LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY

SINCE DESIGNING HIS FIRST COMPUTER AT THE AGE OF 13 , STEVE WOZNIAK HAS TRULY HELPED SHAPE THE COMPUTING INDUSTRY

Silicon Valley icon , technology entrepreneur and philanthropist for more than 40 years , Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple ’ s first line of products and his influence over the Macintosh .

Growing up in San Jose , California , Wozniak – commonly known as ‘ Woz ’ – designed his first computer at the age of 13 , joining the University of Berkeley ’ s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in 1971 .

From the campus , Wozniak and his friend Steve Jobs sold “ blue boxes ,” illegal devices that enabled anyone to make free long – distance calls . In 1976 , Woz dropped out of Berkeley to return to the South Bay , landing a job designing calculator chips for Hewlett-Packard . On the side he wrote arcade game software for Atari , where Jobs worked .

In 1976 , Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc . with Wozniak ’ s Apple I personal computer . The following year , he introduced his Apple II personal computer , featuring a central processing unit , a keyboard , colour graphics , and a floppy disk drive – which was integral in launching the personal computer industry . Since then , Wozniak has been listed as the sole inventor on four Apple patents .

“ If you look back at the first Apple II , it had about 10 features that had never been done in a low cost computer ,” Wozniak said in a 1984 interview with Creative Computing . “ We built in many things that had never been built-in a low cost computer . We built in many things that had never been built-in before . Almost every one of those things – graphics , text , large ROMs including languages like Basic , plastic cases , speakers , paddles , colour – have been built into computers since then .”

Apple IPO and return to UC Berkeley In 1980 , Apple Computer hit Wall Street , garnering the largest IPO since Ford Motor Company went public . He returned to UC Berkeley one year later and finished his degree in electrical engineering / computer science .

To date , Wozniak has received 10 Honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees . Wozniak founded the company Unuson , an abbreviation of “ unite us in song ”, which sponsored US Festivals in 1982 and 1983 . Initially intended to celebrate evolving technologies , the festivals ended up as a technology exposition and a rock festival as a combination of music , computers , television , and people .

STEVE WOZNIAK TITLE : CO-FOUNDER COMPANY : APPLE LOCATION : CALIFORNIA

A Silicon Valley icon , technology entrepreneur and philanthropist for more than 40 years , Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple ’ s first line of products and his influence over the Macintosh .

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