Dennis C. Hayes (born 1950) is the inventor of PC modem and founder of

Hayes Microcomputer Products Hayes Microcomputer Products was a U.S.-based manufacturer of modems. The company is well known for the Smartmodem, which introduced a control language for operating the functions of the modem via the serial interface, in contrast to manual operat ...

, a manufacturer of

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

s mostly known for introducing the

Hayes command set The Hayes command set (also known as the AT command set) is a specific command language originally developed by Dennis Hayes for the Hayes Smartmodem 300 baud modem in 1981. The command set consists of a series of short text strings which can b ...

, which has subsequently been used in most modems produced to this day.

Background

Hayes had a student job at

AT&T Long Lines AT&T Communications, Inc., was a division of the AT&T Corporation that, through 23 subsidiaries, provided interexchange carrier and long-distance calling, long-distance telephone services. History AT&T Long Lines The American Telephone & ...

, in an engineering group, while attending

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. He left ''Georgia Tech'' in the mid-1970s to work at an early data communications company,

National Data Corporation McKesson Corporation is an American company distributing pharmaceuticals and providing health information technology, medical supplies, and care management tools. The company delivers a third of all pharmaceuticals used in North America and emplo ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, a company that handled electronic money transfers and credit card authorizations. Hayes' job was to set up modem connections for NDC's customers. In 1977, Hayes started his company "by assembling modems by hand on a borrowed kitchen table." He met

Dale Heatherington Dale Heatherington (born 1948) helped Dennis C. Hayes in the development of Hayes Microcomputer Products, the company that pioneered the Hayes modem and the Hayes command set. Although a southern newspaper described him as "just a multimillionaire ...

(born 1948) at National Data Corporation and together they developed and marketed the first high-quality

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

modem, and built the company named ''Hayes Communications'' around it. While Heatherington left the company early (in 1985) to retire, Hayes ran the company until it filed for bankruptcy in 1998 when the technology was incorporated into the

products Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

of competitors. In 1994, Hayes' share of the modem market was 20% and still "the market leader in modems", but a decline in relation to its previous market share of over 50%.

Personal life

In 1982, Hayes married Melita Easters. They divorced in 1987 with an estimated $40 million divorce settlement, one of the largest ever in Georgia. The same year of his divorce, Hayes married Mina Chan with whom, according to Georgia Trend magazine, he had an affair in 1986 while still married to Easters. Chan was a director of Hayes's company. From two marriages he has four children.

References

1950 births 20th-century American businesspeople American computer businesspeople Businesspeople in information technology American company founders Georgia Tech alumni Living people {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub

Background

Personal life

See also

References