Bil Herd is a computer engineer who created several designs for 8-bit

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

s while working for Commodore Business Machines in the early to mid-1980s.

Early life

He attended the Indiana school system. Though Herd did not have a college degree and did not graduate high school, he was working as an engineer by the age of 20.

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 The Commendation Medal is a mid-level Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States military decoration presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. Each branch of the United States Armed Forces issu ...

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.

After Commodore

After leaving Commodore, Herd continued to design faster and more powerful computers with emphasis on

machine vision Machine vision is the technology and methods used to provide image, imaging-based automation, automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. 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. 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 A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

" 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. 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

References

* Bagnall, Brian
On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore
. * Greenley, Larry, et al. (1986). ''Commodore 128 Programmer's Reference Guide''. . (Herd Co-author) * Herd, B. & Morabito, M. (2021)
''Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer's Story of Commodore Computers in the 1980s''
.

External links

The 8 Bit Generation
The story of Jack Tramiel and

Commodore International Commodore International Corporation was a home computer and electronics manufacturer with its head office in The Bahamas and its executive office in the United States founded in 1976 by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. It was the successor compan ...

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

– By Tamás Polgár

– 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)

* ttps://archive.today/20130418213228/http://blip.tv/file/799758 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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herd, Bil Commodore people Computer hardware engineers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)