Dave Retz, Comware International Inc.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Dave Retz has over forty years under his belt (getting bigger all the time!) in the area of operating systems, software development, real-time systems, teaching, writing, internet network management, and (more recently) web development.

His career started as a programmer of Chemistry applications in the mid-60's, and in the latter portion of that decade became involved in programming one of the first "time-sharing" systems for the IBM 360 under Dr. Glen Culler at UCSB: The UCSB Mathematical Online System, or "OLS". The "Culler-Fried" OLS was one of the first interactive computer systems, one of the first "object-oriented" programming approaches, and one of the first four chosen sites for the Defense Department's ARPANET.

In 1969, Dave was assigned to develop protocols and software to connect to ARPANET at UCSB. He wrote software for UCSB's specially-built IBM 360/75 mainframe, and sent the first message from UCSB to UCLA: "The sly brown fox jumped ... something about a dog.". (This was met with some hurrah's, because it simply worked, and little imaginement for its technological future.)

During the period of 1969 through 1972 he implemented protocols to transmit speech through the ARPANET, and worked on compression and transmission of digitized speech. He developed a minicomputer-based system for signal processing and transmission of packetized speech through the ARPANET, which became his topic for dissertation of a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB, 1972).

During the period of 1972-1974 he created software for a minicomputer system that handled "real-time" input for the current mainframe world. Donned "ELF", the system handled a wide variety of applications for the mainframe-based ARPANET, such as data acquisition (for seismic and nuclear test monitoring data), speech input/output (for speech research projects), and generic file transfer. This new "minicomputer" approach soon planted itself at a few hundred locations.

In 1974, Dave moved to SRI International (SRI, nee: "Stanford Research Institute"), an organization in Menlo Park, California, and joined the Augmentation Research Center (ARC), under Doug Engelbart. This was an exciting application of the minicomputer (using ELF) as an intelligent "front-end" to the then mainframe-based system approach - the first system to use "hyperlinks" to connect documents with the newly-invented "mouse".

In 1975, Dave Retz joined the Telecommunications Research Center at SRI, and was responsible for hardware/software integration and testing of the ARPA (soon renamed "DARPA") Packet Radio network. He managed the design, implementation, and testing of protocols for the network, which involved the first implementation of TCP/IP for the evolving "Internet". This was the first test of multiple packet networks communicating using a "generic" TCP/IP protocol that had been proposed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn -- The first inter-connection of networks, and the first "Internet". The successful test was conducted in a "hostile environment" : the parking lot of Rosatti's Biker Bar behind Stanford University.

In 1977, Dave formed Systar Corporation, a software development company and IBM Business Partner for the IBM Series/1 minicomputer. Systar utilized its proprietary operating system (OS1) to provide applications such as e-mail, data base access, data acquisition, and protocol conversion at several thousand locations world-wide until the Series/1 was discontinued in 1997.

From 1977 until 1990, Dr. Retz was retained by IBM as a consulting instructor to IBM personnel at development laboratories in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. This involved creation and presentation of courses for data communications and networking for IBM development personnel in areas such as networking technologies, communications software development methodologies, and network protocols (e.g., TCP/IP).

In 1986, Dave formed Comware International, a company that focused on communications applications for IBM small-business computer systems - including the IBM AS/400. Comware developed a general-purpose gateway, called ComGate, that addressed PC-to-midrange connectivity using a variety of protocols including X.25, traditional terminal communications, and Local Area Networks. This made use of Comware's operating system, CMX, which provided real-time multi-tasking functions for the IBM PC platform. During the early '90s, Comware International began to address the needs of IBM midrange customers in connection with the Internet.

In 1996 Dave established an ISP, "SYV.COM", as an operating unit of Comware International Inc. to provide a localized service for the Santa Ynez Valley. This service included e-mail, web hosting, dial-up, ISDN, DSL, and T1 connections to local companies. The Internet access portion of the company and the domain "SYV.COM" was divested to On-Site Computers of Buellton, CA in 2004.

During the periods of 1972-1974, 1999-2002, and 2004-2005, Dr. Retz created and taught courses for the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and California State Polytechnic College (Cal Poly) in the areas of digital systems, digital logic design, 'C' programming, assembler programming and system architecture.

In 2004, Dave led the transition of the Comware International to web-development and e-commerce, creating an online news and information site for the local community called Santa Ynez Valley Online (syv-online.com). The web development department of the company has been responsible for the implementation of a variety of corporate websites for local companies, as well as the Santa Ynez Valley Visitors Association and the Santa Ynez Valley Association of Realtors.

Dave lives in the Santa Ynez Valley, California - part of Santa Barbara County - and has two daughters (Jennifer and Sarah) and six grandchildren (Sarah, Zachary, Jacob, Austin, Emily and Evan). Dave is an avid Ham Radio operator (KK6NA), still enjoys attempting to play the piano and guitar (likes (and sounds like) Bob Dylan), is a licensed pilot, is forever learning German, and is a fan of Frasier and the associated writers.

PUBLICATIONS

• "Operating System Design Considerations for the Packet-Switching Environment", presented at the National Computer Conference, AFIPS, 1973.
• "Structure of the ELF Operating System", presented at the National Computer Conference, AFIPS, 1974.
• "TCP/IP: The DARPA Suite Marches into the Business World", Data Communications (McGraw-Hill), November, 1987.
• "APPC Gateways: LAN and Host become Peers", LAN Technology, September, 1989.
• "Emulation Terminals", European Government Journal, Vol 3, No. 3, Summer of 1995.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, 1972, University of California, Santa Barbara.
• M.S. Electrical Engineering, 1970, University of California, Santa Barbara
• M.A. Chemistry, 1969, University of California, Santa Barbara
• B.S. Chemistry, 1967, Florida Atlantic University

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