siness experience while working for Intel. Stock options with Intel had made him a millionaire and he retired at age 34. Markkula visited Wozniak and Jobs in their garage one day and was converted. After a few months, Markkula put up $91,000.00 of his own money and took an active role in the venture. He hired Mike Scott as president and within five years Apple was in the Fortune 500.The next major event in this chronicle occurred in 1977. It was in that year that three new microcomputer systems were introduced which started the industry in the direction we are now taking. At the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 15, the Commodore PET and the Apple II were presented, and on August 3 in New York the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I was announced. By the fall of 1977, all three machines were shipping.Prior to the release of these machines, most people who purchased microcomputers bought them in kit form. Usually you could buy a kit for 25 to 30 percent less than the assembled version. With the arrival of these machines the emphasis went in the direction of the assembled systems.The Apple II, packaged in a molded plastic case, with BASIC in ROM, color graphics, an 8-bit 6502 processor and 4K of RAM cost $1298.00. The machine was equipped with eight expansion slots and became one of the most successful of microcomputers. The PET was designed by Chuck Peddle, formerly of MOS Technology, and like the Apple used the MOS 6502 microprocessor. The TRS-80 Model I was offered with 4K of memory, an uppercase only display capability, a limited version of BASIC and a cassette interface. It originally listed as an assembled machine for $399.00.1978 saw the next major advance in microcomputer technology. In that year both Apple and Radio Shack introduced 5 1/4 inch disk drives. Anyone who has ever used cassette input/output (I/O), and I have, will know well what an improvement disk drives offered. This development also brought about the arrival of a mul...
