Burrell Smith

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Burrell Carver Smith is an engineer who, while working at Apple Computer, designed the digital board for the original Macintosh. He was Apple employee #282, and was hired February, 1979, initially as a service technician.

Burrell was first brought into the company as an Apple ][ service technician. According to Folklore.org, one day, he put a handwritten manual on Andy Hertzfeld's desk explaining the digital board of the Apple ][; Hertzfeld was so impressed at how well Burrell explained the digital board of the Apple ][, even though he didn't know he had written it. Later that day, Burrell explained to him that he was the author. When Hertzfeld was asked to find someone to assist working on the original Macintosh project, Andy suggested Burrell, despite his position as a lower service technician.

Because of internal politics, he left the company before releasing Apple's "Turbo Mac" design platform, which included an internal hard drive and a simplified chipset.

He was a co-founder of Radius Corp, and is retired and living in Palo Alto.

Trivia

Grew a moustache while working at Apple solely to increase his chances of promotion. [Folklore.org: "It's The Moustache That Matters"]

Often amused members of the Macintosh development team with impersonations of other employees (including Jef Raskin). [Folklore.org: "I Invented Burrell"]

According to "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman, Steve Jobs filed for a temporary restraining order against Burrell. Terms were to limit him from coming within 100 yards of the Jobs' family, nanny, car, and office. This was done in response to reports of Burrell throwing rocks and cherry bombs at Steve Jobs' house and car.

External links

[Folklore.org] — A collection of first-hand accounts of the early days of the Macintosh.

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