Boyd Raymond 'Ray' Borrill was founder of The Data Domain, a retail computer store in Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....

, and vice-president of itty bitty machine company retail computer store. 1977-1980, located in Evanston, Illinois

Evanston, Illinois

Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...

. These stores have their place in computer history as they are two of the first computer stores to sell the Apple I

Apple I

The original Apple Computer, also known retroactively as the Apple I, or Apple-1, is a personal computer released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. They were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak's friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer...

 computer. The dealer arrangement was made by Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...

. The Data Domain is also believed to be the first to ever use the phrase "Personal Computer" commercially. These stores are the first retail outlets for personal computers. Items could be purchased as either complete assembled and tested, or as kits.

In 1975, Borrill was one of the participants of the Kansas City symposium, which established the Kansas City Standard

Kansas City standard

The Kansas City Standard , or Byte standard, is a digital data format for audio cassette drives. Byte magazine sponsored a symposium in November 1975 in Kansas City, Missouri to develop a standard for storage of digital computer data on inexpensive consumer quality cassettes, at a time when...

, a standard format for recording data on audio cassette tapes

Magnetic tape data storage

Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital information. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive...

. The Kansas City Standard format allowed for exchange of data between microcomputers. Many pioneers of the microcomputer industry, such as Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

 while working for MITS

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems was an American electronics company founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico that began manufacturing electronic calculators in 1971 and personal computers in 1975. Ed Roberts and Forrest Mims founded MITS in December 1969 to produce miniaturized telemetry...

, were also in attendance.

External links

• Interview with Ray Borrill, History of itty bitty machine company
• A tribute to Ray Borrill, including email and newsletter archives
• The Data Domain article on Bloomingpedia
• http://www.thedatadomain.com/ - The Data Domain website, now defunct.
• archive.org cache of thedatadomain.com from 2003
• http://mobtalk.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3985 - Discussion about The Data Domain on mobtalk.net