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> John and I went to one of the early microcomputer shows in San Francisco. Steve Jobs was sitting on a wooden peach crate telling all his design in another box

> John and I went to one of the early microcomputer shows in San Francisco. Steve Jobs was sitting on a wooden peach crate telling all his design in another box of wires that did not work was the computer of the future. He said that mass of wires was not working because something was bumped getting that mess to the show. John, who later became an IBM hardware design engineer, took pity on Steve and designed the Apple II system board which was the first version that actually worked no matter what is claimed today. This comment makes me doubt some of the veracity of the rest of the article and its extraordinary claims. But maybe I’m biased by reading a lot of the accepted history.

pinewurst 6y ago
> In fact, in Tracy Kidders’ book “Soul of a New Machine”, Bill was one of if not the university guru that Data General went to for help when their microprocessor design stumbled. Ditto.
chipotle_coyote 6y ago
Yeah, that's kind of weird, really. It basically ignores the existence of the Apple I, and I've never seen anyone talk about Steve Jobs claiming to have designed either the Apple I and II -- that's always been credited, even by Jobs, to Wozniak. Maybe this is supposed to be a claim about the Apple I and Wozniak, but that still doesn't fully line up.
itisit 6y ago
Smells funny. From Wozniak's 2006 bio "iWoz", page 188: "The Apple II, on the other hand, was designed and engineered from the ground up. Also solely by me."
djmips 6y ago
It turns out that wasn't transcribed exactly as was spoken. In the oral interview, he doesn't claim Steve Jobs designed the box of wires. Watch here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yQ219rHVAo&feature=youtu.be&t=720 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yQ219rHVAo&feature=youtu.be...
jdswain 6y ago
The details always matter in these kinds of statements, and I guess there is often exaggeration in a lot of claims to have designed things. Someone that made a one sentence comment on a design then claims to be the one that actually made it work. It’s clear that Woz was a uniquely talented hardware designer, but he also wasn’t living in isolation (although imagine what it would have been like if he had the internet). In Chuck Peddles oral history at the Computer Museum he has this to say about Apple: Peddle: Apple II. OK, so Apple I. Peter lived in the Bay Area, and he was my salesman for the Bay Area. So he was selling Atari and all that sort of stuff. And we went to two or three other of his customers and helped them with the ICE. And he called up and said, hey, we got these two young guys working on this computer in their garage, and they can't make it work. So Peter and I took the ICE down, and we made it work. Peddle designed the 6502 and a lot of 6502 systems, he would have been a great person to have around to get your design going. And an ICE (In Circuit Emulator) would have helped too.

pinewurst 6y ago

> In fact, in Tracy Kidders’ book “Soul of a New Machine”, Bill was one of if not the university guru that Data General went to for help when their microprocessor design stumbled. Ditto.

chipotle_coyote 6y ago

Yeah, that's kind of weird, really. It basically ignores the existence of the Apple I, and I've never seen anyone talk about Steve Jobs claiming to have designed either the Apple I and II -- that's always been credited, even by Jobs, to Wozniak. Maybe this is supposed to be a claim about the Apple I and Wozniak, but that still doesn't fully line up.

itisit 6y ago

Smells funny. From Wozniak's 2006 bio "iWoz", page 188: "The Apple II, on the other hand, was designed and engineered from the ground up. Also solely by me."

djmips 6y ago

It turns out that wasn't transcribed exactly as was spoken. In the oral interview, he doesn't claim Steve Jobs designed the box of wires. Watch here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yQ219rHVAo&feature=youtu.be&t=720 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yQ219rHVAo&feature=youtu.be...

jdswain 6y ago

The details always matter in these kinds of statements, and I guess there is often exaggeration in a lot of claims to have designed things. Someone that made a one sentence comment on a design then claims to be the one that actually made it work. It’s clear that Woz was a uniquely talented hardware designer, but he also wasn’t living in isolation (although imagine what it would have been like if he had the internet). In Chuck Peddles oral history at the Computer Museum he has this to say about Apple: Peddle: Apple II. OK, so Apple I. Peter lived in the Bay Area, and he was my salesman for the Bay Area. So he was selling Atari and all that sort of stuff. And we went to two or three other of his customers and helped them with the ICE. And he called up and said, hey, we got these two young guys working on this computer in their garage, and they can't make it work. So Peter and I took the ICE down, and we made it work. Peddle designed the 6502 and a lot of 6502 systems, he would have been a great person to have around to get your design going. And an ICE (In Circuit Emulator) would have helped too.