The KERNAL was known as kernel[6] inside of Commodore since the PET days, but in 1980 Robert Russell misspelled the word as kernal in his notebooks. When Commodore technical writers Neil Harris and Andy Finkel collected Russell's notes and used them as the basis for the VIC-20 programmer's manual, the misspelling followed them along and stuck.[7]
According to early Commodore myth, and reported by writer/programmer Jim Butterfield among others, the "word" KERNAL is an acronym (or maybe more likely, a backronym) standing for Keyboard Entry Read, Network, And Link, which in fact makes good sense considering its role. Berkeley Softworks later used it when naming the core routines of its GUI OS for 8-bit home computers: the GEOS KERNAL.
I was hoping this was a joke on his bad spelling, but then I realized the article was in German. Oh well.
I remember Bob had already accepted a job with Sperry Univac when Commodore insisted that he fly out for an interview. He went on a lark for free travel. According to his stories at the time, he was a bit of a crank during the interview since he had no intention of taking the job. This was before the VIC-20, so Commodore's had those lame chicklette keyboards and other lameness. He kept saying "My Apple can do this, why can't you do this?" Somehow, instead of interpreting his criticism as attitude, they were convinced he was a visionary. Go figure. So they paid what he asked and he played key roles on VIC-20 and C64.
History could be very different if he had ended up at Univac. The C64 looks a lot like ideas that were first floated during BS sessions among our gang.
I do sort of remember idly wondering which people built this marvel, already back then. Since then I've read a bunch of books etc, but a personal connection is hard to beat! Thanks for the story!