Burrell Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1955-12-16)December 16, 1955 (age 70) |
| Occupation | Computer engineer |
| Known for | Macintosh |
Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is a retired American computer engineer who created the firstwire wrap prototype of themotherboard for the originalMacintosh atApple Computer.[1] He became Apple employee #282 in February 1979 as anApple II service technician.[2] He designed the motherboard for Apple'sLaserWriter.
Smith was working in Apple's service department when he helpedBill Atkinson add more memory to an Apple II computer in an innovative fashion. Atkinson recommended him toJef Raskin, who, along withSteve Wozniak, was looking for a hardware engineer for their newly formedMacintosh project.[2] As a member of the design team,[3] Smith prototyped five different motherboards using techniques based onProgrammable Array Logic (PAL) chips to achieve maximum functionality with a minimal chip count and cost. His signature is molded into the original Macintosh case, along with the signatures of the rest of the Macintosh team.
Smith left the company before the release of Apple's Turbo Mac design platform, with an internal hard drive and a further simplified chipset.
He co-foundedRadius Inc.
Smith is retired and lives inPalo Alto.[4]
He reportedly hadbipolar disorder during the 1990s.[5][6] In 1993, he was accused of "breaking windows, throwing a firecracker and leaving letters at the house" ofSteve Jobs[5] and the case was dropped when he accepted treatment.[6] ActorLenny Jacobson portrayed him in the 2013 filmJobs.
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