenty-two-year-old [[Tim Paterson]] was hired in June 1978 by SCP's owner Rodney Maurice Brock (26 August 1930 – 30 November 2018).<ref name="Nevada_2018"/><ref name="Obituary_2018"/> At the time, SCP built memory boards for microcomputers, but after attending a local seminar on Intel's just-released 8086 in late summer 1978, Paterson convinced Brock that his company should design a CPU board for the new chip. Paterson had a prototype working by May 1979,<ref name="Hunter_1983_Softalk"/> and he took his "computer" over to Microsoft, who were working on an 8086 [[BASIC]], which was working before the end of May.<ref name="Manes_1993_Gates"/>

When the board began shipping in November, standalone [[Microsoft BASIC]] was offered as an option, but no operating system was available for it.<ref name="Microsoft BASIC-86"/> [[Digital Research]], whose [[8-bit]] [[CP/M]] operating system was the industry standard, was working on an 8086-compatible version called [[CP/M-86]], but the delay in its release was costing SCP sales. In order to fill this void, Paterson wrote QDOS (for Quick and Dirty Operating System)<ref name="Conner_1998"/> over a four-month period starting in April 1980. QDOS 0.11 was finished in August 1980, and SCP began shipping it in September 1980.<ref name="Wallace_1992"/> The operating system was renamed to [[86-DOS]] in December 1980.

Microsoft, having worked with SCP before and seeking an operating system they could modify for the IBM PC, bought the rights to market the 86-DOS operating system to other manufacturers for {{US$|link=yes|25000}} that same month. On 27 July 1981, just prior to the launch of the IBM PC on the 12 August 1981, Microsoft bought the full rights to the operating system for an additional {{US$|link=no|50000}}, giving SCP a perpetual royalty-free license to sell 86-DOS (including updated versions) with its computer hardware.<ref name="Wallace_1992"/> Realizing that Microsoft was making significant profit on the 86-DOS operating system, SCP attempted to sell it along with a stand-alone inexpensive CPU (without any other circuitry). This was allowed as per SCP's license with Microsoft, which let SCP sell the operating system with their 8086-based computers; this operating system was marketed as "Seattle DOS", and a CPU was included in the box it shipped in.

Thanks to the deal with Microsoft, additional capital allowed Seattle Computer to expand its memory business into providing additional memory for PC products. The company had its best year in 1982, reaping more than a million dollars in profit on about {{US$|long=no|4 million}} in sales.<ref name="Wallace_1992"/>

By 1985, however, SCP's business was having difficulty trying to compete with offshore products (Brock once said, "they were selling memory boards for less than his cost for parts"), and Brock decided to sell the company. The only major asset SCP had left was the license it received from Microsoft when it signed over ownership rights to 86-DOS. Brock planned to sell (via merger) the license to the highest bidder, with a company such as the [[Tandy Corporation]] in mind. After Microsoft objected to Brock's "exaggerated interpretation" of the agreement and informed Brock that his license was nontransferable, Brock sued for {{US$|link=no|60 million}}. The ensuing lawsuit was highly technical and grew to fill hundreds of pages in the months leading up to trial. The trial began at the end of 1986 and lasted three weeks. An out-of-court settlement was reached while the jury was deliberating. Microsoft paid SCP {{US$|link=no|925000}} and reclaimed its license for DOS.<ref name="Wallace_1992"/>

SCP went out of business in the late 1980s as the market for Intel 8086 systems became dominated by [[IBM-compatible|PC compatible computer]]s.

==See also==
* [[Microsoft Softcard]] (SCP developed prototypes of Z80 card for Apple II, further developed by Burtronix and manufactured by California Computer Systems for Microsoft)
* [[Pirates of Silicon Valley]] has a scene where [[Paul Allen]] visits Rod Brock at Seattle Computer Products.

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Conner_1998">{{cite web |title=Father of DOS Still Having Fun at Microsoft |author-last=Conner |author-first=Doug |date=April 1998 |website=Paterson Technology |url=http://www.patersontech.com/dos/microsoft-micronews.aspx |access-date=2019-09-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209023553/http://www.patersontech.com/Dos/Micronews/paterson04_10_98.htm |archive-date=2010-02-09}}</ref>
<ref name="Wallace_1992">{{cite book |author-last1=Wallace |author-first1=James |author-last2=Erickson |author-first2=Jim |date=1992 |title=Hard Drive |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=0-471-56886-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/harddrivebillgat00wall_0}}</ref>
<ref name="Nevada_2018">State of Nevada, Department of Health and Human Services; State File Number 2018023460.</ref>
<ref name="Obituary_2018">{{cite web |title=Rodney M Brock - August 26, 1930 - November 30, 2018 |work=Funeral Finder |url=http://www.funeralfinder.com/obituaries/Brock-Rodney/11-30-2018/3768/ |access-date=2020-02-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124549/http://www.funeralfinder.com/obituaries/Brock-Rodney/11-30-2018/3768/ |archive-date=2019-02-09}}</ref>
<ref name="Hunter_1983_Softalk">{{cite journal |author-first=David |author-last=Hunter |date=1983 |title=The Roots Of DOS: Tim Paterson - "Life begins with a disk drive." |journal=Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer |issue=March 1983 |url=http://www.patersontech.com/dos/softalk.aspx |access-date=2014-06-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224013611/http://www.patersontech.com/dos/softalk.aspx |archive-date=2019-12-24}}</ref>
<ref name="Manes_1993_Gates">{{cite book |author-first1=Stephen |author-last1=Manes |author-first2=Paul |author-last2=Andrews |date=1993 |title=Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry&mdash;and Made Himself the Richest Man in America |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |isbn=0-385-42075-7}}</ref>
<ref name="Microsoft BASIC-86">{{cite journal |title=Microsoft Announces 8086 BASIC |journal=[[Intelligent Machines Journal]] |volume=1 |issue=11 |page=10 |location=Woodside, CA, USA |date=1979-07-18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FT4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10 |access-date=2020-02-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206174305/https://books.google.com/books?id=FT4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10&redir_esc=y |archive-date=2020-02-06 |quote=BASIC-86 was demonstrated at the National Computer Conference, on Seattle Computer Product's 8086 CPU board for the S-100 bus microcomputers.}}</ref>
}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web |title=Seattle Computer Products Gazelle |date=2003 |work=DigiBarn computer museum |url=http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/scp-gazelle/ |access-date=2020-02-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003213436/http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/scp-gazelle/ |archive-date=2017-10-03}}

[[Category:Defunct software companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Defunct computer systems companies]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Seattle]]
[[Category:1978 establishments in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:1980s disestablishments in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Companies based in Tukwila, Washington]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1978]]