Bil Herd
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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.
Biography
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
Military service:
- 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
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.[citation needed]
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Commodore C128
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Commodore 128D
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C128 PCB
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Commodore Plus/4
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Commodore Plus/4 system
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Commodore Plus/4 motherboard
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Commodore 116
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Commodore 16
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Commodore 264
After Commodore
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. Herd 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.
Bil Herd currently[when?] produces videos for Hackaday and 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.
References
- ^ 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.
- 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)
External links
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. (March 2020) |
- 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
- CNET TV coverage of Commodore64 25th anniversary with rare interview of Jack Tramiel. Includes Bil Herd, Steve Wozniak.
- Commodore 128 History at Commodore.ca – by Ian Matthews
- C128D information, with quotes by Herd[permanent dead link ] – By M. A. Grundke (aka Sothius)
- 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