A brief history of the Bloomberg Terminal
Allison Marsh traces the history of the Bloomberg Terminal in IEEE Spectrum.
Executive Summary
Allison Marsh traces the history of the Bloomberg Terminal in IEEE Spectrum. Michael Bloomberg cofounded Innovative Market Systems in 1981 after being fired from Salomon Brothers, with a $10 million payout and three former colleagues. The company built the Market Master terminal: a monochrome CRT, a custom keyboard, and a controller unit tied to a private network. At launch it covered only U.S.
Open Silicon & Gate-Level Hardware Inspection
From a silicon and hardware engineering viewpoint: - **Interface Neutrality:** Mitigates dependency on proprietary BSPs, empowering open toolchains to address hardware directly. - **Supply Chain Verification:** Schematics and open pinouts allow deterministic audits against silicon errata. - **Lifecycle Decoupling:** Decouples physical hardware utility from commercial vendor end-of-life obsolescence.
Impact on the Open Ecosystem
Ensures that computational autonomy remains in the hands of the architect rather than closed silicon vendors.