Summary
Bil Herd is a computer engineer who created several designs for 8-bit home computers while working for Commodore Business Machines in the early to mid-1980s.
Early life edit
He attended the Indiana school system.[1] Herd did not have a college degree, and did not graduate high school, though he was working as an engineer by the age of 20.
Military service edit
- 1977–1980: 238th Cavalry - 38th Division Indiana Army National Guard
- 1980–1982: 103rd Medical Battalion - 28th Division Pennsylvania Army National Guard
- 1981: Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service.
Working for Commodore edit
After first acting as the principal engineer on the Commodore Plus/4, C16/116, C264, and C364 machines, Herd designed the significantly more successful Commodore 128, a dual-CPU, triple-OS, compatible successor to the Commodore 64. Prior to the C128, Herd had done the initial architecture of the Commodore LCD computer, which was not released.[2]
After Commodore edit
After leaving Commodore, Herd continued to design faster and more powerful computers with emphasis on machine vision and is a co-author on a patent involving n-dimensional pattern matching. He also designed an ultrasonic backup sensor for vehicles while working for Indian Valley Mfg. in 1986, a feature found on many modern vehicles today.[citation needed]
Voluntary health care work:
- 1989–1996: Fellowship First Aid Squad / Mount Laurel EMS Inc. Highest rank: Captain (also served as president)
- 1991–1995: Cooper Trauma Center - Camden, NJ: Trauma Technician
Herd has undertaken an entrepreneurial role and is owner of several small companies. As for recent low-level computer hacking, he did a "cameo appearance" by contributing a snippet of sprite logic code to the C64 DTV product designed by Jeri Ellsworth.
Herd appeared in and narrated the documentary "Growing the 8 Bit Generation" (a.k.a. "The Commodore Wars") about the early days of Commodore and the home computers explosion. Subsequently, he narrated the documentary "Easy to learn, hard to master: the fate of Atari", thus becoming the official voice of the "8-bit Generation" documentary series. As of September 2020,[update] he produces videos for Hackaday.
In 2021, Herd co-authored a book with Margaret Morabito, Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer's Story of Commodore Computers in the 1980s, in which he recounts inside stories about his and his team's experiences with designing computers for Commodore.
Notes edit
- ^ Andreas of Shape (June 27, 1998). "F1 fuse replacement / SID silence". Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm. Usenet: 6nhh02$s1g$1@news.jersey.net. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
- ^ [1]Commodore History Part 5 - The C128, retrieved 2021-03-31
References edit
- Bagnall, Brian: On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore, ISBN 0-9738649-0-7.
- Greenley, Larry, et al. (1986). Commodore 128 Programmer's Reference Guide. ISBN 0-553-34378-5. (Herd Co-author)
- Herd, B. & Morabito, M. (2021). Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer's Story of Commodore Computers in the 1980s. ISBN 9798534584950.
External links edit
- The 8 Bit Generation The story of Jack Tramiel and Commodore International Produced by JunkFood, narrated by Bil Herd
- Hackaday.com – Bil Herd's Original Videos at Hackaday
- Commodore 128 History at Commodore.ca – by Ian Matthews
- A brief history of the computer demo scene – By Tamás Polgár
- The C128 story, by Bil Herd – at Fab's Commodore page (Fabian Meyer)
- C128.com Commodore Users Group Video - Updated 2005 – With Bil Herd, Dave Haynie
- Appearance on The Linux Link Tech Show on September 12, 2007 (ogg) (mp3)
- Two videos of Bil Herd at the 25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64 at the Computer History Museum in 2007
- A video of Bil Herd and Dale Luck post-show at the 25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64 at the Computer History Museum in 2007
- C128.com video of Bil Herd describing the C116 TED family of computers under Jack Tramiel
- Video of Bil Herd and Jeri Ellsworth explaining Phase Locked Loops
- Commodore History Part 5 - The C128