Peter R. Jennings (born 1950) is a British-Canadian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, scientist, inventor,

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

, computer chess programmer, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He is most notable for creating ''MicroChess'', the first

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

game to be sold commercially.

Biography

Early life

Peter Jennings was born in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in 1950. In the 1960s his family moved to

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He received his Master of Arts (MA) degree in physics from SUNY

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

in 1972 and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance and marketing from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

in 1974.

''MicroChess'' and ChessMate

Jennings developed ''

MicroChess ''Microchess'', sometimes written as ''MicroChess'', is a chess program developed for the MOS Technology KIM-1 microcomputer by Peter R. Jennings in 1976, and published by his company Micro-Ware. The game plays chess against the human player ...

'' shortly after leaving graduate school in New York. It was the first software to ever sell over 10,000 copies. The code was sold on paper and users had to manually enter the program using a keyboard. The program was later available on

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Atari 8-bit computers, where it sold millions of copies. Jennings also developed the first model of the ChessMate while working for

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (India), in India ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ' ...

in 1977.

Later years

In 1976, along with

Dan Fylstra Dan Fylstra is an American pioneer of the software products industry. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1975 he was a founding associate editor of ''Byte'' magazine. In 1978 he co-founded Personal Software, and that yea ...

, Jennings co-founded the corporation Personal Software, which later became

VisiCorp VisiCorp, originally Personal Software, was an early personal computer software publisher. Its most famous products were Microchess, Visi On and VisiCalc. History Personal Software was founded in 1977 by Dan Fylstra. In 1978, it merged with ...

. Proceeds from ''MicroChess'' sales helped finance the development of

VisiCalc VisiCalc ("visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979. It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microco ...

, the first-ever spreadsheet program.

Publications

* January 1978: "The Second World Computer Chess Championships". ''BYTE''. p. 108. * March 1978: "Microchess 1.5 vs. Dark Horse". ''BYTE''. p. 166. * 1979: "Revolution in Personal Computing". ''Wharton Magazine''. * No date: "A Good, Long Read (for 18 Years)". ''Foundation RISC User Online''. RISCOS Ltd.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Peter R Canadian businesspeople Canadian inventors Canadian physicists Computer chess people Living people 1950 births