Traf-O-Data
Sign in to saveTraf-O-Data was a business partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert that existed in the 1970s. The objective was to read the raw data from roadway traffic counters and create reports for traffic engineers. The company had only modest success but the experience was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft Corporation a few years later.
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Traf-O-Data was a business partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert that existed in the 1970s. The objective was to read the raw data from roadway traffic counters and create reports for traffic engineers. The company had only modest success but the experience was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft Corporation a few years later.
==History== thumb|250px|Business card showing the names of Gates, Allen, and Gilbert from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science In the 1970s, traffic counts were mechanically recorded on a roll of paper tape. The time and number of axles were punched as a 16 bit pattern into the paper.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Traf-O-Data” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.