Born: August 11, 1950, San Jose, California, USA
Summary. Stephen Wozniak is a computer engineer turned philanthropist. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing greatly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976 and created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s. The Apple II became the best selling computer of the 1970s and early 1980s, and is often credited as the first popular personal computer. The former is also the name of a company he founded. Several of his loyal friends said Wozniak, who is extremely proud of his Polish heritage, has referred to himself as the "second most famous Pole after Marie Curie."
The man who constantly downplays his long list of amazing accomplishments eagerly boasts to confidants of his prowess at the game of Tetris. "He claims to be the world's greatest Tetris player," one source said.
Early days. Wozniak's father, Jerry Wozniak, himself was an electrical engineer, trained at Cal Tech, and employed at Lockheed, the giant electronics/weapons concern. His mother, Margaret, was an outgoing woman, with a strong interest in civic affairs and politics.
Wozniak's early inspiration came from his father and from a fictional wonder-boy: Tom Swift. His father gave him a fascination for electronics and would often check over young Woz's creations. Woz's values were shaped and strengthened over years by his family, individual thinking, moral philosophy, amateur radio ethics (helping people in emergency), books (Swift's utilitarian and humanitarian attitude), among other things. Wozniak has always loved all that requires heavy thinking, even if it was devoid of any practicality or marketability. He learned the basics of mathematics and electronics from his father. When Woz was 11, he built his own amateur radio station, and got a ham-radio license. At age 13, he was elected president of his high school electronics club, and won first prize at a science fair for a transistor-based calculator. Also at 13, Woz began designing his first computers (including one that could play tic-tac-toe), which laid the foundation for his later successes. After dropping out of the University of Colorado, Woz and his neighbor, Bill Fernandez, built a computer together in Fernandez's parents' garage. It burned up its power supply in a demonstration, but Woz wasn't fazed. However, because parts at that time were prohibitively expensive, he satisfied himself with designing computers on paper. Around this time, Fernandez introduced Woz to his best friend and classmate, Steve Jobs. Jobs quickly befriended Woz and they started working together. Wozniak learned about the Blue Box through an October 1971 article in Esquire written by John Draper. The Blue Box is a device with which one could (mis)use the telephone system by emulating pulses. Although the article recommended against producing them and especially against selling the gadgets, Wozniak built and Jobs sold Blue Boxes for $150 apiece, splitting the profits.
A neighbor of the Wozniaks owned a surplus electronic parts store. This enterprising fellow invited neighborhood kids to help him with chores around his house and yard. Instead of paying them in cash, he paid them with resistors, capacitors, transistors, and diodes. Science fairs at the schools in the Valley encouraged science projects with an electronics theme. Young Woz, with his father's help, constructed a tic-tac-toe playing machine for a junior high science fair.
The dawn of Apple. By 1975, Wozniak dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley and came up with a computer that eventually became successful nationwide. However, he was largely working within the scope of the Palo Alto-based Homebrew Computer Club, a local group of electronics hobbyists. His project had no wider ambition. Jobs and Wozniak came to the conclusion that a completely assembled and inexpensive computer would be in demand. They sold some of their prized possessions, raised USD1300, and assembled the first prototype. Their first computer was quite an engineering marvel within the context of 1975 computing. In simplicity of use it was years ahead of the Altair 8800, which was introduced earlier in 1975. Altair had no display and no true storage. It received commands via a series of switches and a single program would require thousands of toggles without an error. Wozniak's computer, on the other hand, named Apple I, was a fully assembled and functional unit that contained a $25 microprocessor (MOS 6502) on a single-circuit board with ROM. On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed Apple Computer Company. Wozniak quit his job at Hewlett-Packard and became the vice president in charge of research and development at Apple. The Apple I was priced at $666.66. The startup version of the Apple I came as a printed circuit board, completely ready to go with the chips in place. All you had to do was add a power supply, keyboard, case, television monitor, and cables.
Jobs and Wozniak sold their first 25 computers to a local dealer. Wozniak introduced high-resolution graphics in the Apple II. By 1978, he also designed an inexpensive floppy-disk drive controller. In addition to his hardware skills, Wozniak wrote most of the software that ran on the Apple. In 1980, the Apple company went public and made Jobs and Wozniak millionaires. Also in 1980 he married Alice Robertson whom he later divorced.
The Success of the Apple II. It was because of the reliable profits from the Apple II that Apple was able to develop the Macintosh, market it, and gradually make it evolve into a machine which is now at the center of all Apple products. In February 1981, Steve Wozniak crashed his private plane. As a result, he had temporary short-term memory loss. He asked his girlfriend, Candice Clark, if he had been involved in an accident of some kind. When she told him of the event, his short-term memory was restored. Wozniak also credits computer games (running on an Apple II) for aiding him in restoring those "lost" memories. In 1983 he decided to return to Apple product development, but he wanted to be no more than just an engineer and a motivational factor for the Apple workforce.
Post-Apple career. Wozniak left Apple for good on February 6, 1985 and founded a new venture called Cloud 9 which developed home remote control switches, bringing the first universal remote control to market in 1987. In 1987 he got married to Candice Clark with who he had three children and returned to the University of California, Berkeley under the name "Rocky (Raccoon) Clark", finally earning his undergraduate degree in 1987. Wozniak is widely considered to be one of the greatest engineers of his generation. He has accomplished a feat unlikely to be repeated--he is the only person ever to design both the hardware and the software for a platform that became a huge commercial success. The Apple II is considered by many industry watchers as one of the most important developments in computer history. After leaving Apple, Wozniak created Core--a universal remote control device.. Now Wozniak's business is teaching.. Despite his fame and fortune, Wozniak's life has few of the trappings associated with money, fame and power. "He has no jets--instead he has personally touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of children and educators," said his close friend Doherty.
Recognition and awards.
1985- National Medal of Technology from Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States.
1997 - named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum.
2000- inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
2000 - prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment (established by Teresa Heinz in honor of her late husband, Sen. John Heinz) for “single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers…Steve Wozniak is considered the single most important person in the microcomputer revolution and is also one of the most interesting humanitarians.”
2004- an honorary Doctor of Science degree from North Carolina State University.
2005- an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Kettering University, in Flint, Michigan.
U.S. Patent 4136359 : "Microcomputer for use with video display"
Wozniak was a key contributor and benefactor to San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum (and the street in front of the museum has been renamed Woz Way in his honor). Since leaving Apple Computer, Wozniak has provided all the money, as well as a good amount of on-site technical support of the local Los Gatos School district (the district in which he lives and his children attend school). In 2001, he founded Wheels Of Zeus, acronymed "WoZ", a company that is creating wireless GPS technology to "help everyday people find everyday things". In the same year, he joined the Board of Directors of Danger, Inc., the maker of the HipTop
Popular culture.: In the movie "Camp Nowhere", Christopher Lloyd's character scams parents into sending their kids to a computer camp under the fake name of Steve Wozniak. Pirates of Silicon Valley - A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft. Wozniak is portrayed by actor Joey Slotnick.
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Steve Wozniak w Polsce (in Polish)
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