On The Metal Jeff Rothschild
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Dec 2, 2019 Jeff Rothschild, a guest on the show, shares his experience disassembling MS-DOS on an IBM PC. They discuss topics such as file control blocks, stack switching, 16-bit machine instructions, scolding developers, and the benefits of running on premises. Other topics include optimizing time delay, building a DOS to Unix file server, and the development of a groundbreaking distributed system. Challenges in RAID removal, game traffic optimization, and the importance of data in connecting people are also explored. The podcast delves into disruptive technologies and the guest's track record of being at the forefront of computing shifts.
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Disassembling MS-DOS
- Jeff Rothschild bought an IBM PC when it first came out and disassembled MS-DOS.
- He laid out the 20-foot-long listing on his apartment floor and commented the code.
Learning from Disassembly
- Disassembling MS-DOS taught Rothschild about file control blocks and stack switching.
- He later used this knowledge to understand and exploit quirks in how applications interacted with files.
PC Interface
- Rothschild used his MS-DOS knowledge to create PC Interface, a file redirector to Unix systems.
- Sun Microsystems later bought this technology and it became the client side of PC NFS.