[debian-knoppix] El Torito Spec History
This whole article is from
http://www.cdpage.com/Compact_Disc_Variations/danaboot.html
[snip]
El Torito, Party of Two
The El Torito Specification is the brainchild of two engineers -- Curtis
Stevens, of Phoenix Technologies in Irvine, CA, and Stan Merkin, formerly of
IBM, and currently of Dell Computers in Austin, TX. The name "El Torito" is
from the El Torito Grill Mexican restaurant in Irvine where Stevens and
Merkin collaborated on the spec over lunch. The practice of naming CD-ROM
standards after the place of their inception has a distinguished precedent.
The ad hoc assembly of CD-ROM researchers and developers known as the High
Sierra Group named themselves and their standard, which later became ISO
9660, after the High Sierra Hotel and Casino in Lake Tahoe. The El Torito
Group, such as it is, was an even more ad hoc collaboration.
According to Stevens, he started thinking about a the potential of bootable
CD-ROM at and ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) standard meeting in
November of 1993. In January of 1994, Phoenix became interested in bootable
CD-ROM for their OEM applications, and Stevens began working on a
specification. Stan Merkin, meanwhile, was working on bootable CD-ROM for
IBM in Boca Raton, FL. Merkin wanted to create industry-wide support for the
spec by collaborating with a BIOS manufacturer. Another IBM engineer from
the OS/2 division, Dave Marshall, provided Merkin with contacts at both AMI
and Phoenix. Both BIOS manufacturers subsequently reviewed Stan's proposal
for a "boot catalog" of magnetic disc images on CD-ROM.
A couple of weeks later, in February of 1994, Merkin came to California on
other business, and stopped by the Phoenix offices in Irvine. Stevens and
Merkin went out to lunch at the El Torito Grill. Stan Merkin had calamari
fajitas and Curtis Stevens had steak fajitas, both with fresh tortillas.
They wrote the basics of the specification on a napkin. The rest, as they
say, is history.
The El Torito spec was first announced at International Communications
Industries Association INFOCOMM International Conference at the Anaheim
Convention Center on June 10, 1994. By that time, Steve Baker, of ComArt,
was working on hardware that would run from a bootable CD-ROM disc for use
in TV set-based information kiosks and set-top boxes. Baker organized the
CD/OS Industry Association to promote the specification. The specification,
according to Stevens, has been stable since September 1994. Phoenix showed
IBM products implementing bootable CD-ROM at Fall COMDEX, and started
shipping products in December 1994. Adaptec was the first to offer a SCSI
controller with a bootable CD-ROM BIOS and has made a commitment to
promoting this spec. Western Digital and Future Domain are both developing
controllers that will support bootable CD-ROM. As of this writing, over 50
companies, including BIOS manufacturers, controller manufacturers,
premastering software vendors, and OEMs, are either implementing the spec in
their BIOS and software, or are planning to do so in the future.
[/snip]
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