Boyd Raymond 'Ray' Borrill was founder of The Data Domain, a retail computer store in

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, and vice-president of itty bitty machine company retail computer store, December 1975 – 1980, located in

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. These stores have their place in computer history as they are not only among the first several storefront computer retail shops, but also were two of the first computer stores to sell the

Apple I The Apple Computer 1 (Apple-1), later known predominantly as the Apple I, is an 8-bit personal computer designed by Steve Wozniak and released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. The company was initially formed to ...

computer, the

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, as well as numerous other now highly collectible products from microcomputer history. The dealer arrangement was made by

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

. The Data Domain is also believed to be the first to ever use the phrase "Personal Computer" commercially. These stores are the first retail outlets for personal computers. Items could be purchased as either complete assembled and tested, or as kits. In 1975, Borrill was one of the participants of the Kansas City symposium, which established the Kansas City standard, a standard format for recording data on audio

cassette tapes Cassette, also known as cassette tape, refers to a small plastic unit containing a length of magnetic tape on two reels. The design was created to replicate the way a reel-to-reel machine works with tape moving from one reel to another while bein ...

. The Kansas City standard format allowed for exchange of data between

microcomputers 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 ...

. Many pioneers of the microcomputer industry, such as

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

while working for

, were also in attendance.

References

External links

Interview with Ray Borrill, History of itty bitty machine companyA tribute to Ray Borrill
including email and newsletter archives
The Data Domain article on Bloomingpedia
*http://www.thedatadomain.com/ - The Data Domain website, now defunct. * *http://mobtalk.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3985 - Discussion about The Data Domain o
mobtalk.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrill, Ray 1931 births 20th-century American businesspeople 2006 deaths