Computer Networking
Billings has been involved in the development and launch of a number of computer technologies and products.
He established the Billings Computer Corporation in 1977, which manufactured one of the first Personal Computers, the Billings Computer. The same year, Billings Computer Corporation paid the New Mexico start-up company, Microsoft, $330,000 to acquire usage rights for EBasic and to fund the development of Fortran and Cobol compilers. In 1982 Time Magazine featured a photo of the young Bill Gates in his office with the Billings Computer on his desk.
In 1978, Billings Computer Corporation hired BYU professor Alan Ashton to help develop the Billings Word Processor which was an award winning program offered for the Billings MicroSystem which provided a user friendly and intuitive interface. After the launch of the IBM PC in 1981, Alan Ashton released an enhanced word processor named Word Perfect.
Later, Billings founded Caldisk Inc. which was instrumental in the development the "double-sided floppy drive". Caldisk was later acquired by World Computer Corporation.
Billings invented a method of sharing data on a computer network known as Functionally Structured Distribution (FSD). This method was the forerunner of today’s client-server computing (U.S. Pat. 4714989 – Filed Oct 20, 1986).
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“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.”
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