Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak (called Woz) (August 11th 1950) is a Informaticien and American electronics specialist of Polish origin . He is cofounder of the company Apple computer (now known under the name of Apple, Inc.) with Steve Jobs and originator of the first after (of which Apple I, Apple LISA, APPLE II, Apple III, Macintosh, various peripherals…) and regarded as one of the characters major pioneers of the industry Micro-informatique which allowed the introduction of the Micro-ordinateur S into all the hearths.

Biography

To analyze its contribution like a simple compilation of ideas already known and ready to be implemented for a series production of personal computers, would be to limit the ingeniousness and the creativity of Steve Wozniak which were certainly the key elements of the revolution brought by the appearance of the personal Computer.

Wozniak always liked the projects which require a deep reflection. His/her father, engineer at Lockheed, teaches him the rudiments from the Mathématiques and the electronic . At 11 years, it builds its own equipment of Radioamateur. At 13 years, he is elected president of the club of electronics of his school, and gains the first price with a fair of science for a Calculatrice using Transistor S. Moreover at 13 years, Woz designs his first microcomputer, the base of all his later work.

In 1975, Woz drops its studies to the university from Berkeley in California. However, he works within the framework of the Homebrew Computer Club, a local group amateurs of electronics. He then does not have broader ambition, but, with the club, he meets Steve Jobs, his 5 year old junior, which also gave up its studies with the to him Reed College in 1972. Steve Jobs, contrary to Woz, is a visionary.

Jobs and Wozniak conclude that an assembled and inexpensive microcomputer would meet its public. They sell some their businesses of price (such as for example the scientific Calculatrice of Woz), raise a capital of 1.300 dollars, and assemble their first prototype in the garage of Jobs. This first microcomputer, not very powerful according to the current standards, is for 1975 a wonder of technology. As regards ease of use, it is far in front of the Altair 8800 of the manufacturer MITS who meets a certain business success near the impassioned amateurs, introduced with the beginning of the year 1975. The Altair 8800 does not have any storage and display device. It receives its orders via a series of switches and a simple program requires thousands of handling to be made without error. The exits of the Altair 8800 are done in the form of twinkling lights. Sold in kit, the Altair 8800 is a wonder for truths Geek S of which Bill Gates and Paul Allen was among the first with their Computer programming language Altair BASIC, but is not usable by a larger audience. The computer of Woz, on the other hand, the Apple I, is an entirely assembled and functional unit comprising a Microprocesseur with 25 dollars on a single Mother chart embarking a ROMANIAN as well as a screen and a keyboard. April 1st 1976, Jobs and Wozniak form their company, Apple. Wozniak leaves its work at Hewlett-Packard and becomes vice-president responsible for the research and the development at Apple. Apple I is sold with the price of 666 dollars, Jobs and Wozniak places their the first 25 computers at a local retailer.

The Apple I makes it possible the company to garner nearly a million dollars. Wozniak concentrates now full-time with its improvement and adds new functionalities to him. Its new machine must preserve the most important characteristics of the Apple I: simplicity and profitability. Woz adds graphics high-resolution in the APPLE II which can now show images as well as letters. In 1978, it conceives a Disk drive inexpensive and Randy Wigginton and writes a to him Operating system basic. In addition to its gift for the material, Wozniak writes the major part of the Logiciel S which turn on the machine. It programs an interpreter BASIC, a play of Breakage-bricks (which is the occasion to add sound to Apple), the code to order the disk drive, and more still. Software side, the APPLE II is also made more attractive for a professional user by the appearance of the famous Tableur VisiCalc of daN Bricklin and Bob Frankston. In 1980, Apple enters out of purse and fact of Jobs and Wozniak of the millionaires.

However, Woz became less enthusiastic in its work for Apple. He married, is turned over to the university under the name of “Rocky Clark” to obtain, in 1982, his diplomas in electrotechnical Informatique as well as in . In 1983, it returns to Apple in a rather original way. It returns in one of the buildings of the Apple unit and request quite simply if it can do something. He discovers then the project APPLE II gs, with his microprocessor 65816. However, because of external and internal problems, it leaves Apple in 1985, nine years after the creation of the company. Jobs leaves also Apple following a fight to be able it with the head of the company. Sponsored Wozniak then of the charitable actions in the field of education, which by no means prevents it from buying the new Apple products to study them and place them at the disposal in schools.

In September 2000, Steve Wozniak enters to the National Inventors Hall off Famed American. (museum of the American inventors )

Currently, he is a fan of rock'n'roll and organizes/finance in the concerts and evenings.

Bonds

the official site of Steve Wozniak (in English)
Apple exposure
Adventure Apple
History of Apple
Site Apple

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