The History of Microcomputer Development: How the Fire of Silicon Valley Was Ignited?

This book has stood the test of time. After so many years, it remains a significant adventure story that allows readers to feel as if they are experiencing a historical movement that is still ongoing. — John Markoff, Senior Writer for the Science Section of The New York Times

The Fire of Silicon Valley: The Rise and Fall of the Personal Computer (3rd Edition)

Content Summary

This book is a history of microcomputer development, allowing readers to understand the entire process from the rise of computers in the 20th century to their peak and the impact of electronic products like tablets and smartphones today.The latest 3rd edition has revised the entire content and added an analysis of the current state of the computer industry after several key figures have exited the stage.

Author Biography

Michael Swaine, a well-known IT journalist and author, is one of the earliest media figures to enter the IT industry and has good relationships with many Silicon Valley figures like Gates.

Paul Freiberger, a well-known author, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for his book “Fuzzy Logic” and has long contributed to many media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal.

Book Excerpt

Chapter 4: The Homebrew Computer Club (Excerpt)

The Homebrew Computer Club

There was a strong sense within the Homebrew Computer Club that we were all disruptors.We were disrupting the way big businesses operated.We were breaking the established systems and pushing our ideas into the entire industry.What amazes me is that we could keep meeting without a heavily armed invasion taking us all out.

— Keith Brin, Homebrew Computer Club Member

In early 1975, many alternative culture information exchange centers emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing a place for those interested in computers to share information.The “Community Memory” project, the magazine “People’s Computer Company,” and the community computer centers established by the People’s Computer Company outside of the magazine all fall into this category.Peace activist Fred Moore created a non-computerized information network at a global truck shop in Menlo Park, matching people with shared interests, and their exchanges were not limited to computers.

Gathering Places

Fred Moore became interested in computers when he realized he needed one to help him.Moore discussed his two needs with Robert Albrecht of the People’s Computer Company: a computer and an activity base.Before long, Moore was teaching children computer skills while also self-studying computers.Meanwhile, Albrecht was looking for someone to write assembly language programs.He found Gordon French, who was both a mechanical engineer and a computer enthusiast, and at the time, French was making motors for electric model cars.

After “Popular Electronics” published an article about the Altair, the demand for direct information exchange became clearer.The publisher of “People’s Computer Company” took the emergence of the Altair very seriously from the start.Keith Brin, a consultant and financial officer of “People’s Computer Company,” believed the birth of the Altair signified that the computer industry would cross over from the mysterious era ruled by the “white-coated priesthood”.

“We were all eager to get our hands on an Altair,” French recalled.So Moore pulled out his contact list of computer enthusiasts, revolutionaries, engineers, and educational innovators and sent out a call:“Are you building your own computer?”Moore’s poster read, “If so, you might want to join our meeting and meet a group of like-minded friends!”

This poster referred to the gathering as the Amateur Computer User Group, which was later changed to the Homebrew Computer Club and has retained that name ever since.On March 5, 1975, this group held its first meeting in French’s garage.After learning of the upcoming meeting, Felsenstein thought this gathering was not to be missed.He drove his pickup truck, bringing along Marsh, and crossed the Bay Bridge in the rain to reach the peninsula stretching from San Francisco down to Silicon Valley.French’s garage is located in the suburbs of Menlo Park, which is at the edge of Silicon Valley, not far from Stanford University, easily reachable by jogging.

At the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, Steve Dompier gave a report from Albuquerque.Albuquerque is the location of MITS Company.Dompier told everyone that MITS had delivered 1,500 Altairs and would deliver another 1,100 that month.The company was overwhelmed with orders and could not quickly process all of them.

Robert Albrecht showcased the Altair that “People’s Computer Company” had just received that week.On the MITS delivery waiting list, “People’s Computer Company” was right behind Stanford graduates Harry Garland and Roger Melen.These two invented the Cyclops and later founded Cromemco Company, specializing in computer interfaces and CPU chipboards.

Like Marsh and Felsenstein, Dompier also drove from Berkeley to attend the meeting.However, most of the 32 attendees at the first meeting were from nearby communities.Albrecht and French, along with Moore, who took notes for the club meetings, and Bob Layton, who soon took over the club’s newsletter, all lived in Menlo Park.Others came from the southern towns deeper in Silicon Valley:Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San Jose, including people like Alan Baum, Steve Wozniak, and Tom Pitman.Pitman had developed software for Intel related to microprocessors and called himself a microcomputer consultant.Pitman may have been the world’s first microcomputer consultant.

At the end of the meeting, a club member raised an Intel 8008 chip and asked if anyone needed it, handing it out on the spot.Many present that night saw a great opportunity from the spirit of this club and Dompier’s statement that MITS could not manufacture enough computers to meet orders.

Incubator

Bob Marsh was one of those inspired individuals, who immediately sought out Gary Ingram to discuss plans for starting a company.“I have a garage,” Marsh told Ingram.This sounded like enough to start a business.

Marsh and Ingram named their company Processor Technology, soon abbreviated to Proc Tech by acquaintances in the circle.Marsh designed three plug-in circuit boards for the Altair:two I/O boards and one storage board.Both Marsh and Ingram thought these three products looked good.Marsh also designed a poster to promote the company’s new products and made several hundred copies using the university’s copier.At the third meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, they distributed 300 flyers.

At this time, the club was thriving.Fred Moore had been exchanging business notes with Hal Singer.Singer hosted the Micro-8 Newsletter in Southern California and founded the Micro-8 Club shortly after the Homebrew Computer Club was established.Other publications also emerged and were distributed at meetings.“People’s Computer Company” and Hal Chamberlain’s “Computer Hobbyist” received special attention.A Denver company called Digital Group claimed to provide technical support for 8-bit microcomputer and teletype hobbyists and offered subscriptions to its own newsletter.It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the momentum of this movement!Intel released chips like the 4004, 8008, and 8080, and at least 15 other semiconductor manufacturers also launched some microprocessors onto the market.The newly formed Micro-8 Club was striving to ensure its members received timely updates on industry developments.

The third meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club attracted hundreds of people, and Gordon French’s garage could not accommodate so many.So the club moved the meeting location to the Coleman Building, a Victorian building that was later used as a school.At that meeting, Marsh gave a brief speech.He said he was distributing storage and I/O boards for the Altair.Marsh hoped everyone would see Proc Tech as a serious company, not just a whimsical idea from an unemployed electronic engineer who had access to a copier.Marsh proposed that if people paid in cash, they would get a 20% discount on the spot.To Marsh’s disappointment, no one approached him during or after the meeting.

A week later, the first order arrived.Harry Garland and Roger Melen became Proc Tech’s first customers.They were Stanford students and computer entrepreneurs who invented the Cyclops camera compatible with the Altair.This order was written on their new company Cromemco’s letterhead, stating they would pay within 30 days.This was not the order Marsh had hoped for.However, Marsh believed this meant Proc Tech was being seen as a legitimate company.Proc Tech was a legitimate company, and Cromemco was also a legitimate company, but they had yet to exchange formal monetary transactions.Oh well, this was a start.

Following Cromemco’s order, Marsh received many other orders, most of which were paid in cash.Ingram, who had previously been reluctant to spend $360 to place an ad in the influential “Byte” magazine, was now seeing cash flow in, and he and Marsh could afford to pay for an ad in “Popular Electronics”.They had spent a total of $1,000 on a 1/6-page ad in that magazine.Marsh and Ingram formed a corporation, with Ingram serving as president.Proc Tech’s headquarters and factory occupied half of a 100-square-foot garage, but the company had no products, no designs for products, no inventory, no employees, only the thousands of dollars that came with the orders.It seemed Marsh and Ingram were beginning to have a lot to do.

Master of Ceremonies

Meanwhile, Lee Felsenstein became increasingly involved in the development of the Homebrew Computer Club.He took over the role of master of ceremonies from Gordon French, but he refused to see himself as the club’s president.The club’s meetings later moved to the auditorium of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.Over the years, Felsenstein had established a close relationship with the club and encouraged it to adopt an anarchistic structure.This organization had no formal membership, no membership fees, and was open to everyone.With Felsenstein’s encouragement, the club’s newsletter was distributed for free, becoming a tool for others to seek information and a bond for enthusiasts.

As the club’s master of ceremonies, Felsenstein developed a unique and captivating hosting style.According to attendee Chris Espinosa:“People referred to Felsenstein as the Johnny Carson of the Homebrew Computer Club, but he was much better than Johnny Carson.He maintained order, propelled developments, and made attending meetings enjoyable.The meetings once reached a peak of 750 participants, at which Felsenstein hosted the meeting like a rock concert.It’s hard to describe, but when you saw him energizing the atmosphere like a Baptist preacher… you knew he was something special.”

Under Felsenstein’s leadership, the club meetings did not follow “Robert’s Rules of Order 2”.Felsenstein brought a unique charm to the meetings, which typically had three segments.Felsenstein would start with a “mapping” segment, allowing everyone to share their interests, ask questions, share rumors, or introduce their project plans to get to know each other.Felsenstein would humorously respond to attendees’ questions or cleverly critique their plans.Next came a “demonstration” segment, typically showcasing a member’s latest invention.Finally, there was a “random access” segment.In this segment, everyone would move around the auditorium, talking to those they felt shared similar interests.This model proved effective, and numerous companies grew out of the Homebrew Computer Club meetings.These meetings provided a venue for participants to exchange information, but that was far from enough; there was a wealth of information waiting to be exchanged.After all, everyone was in a brand new field.

During this period, a branch of the Homebrew Computer Club was established at the Lawrence Science Museum at the University of California, Berkeley.The university gradually became a breeding ground for self-taught microcomputer knowledge.Professors with research funding found that purchasing small computers was much more cost-effective than buying time on the school’s large computers, which were both outdated and overworked.As a result, DEC quickly produced and sold the PDP-8 and PDP-11 to university professors.These two models were especially popular in psychology laboratories, where users often used them to analyze experiments related to humans and animals, automating laboratory processes and analyzing data with small computers.The entry of small computers into psychology laboratories created a new class of experts who understood scientific research and data analysis while also being hackers or computer enthusiasts.They figured out how to use computers to meet professors’ needs.

Emergence of Startups

Howard Fullmer was one such person.Fullmer worked with the PDP-11 microcomputer in the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley, helping professors choose models for purchasing small computers, creating machine interfaces, and writing programs for experiments.In early 1975, everything changed.One professor purchased an Altair, and Fullmer self-taught himself how to use this computer.Before long, Fullmer left his job at the university to spend more time studying microcomputers.

When the monthly edition of “Popular Electronics” was released, the craze for the Altair spread throughout the University of California, Berkeley.Graduate student George Moro and two other students, Chuck Grant and Mark Greenberg, were working together at the school’s Management Science Research Center.The latter two students were among those who refused to give up on the “Resource One” project years ago, allowing Lee Felsenstein to maintain that computer.They were trying to develop a language for controlling microprocessors in research.

Moro, Grant, and Greenberg worked seamlessly together.Although their perfectionist approaches differed, they were all perfectionists.Moro was slender, balding at a young age, and always had a gleam of wisdom in his eyes.He seemed perpetually energetic, especially when working hard.Unlike Moro, Grant and Greenberg were entirely pragmatic.While they often attended Homebrew Computer Club meetings and benefited greatly from the freely available information exchange, they never considered themselves part of the enthusiast circle.In terms of technology, the three of them combined formed an excellent team:Moro understood hardware, Grant preferred software, and Greenberg was proficient in both.

This trio planned to manufacture plugins for the Altair or simply create their own computer.They knew they were an excellent design team, but they also recognized they lacked marketing savvy.So, Moro sought advice from Bill Godbout.This seemed like an unwise move.Godbout was a straightforward and stubborn middle-aged man who would jokingly poke fun at his own belly and loved to fly his plane for aerobatics.Godbout was also an electronic product distributor.Back when Marsh first moved to 2465 Fourth Avenue with Felsenstein, he had tried to catch Godbout’s attention with a walnut wood digital clock he designed, but it had failed.

At that time, Godbout was selling chips and small computer storage boards via mail order.Moro asked him if he planned to distribute Altair’s storage boards.To this, Godbout scoffed, saying he had no intention of promoting such things.Moro then asked him if he was interested in distributing a computer designed by a first-rate design team.

“Just you guys?”Godbout sneered, sizing up Moro.However, Godbout believed he had a good eye for people and thought Moro looked promising.The two quickly agreed to split the profits and shook hands.Godbout insisted on no written agreement.He believed written agreements indicated distrust, which was something lawyers invented.If you asked who Godbout trusted the least in the world, it would undoubtedly be lawyers.

Although the entrepreneurs in the Homebrew Computer Club were diverse, they all believed they were participating in the birth of something extraordinary.Bill Godbout, who had a quick temper and despised lawyers; Lee Felsenstein, the former technical editor of the Berkeley Barb and now the master of ceremonies of the Homebrew Computer Club; Robert Albrecht, who gave up a high-paying job to teach children computer skills, enjoyed cheap cigars, and called himself “the Dragon”; Bob Marsh, who turned his love for electronics into a company in his garage to prove his abilities; and Keith Brin, who believed he and other Homebrew Computer Club members could play a crucial role in “a revolution that rivals the Industrial Revolution but is more important to humanity” — all felt this way.They believed they were revolutionaries.

They did not need to engage in politics, but many of these early influential figures shared similar political views, and almost all had a negative opinion of IBM or other computer companies.This group, along with others who held similar views, was igniting a new industrial revolution.

Many actions took place at the Homebrew Computer Club.

The Homebrew Computer Club was not only the birthplace of microcomputer companies in Silicon Valley but also the initial source of spiritual nourishment for these companies.Even with competitive relationships, the presidents and chief engineers of various companies would gather to discuss design principles and announce their new products.What was said at the meetings often changed the direction of companies.The critiques of microcomputer products by the Homebrew Computer Club were highly valued, as its members were savvy enough to spot counterfeit goods and discern which products were difficult to maintain.They exposed problematic equipment and praised reliable designs and fun technologies.They could make or break a company.The belief encouraged by the Homebrew Computer Club was that computers should serve the public, not be used against the public.This belief was shaped by Felsenstein’s efforts.The Homebrew Computer Club arose in a pleasant anarchistic atmosphere, but it was also a crucial step in the development of an industry worth billions of dollars.

The seeds of all this began to sprout in the spring of 1975.

The cover image features Lee Felsenstein:He embodied the technological insight and countercultural spirit of the early personal computer era.The image shows Lee Felsenstein at the University of California, Berkeley, with a small computer in 1971 (Source: Lee Felsenstein), from:“The Fire of Silicon Valley”

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