so thatthe surface can be etched. Component size has become so ‘anishingly small chaieisclse to matching the wavelength oflight used toexpose the tesie material The search son fora nev process ‘hat ases non-optial techniques for etching. X-ray lithography works much like optical lithography and ae comparable through- pu rates, chough wich its shorter wavelength ic ean produce much smaller atures. Other promising technologies are quantum dots and nanotubes, ech as exotica its name would suggest. There sens no end in sight to the progres predicted in 1965 by Intl co- Founder Gordon Moore, who correctly Forecast that the number of | transistors placed on a chip would double abou every so years ino the foreseeable fare While chip technology has been evolving, parallel, similarly spectacular advances have ben made inthe capacity and speed of | acces For long-term data storage in computers. usivac made a major step forward wih the use of magnetic tape, an enormous advance over punch cards, bur daa still had tobe sought out ina linear process tha involved moving the tape back and forth over reading and writing heads. The magnetic disk in which data i recorded in concentric rings om a constantly rotating platen, was inocaced in che 190. The ead/wnite head skimmed the surice af the rotating disk, dropping tothe surface todo itsjb as requied The physical distances involved in accessing data were grealy reduced, speeding the proces significant once again. Concurrently, the density of data being stored was steadily increased. The now- familie “hard drive” isa stack of such high-density disks, with readivete heads for cach surface, mounted in a hard shell or box As with incegeated circuits, no limit wo advancesin this atea ofcom- puter rechnology has yer appeared, 26 The Personal Computer ‘r wAs ust one pleasant surprise after another at Intel, The First integrated cieuits had brough« che company overnight ‘wealth almost beyond comprehending. Now its 880 micro- processor, the “computer on chip,” was about to launch an indus try that would spa a revolution in communications that would in turn change dhe world ‘We've sen that, hanks to he exigencies of World War Land \ the interminable Cold Wat that alowed, the development ofthe] electronic computer upto and including the 880 chip had been} Financed and supervise largely by the miliary in Brian and the | ‘United States. No technology is “aluefee™ 0 lest af ll communications rchnologes: they carry within them =f ‘alue-ncutral," the values ofthe social structures and institutions out of which they develop. Take che humble family washing machine, Elettic and automatic, iti sch a commonplace that ic may seem value- ‘emp. However, to someone fom another culture say, an Eritean Bedouin, is a value-laden 38a mechanized Tibetan prayer wheel istoa North American, The washing machine has built ino ie all the values of a modern, industrial, consumer sociery. I els us that The Altaiewasa machine only a dedicated computer aficionado could love T ge ic to do anything, you had to enter a program bit by it usinga series of frot-paneltogele switches. ks internal mem= ‘ory (nan) was juse 256 bytes, and fe had no external memory (ot rom), 50 that whatever program had been laboriously loaded into ic would vanish whenever it was turned off. There was no display screen, just afew tows of nye lights hy which user was able to { divine what ves going on inside the box, Iesold like horakes, srs ‘Was overwhelmed by demand, much of i in the Form of prepaid cotders. Shipments el weeks, chen months, behind. Promised peri- pheral equipment such as memory boards, cerminals and paper tape s-ayeat and then readers for entering data wasnt available for only in limited supply. “Muh ofthe extaotdinarydemane ame from members fcom- purer hobbyist clubs, principally in the United States, he mose Famous of which is che San Francisco Bay areas Homebrew Com= puter Club. les meetings were attended by well over a hundred cehusass, some of whom had taken delivery of Alsirs, many more of whom were impatiendy waiting fr thee orders tobe filled They showed one another pograms they had wrsten that performed such miraculous feats as adding together rwo digits. One member brought the entire club ots feet in wild applause by programming his Alair co ply the song “Daisy” by causing raspy noises on 3 portable radio. The ear wasa tip ofthe ha tothe 1968 movie based fon Arthur C. Cltke’s novel aot: A Space Ody. As iat, the The Personal Computer as ralevolent computer that has murdered most of a Mars-hound spacecraft’ cre, is systematically lboomized by the surviving crew member, the as thing i ura phrase fom “Daisy.” Homebrew Computer Club membersheped oneanoser with advice, components and peipheas. Buc wha was most intensely Ite afer by a major of them wav a ast nee fr ch] machine asic was an “asembly language” that would reside wih the compute memory: purpose was vo ranae plain Engel Jnseructions, entered via keyboard or punched paper tape, nto achie anguge of one an rs That woul imine he tedious, time-consuming and enor-prone procedure of program ‘ning dry in machine ingingewing then pan gle sw nas had sucha ast interpreter for ee Ala, bu the chaos} within the overburdened company was sich that it to fled to ship on ime. chad ben writen by acomputersavyy Harvard Law School feshman and computer prodigy named Wiliam Henry Gates II and his prograrnmer rend Pal Alen. They had sen the PapulerEleroncr etc and raed immediately hae here Was an opportunity for anyone who could pu together wast inter- peter iay enough to fic into che Alas minuscule memory. Six ‘weks tr, they had finshed the job and Allen ew co Albuquerque to show Ed Robert what he'd achieved. rts bought the program nud made Allen the companyssfeware director. Bil Gates dropped ‘outofechool and began programming fllxime “The knee that an Als asc xine be was oe eing | sade avilable was enough to drive he average hacker cary. and ie leo the neil the program wa ised a one of ws mar keting demonstrations. Iwas copied and dsvibued at computer club meetings nd trough the maiall over the wold. Toth hob- bys involved tsecmed lik simple justice; afeall,many of them had already pid wars for thee copies and hadnt received them. ‘And in any case, software heretofore had always been fee, Kt was parca thehackec ethics fyou weot a program, you disebue it freetworherin the expectation that ives16 spinit oF THE wen and, one hoped, improve it, At worst, you might let people use and sugges to them that if they liked it and found i useful, they could send you afew dollars just cover you costs. The idea oF making softwate specifically to sell ata profc. . . wel, here was something not right about it For Bill Gace, hough, pracy was theft, pure and simple. As ind co-owner (with Allen) of che fledgling Microsoft Corporation, he wrote an open lente saying 2s much, and it was widely published. “As the majority of hobbyists must he awa, ‘most of you steal your software,” he wrote. “Hardware must be president paid for. but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on ic gt paid” The eer was perfectly in char- acter for Gates, who, it would soon become apparent, had the business instincts of a wolverine. But reviews were scathing: one ‘computer club in California even dhveatened 0 sue Gates for eall- ing hoboyiss thieves. I was the beginning of Gates career asthe Richard Nison of the computer industry, the ambitious over- achiever whom people love t hate, Some have compared him to radio pioneer David Sarnoff another man whose overweening a bicion and cutthroat competitiveness often pu him on the wrong, side of U.S. federal antitrust regulators bent on keeping the in- dustry competitive, Gates, like Sarnoff before him, had the bil liance ro see thar dhe teal money to be made in his industry was not In hardware, but in softwate. For Sarnoff, that meant networks und radio programs for Gates, it meant computer applications “This insighe would make him the richest man inthe world Other personal computer companies sprang up, many in California garages and vacane warehouses. By 197 there were ket, including Heathkie, Cromemeo, 1MsA, Radio Shack and Commodore, And there was Apple Computer, the creature of Homebrew Computer ‘Club enthasiase Steve Wozniak and his chum Seeve Jobs. Their ‘company and its products were destined co have & profound impact on che budding industry, ity oF mote products on the The Perconal Computer a7 Where Ed Roberts of urns had been more oF les in the mould ‘of the asic American small businesrman and enteepreneus, eight dlown to the overstuffed, shortsleved cotton-polyester shire with pocket protector, and Allen and Gates were rypcal owl-yed, skinny computer nerds, Wozniak and Jobs were anything burconventional. Jobs, self described “fea” with shoulder-length hair, soughespie- iu insight in sofe drugs, vegetarianism and Eastern mystical phi- losophy, He preferred barefeet to shoes and drove a Volkswagen ‘minivan. Woaniak, “Woo” to his friends, had a penchant for corny practical jokes and eultvated wildly erratic workhabits. Asa serufy college dropout who was 2 spectacularly good programmer, he managed, bt only just, to hold down a steady jab inthe calculator division of Hewlet-Packad in Palo Ako, Jobs and Wozniak had met in 1971, when Jobs was sixteen and ‘Woaniak ewenty-one. Despite the age dference, they had much in ‘common, including the same high school lma mater. That year they could be found licking in the halls of uta Berkeley, selling ‘Woxniak-designed “blue boxes.” gadgees for making fre long distance phone cll. A fellow sent fom that era recalls: 1 was happy tobe a uc, Berkely in 1972, but unlucky enough tobe resident of one of the dormitories, filled with freshmen sway from home forthe fist cme. One night, acting on a lead from a mutual fiend, two young men known by the names “Hane and "Gable" came to my rom fora visit ("Gribbe” also went under the name Oaf Tobar] They were really samed Jabs and Wozniak, and they were sling blue boxes” ‘When he finished high school, Jobs spent ro yeas at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, before dropping ous, eeurning home and landing a job a a progeammer with a star-up com- ppucer game company called Atari. A few months later he took what savings he had been able to accumulate and headed for India as one of the generation's ‘dharma bums,” reurning in 974,ae spiner oF THE WER just abou when the Homebrew Computer Club was geeting organize. “Jobs and Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company in 1975 to sella computer kit "motherboued” Wonniak had designed around an integrated circuit chip being produced by a company called Mos Technology. Their kt was less powerful than some of| the competing product from Atari and itsat and others, but it had the virtues of alow price ($666.66) and the bulein ability to be hooked up to television screen. Jobs landed an order with hobby shop fora hundred ofthe boards 3t $300 each, and the to suddenly had a viable business. To raise operating capital, Jobs sold his VW van and Wooniak hse calculator. That brought in $1350, and they were able to borrow $5,000 from a friend. They got the ‘components they needed on chiry-day credit. Ina, Apple sold about 175 of che boards, enough to convince the two Steves that they should continue on in business. While ‘Woxniak turned ro designing new and beter computer that would ‘become the famous Apple (he hung on to his day jo at Hewlet- Pickard), Jobs looked to organizing che busines end of things. He asked onc of lion Valle’ newly minced milionites 2 ciey-1wor year-old former Incl marketing manager named A.C. Markkula, 0 hnlp ir drafe a business plan. Before he had got very far into the project, Markkula realized that Apple was sitting on a potential gold mine, and bough a third of the company for $91,000. Then Ihearranged 2 $250,000 line of credit witha bankand raised another $700,000 in venture capital ‘On fem financial foting, ad with professional management con eap, Apple wat positioned ro handle the wild succes that its Apple I machine became, Ie was the Volkswagen Beedle and the Austin Mini of the personal computer industry, a fun, fiendly machine sling for an affordable $1.95, Ie sported a floppy disk drive when many of ts competitors were sil using slow and unte- Table casere tapes for memory storage It would support a colour cor. Most important of ll it left open expansion slots 0 that The Personal Compucer 8 ‘thid- pasty inventors could come up with hardware to enhance the machine. The young company also made poinc of working with software developers, sharing machine specifications they needed ro develop programs. This openness was one of the keys tothe rapid carly development of the personal computer industry, and was a “ramatie departure from the policy in place art and other estab lished manufacturers, which prefered stacey of locking in mar ke share to thei closed, proprietary systems Jobshad hired an industrial designe todo the plasticcase fr the Apple not just any designer, bur Harmuth Fsslinger, creator of| the Porsche 928 Fuselage—and had seen to it that che machine had 4 warm and friendly look and fel about it. Worniak, an inveterate ‘ompucer gamer, had madeit a great game machine Even mote sig- nificanely, ie was che only computer ofits time that ran the break through spreadsheet program called VisiCale, an application that was authentically revolutionary ines ime in opening the public's «yes to the potential ofthese litle machines. Jean-Louis Gass, who ‘would become product development manager for Apple, has wit- ‘ten of his irs encounter withthe program in 198: So VsiCale offered ilo me on the seten:a shee ued paper with rows and columns. Lil by live aoviced that this program, whic looked like nothing in parila allowed this budget simulations Gomething every company head needs bur eet ath tne or courage wo do) robe executed in tw steps.» single tem changes and everthing i ecleu- lated.» coulda believe my eyes... That was the day L realized tat you dida have to bea programmer anymore © ties compute? “The Apple Iwas just right for the market when it was inero- dluced in 1977, a near-perfect match berween consumers’ dreams and builder’ vision. Apple became the Fastest-growing corporation in the United States, its sles soaring from $775,009 in 1977 co555 milion in 981 and neaey 81 billion in 1983. When the com- pany went public in 198, its stock hit a market value of 8-2 bilion| tn the frse day twas offered. Markkula had parlayed his $1,000 investment into $154 million; Jobs was now worth $165 milion and ‘Wozniak $88 milion, In classic cate of hubris in large corporations 1s ignored che personal computer sae fr thre long years afer the Apple Hand its competitors from Commodore, Radio Shack, Arai and others ‘were introduced, But when ie decided to move, i surprised nearly rceyone with the sophistication ofits entry The ra was star sling-—astonishing even, considering the reputation ofits maker for sceey and proprietary technologies—because the company had Udcided o.open up che computer’ arcitectre. Open architectare mean that any thitd-parey developer could gee a copy ofthe com. purer specs and go 10 work on designing add-ons, peripheral, soft- "vate, or even clone the motherboard itself. sn rc clones did in face begin to appeaealmose immediately. The company had made i possible for small ventuses to compete with is rc on an equa foot ing, and that ed to capi development ofthe product ine. ‘When it came to writing an operating system for its personal rmputer rh eutned to Bill Gaters Microsoft. twas, for Gaes, the opporcuniy of lifetime: whatever operating system the 18 9 ‘sed was sure to become the industry standard, which would mea that mose personal computers old around the world would use it, and that was bound co make Gaees avery, very wealthy man. The ‘operating system Mirosof designed for che ss ne was called, sim- ply; ss-D08, for Microsof Disk Operating System. e was robust, flexible and workmanlike, but ie was decidedly unfriendly eo any ‘one nor alteady Familiar with computersand their languages. Noh ing about it was intuitive; came with thick manuals chat needed to be stuied before the simplest operations could be performed. The st rc was gtey, buttoned-down accountant’ tool ke. Te offered the pow ofthe microchip to. broad public ata reasonable pics, but om is serms, not theits. Despite its open architecture, it was very much a product oF op-down thinking. The Personal Computer sat “Thus. while he sm nwa buf one igh evens impo on, the marke, che Appl Il had grown ou of ies marker The discincton was apparent in vircaly every aspect ofthe cw machines om operating eem—epeily operating seteno— to cabinet desgn vo cry of monitor preston to these of thar espectve owners manuals (Apples was sim and graphically appealing) right down wo the way the mothetboards were de- Signed. tsopen architecture was the tn products vena sla tions t became more enya hind pat designer and sofware derloper gadully changed io suitthe nods of ordinary haan beings: Ba irwar along slow proces ‘Whatever is inal shorscomings when compared with the Apple the msn served to legitimize the peronal computer muse inthe minds of any ondary sere ad busines people, and to tke ic int the mainstream inthe same way as Wesern Union’ entry into the clephone business had almost overnight greatly panded the matter intially developed by the then- tinknown Bell Telephone. Thera prodursinroduction was a key spin making he personal compurer a commonplace appl ancein homes, andin business fal kinds. In 198, Apple introduced anew model that wat ro make the dinincton between the iaxccompatile re and its own products expr clea. The Macintosh, a product ofthe von of Steve Jobs tnd his mesianc dsr make computing eeaibe roeveryne, incoduced wo innovations chat ada simple the inerfce beeween user and machine the now-ubiqutous “mse” andthe itor-bued “desktop” The Mac wat a futher development of ‘Appleseulir and unsuccesfal Lis business machine, which failed principally Because it was aimed atthe wrong marke, Corporate Busines purchasers were nor ready fora machin hat made com puting fn, and she homebusines computer market had not yet developed ro the degre that could upporea product as expensive tnd sophisticated a Lt The Lim interface was developed over a period of nearly chee ysesbeginning in 1978, by Apple designers who were working wthsae spear on Tn wen an explicit set of goals cha detailed Jobe’ vision Instead of an insertable blank screen and a Mashing cursor, the new interface presented che user with pieture ofan eletronicdeskeop with icons the usee manipulated to tll he computer what ra do, A ment bar across the cop ofthe scrcen offered further options with pull-down submenus, Documents were displayed in windows tha could be ‘ined 10 suit the user The general layout ofthe interface could be alkered toa use’ individual estes and preferences. Some ofthe guidelines thatthe Apple designers worked with ‘were listed in the project's Marketing Requirements Document (i980), which opened with the declaration Lisa must be Fun to use Ie will nr b eysem that ews by "pecs the boss old ‘hem 10,” Lisa wil be designed to require extremely minimal user ertining and hand holding, The system will provide one standard method of interacting with 2 user in handling text, someone "because itis par ofthe job ‘numbers, and graphic, The Macintosh transfered these guidelines to thei logical envi ronment the personal computer marke, and the resul was a radi cal machine tha had been designed from the ground wp withthe ide tha computers ought tobe easy to use—playabl, in act, ike musical instrument-—by anyone who knew a few rudimentary rules. You could use i for spreadsheets and word processing, but you could alo draw with it, make music with it, design page lay- ‘outs. The hardware itselP was a giane step forward, with ts all-in ‘one plg-and play format and attention to design aesthetics, small fotprine, auo-cjct Roppy dik drives and loudspeaker. An Apple engineer recall ven the packaging showed amaing creativity and pasion; do ‘ny of you remember unpacking an original 128K Mac? The Mac, the unpacking instructions, the profusely illustrated and ‘beautifilly writen manuals and he animated practice program, The Personal Computer a with audio casete were packaged together refill in a cr ‘oar box with Picasso-tye graphics onthe side. Never before hada computer been delivered wit so much atenton eo detail and the customers neds" "This was a computer designed to be an extension ofits wer in direc contrast ro the tx product, which treated its operators a living peripherals who were required to know pages of machine like bos command codes and obey machine, rather chan human, logic. Anyone who has been pusaled over the yearby the ieceness of the loyalty of Macineosh users wil do well to keep in mind chis crucial distinction, IFBll Gates was the Richard Nixon of software devel- ‘pers, then che nn was Nixon as cyborg: ithad the power, tad the authority, i had the marker success, but nobody loved it.I is also true tha there was certain macho appeal to the very com- plexity of us-008 in the business and technical communities. Ie {gave those who had mastered ita special cachet and improved theit job security. The nos-lterate had a vested interest in opposing anything that would reduce che economic scarcity of cei special knowledge. ‘They had reason co like the fac that Dos was diffclt. By the 1990, Apple Computer had seen the ms-00s operating, system devour the lion’ share of che personal computer market, ‘thanks in pare tothe availablity ofbargain-priced clones. What was even more worrying than the gap in hardware prices, how- ever, was Microsoft's success in emulating the very features of the Macintosh operating system that had accounted for is strong, appeal. With each succeeding iteration ofits Windows operating system, Microrof drew loser to mimicking the Macintosh incer- face. Along and expensive lawsuit charging Mirosof with infiinge- ment of copyright ad filed. By the mid-1990s, Apple seemed to have lost its nerve, and is lirection. le toyed with icensngitshardware, and licensed Macintosh clones made a brief appearance in 1997-98. By then, in arempr- ing tobe all things to all people, the rudderless company had introduced a bewildering plethora of models designed to compete