| Most of these computing giants of today were no more than garage based ideas during their early years. |
| The history of this company goes all the way back to 1890 and a man by the name of Herman Hollerith. This man was hired by the Census Bureau for use of his Tabulating Machine card which reduced calculating the national census from about ten years to two and a half years. This was the start of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., later IBM. |
| Most dropouts from high school don't amount to much. However, this doesn't apply to two guys by the name of Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs. Before they dropped out they knew they wanted to get into the electronics business. In 1976 Wozniak, while working for , developed the Apple 1. Jobs was hired to help him sell the first Apple computer on April 1, 1975. |
| When people are inspired by something they usually work hard to achieve their goals. One of the most impressive companies our world has ever known was inspired by a cover of a magazine. While looking at the cover of a Popular Science magazine with the new Altair 8800 on it, Paul Allen and Bill Gates developed a BASIC Interpreter for the Altair in January 1975. By the next month they had completed the first ever written language program for a personal computer. They licensed this program to their first customer that same month also, MITS of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the manufacturer of the Altair 8800 personal computer. |
| Intel pretty much jumped into the computer revolution with its development of the new microprocessor in 1971. The first product Intel designed was the 3101 Shottky bipolar 64-bit static random access memory chip, or SRAM. Intel focuses it's research in the memory field when a Japanese calculator company asks them to design a microprocessor for them. They eventually design a 12 in one chip that puts them on the "computer map" and is the start of great things to come. |
| The Tandy family has to be one of the greatest
American success stories. Starting with their life savings of $5000 each, Norton
Hinckley and Dave Tandy, started their own leather company in 1919. Hinckley and
Tandy eventually split, and Tandy's oldest son came to join his father after World War
II. By 1950 the Tandy's were netting $8,000,000 in sales. In 1955 the Tandy's
sold the company, to American Hide and Leather. Terms of the deal included an option
for Tandy to buy 500,000 shares at $4 per share. Eventually he gained control of the
company and renamed it Tandy. Thus he is one of the only people in history to have
their family name on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1963 Tandy bought a chain of 9
Boston stores called Radio Shack and turned it into one of America's premier retailers of
electronics. This page was created by Jake F. |
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