TeX supports 8-bit input directly through the use of .tcx files (TeX character translation). These files map an input (keyboard) character code to the internal TeX character code (used in fonts for TeX). You can specify a .tcx file to be used for a particular TeX run by specifying the command-line option --translate-file or (preferably) by specifying it in the first line of the document (see tex and friends with option --help or Web2C documentation). The author is unknown.