james edward allchin

Music and software, does not go along, right? And will it be believable, if we say, one of the most prominent software engineers in the world, James Edward Allchin, is also known for his awesome music compositions. Though he was always into music, Allchin had never thought that he will be one of the key members working on the most famous software inventions of the world, and one day, Microsoft will roam behind him to hire him. Most of our passions get suppressed under the sheer need of sustenance and livelihood, but it was Allchin’s passion and efforts that made him work through all the difficulties.

Early life

Jim Allchin was born in 1951 in Grand Rapids, Michigan but soon the family shifted to Keysville, Florida. He was definitely not from a financially predominant family, and his parents worked on a farm. They lived in a small house with a tin roof, far from the city and surrounded by only farmlands and phosphate mines. They didn’t even have enough money to paint the walls. Due to the poor financial condition, Allchin and his older brother started working on the farm from an early age. They often had to miss school to collect strawberries, okra etc. for supporting the family for daily needs.

Allchin grew interested in music when he was a kid and kept delving deeper into the musical world until he created his own euphony. The first musical instrument he got was a trumpet when he was a teenager, and later, he saved money to buy an acoustic guitar. Allchin drew inspiration for playing the instruments, mainly, from the Blues, Latin players, and the other popular players of his time. He played at many studios and travelled with bands to different places. He started writing songs, and at times, he played for more than sixteen hours a day. And, through this entire short-term journey, he came across great musicians and learnt that ‘both, hard work and luck, matter to achieve success’. After leading a vagabond life for a few months, he resumed his schooling, but to keep in touch with music, he gave music lessons at a junior college.

Since none of his parents got the opportunity to go to school, they wanted both their sons to graduate. Initially, Allchin wasn’t much interested in schooling and spent most of his time practising the guitar, but he had a special niche for mathematics. Life started changing when he finally pursued Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida, but he dropped out to play in more bands. But, he somehow managed to graduate in the year 1973, with a BS in Computer Science, from the university.

Higher studies and career

Soon after graduating, Allchin joined Texas Instruments, where he helped building operating systems. After this, he helped out a former lecturer to open his own company, and then, he took another job in Dallas, Texas. After a few years, he decided to complete his Masters from Stanford University, and that’s where his life took a new turn.

Allchin was completely engrossed in computer science and discrete mathematics and graduated with a degree of MS in Computer science in 1980. But this was not the end. The teenage boy, who once dropped out to pursue music, ended up pursuing PhD at Georgia Institute of Technology. He was highly interested in programming, especially, the object-oriented operating system and did his research related to it. He, finally, published his thesis, ‘An Architecture for Reliable Decentralized Systems’.

After receiving his PhD, Allchin started working for Banyan in 1983 and continued for seven years. He got rapid promotions, and soon, he became the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the company. He created some astounding operating systems there, which included the StreetTalk directory protocol.

Bill Gates literally required one long year to convince this computer pundit to join Microsoft, and finally, succeeded to hire him in 1990.

Allchin and Microsoft

Allchin was an expert in creating networks, software and debugging systems. He was initially given the duty of rebuilding LAN Manager, but later, he decided that it needed a fresh start. He received his first conspicuous project, Cairo, in 1991, when Bill Gates decided to add more advanced software to Windows NT and create the next version of the operating system. In July 1992, Allchin gave a presentation about the next generation of Microsoft operating system at the NT Developer Conference. One of the main goals of Cairo was to make the files easily accessible to the users. It was released in an array of successive operating systems.

After that Allchin created new server organization and mainly focused on the business market which provoked the ire of Vice President Brad Silverberg, who aimed at developing personal computer market. In 1999, the company restructured itself, and a single operating system division was formed. Allchin became the Vice President of this new group. After he came into power, the business expanded with an increasing number of clients. His biggest success was creating the company’s server business from scratch, which is majorly responsible for its huge success.

In 2002, Allchin was diagnosed with cancer. So, he took a leave of absence. Though he was fully recovered by 2003, he didn’t plan to stay in Microsoft for long. He retired from Microsoft at the end of 2006.

Musical Career

After he left Microsoft, he devoted pretty much of his time to music and performing charity. His first album, Enigma was released in 2009 followed by Overclocked in 2011. A few more albums were released after this and were also featured in iTunes.

He is a true inspiration for all of us. He came from nothing and established himself both as a prominent programmer, and a devoted musician. He still continues to learn, write songs and definitely code!