BM-Hitachi 747

At the time that we created the 747 there was a great deal of “buzz” around the possibility of true (i.e. responsive) multitasking in a medical instrument. Hard real time multitasking had been used in deeply embedded and highly constrained applications, while Unix-like operating systems (including Unix itself) supported multiple users, but the 747 was the first instrument to effectively multitask, using my lightweight thread invention. BM marketing wanted to capitalize on this buzz but did not want to have to explain multitasking, so they developed a clever subliminal message campaign in which the word “task” appeared in every advertisement. Thus, potential buyers who knew or thought they knew about multitasking were constantly reminded that only the 747 had it while other users were simply told that the 747 took care of all their needs quickly and reliably. This was even more technically accurate than dwelling on the advantages afforded by true multitasking because the 747's huge advance in responsiveness in all domains over other instruments was due to my other improvements as much as to the new multitasking.