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Seattle Computer Products
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seattle Computer Products (SCP) was a Seattle, Washington computer hardware company which was one of the first manufacturers of computer systems based on the Intel 8086. It was staffed partly by high school students from nearby communities who soldered and assembled the computers. Some of them would later work for Microsoft.
Twenty-two year old Tim Paterson was hired in June 1978 by SCP's owner Rod Brock. In 1980 Paterson wrote the QDOS operating system, later known as 86-DOS, over a four month period. Microsoft, seeking an operating system for the IBM PC, bought the rights to market the system to other manufacturers for $25,000 in December 1980. Prior to the PC launch Microsoft bought the full rights to the system for an additional $50,000. SCP later accused Microsoft of defrauding it by not revealing that IBM was a customer (although this appears to have been Microsoft's right under the marketing agreement), and Microsoft settled the claim in 1986 by paying an additional $1 million.
SCP is no longer in business as the market for Intel 8086 systems became dominated by PC compatible computers.
Seattle Computer Product's address was 1114 Industry Dr. Seattle WA 98188, as shown on Rod Brock's business card, with title of "President / General Manager".