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could easily be connected and made into a rudimentary video terminal. Wozniak used two
256 x 4 PROM (programmable read-only memory) chips to create a 256 byte "monitor"
program that served as a simple operating system, automatically booting with the machine.
With a further eye toward economy, Wozniak employed shift registers to relay text to
the television screen, thus avoiding the need for expensive RAM chips. This slowed down
the video terminal a bit, as the system only allowed for the display of about 60 characters
per second.
When armed with a full board, Wozniak's machine featured 8K of dynamic RAM. This
allowed for the loading of the BASIC interpreter (approx. 4K) and an equivalent amount
of memory for programming. Power was supplied by two transformers providing a total of
17 volts for the motherboard. Also, per one Apple historian: "There was a single peripheral
slot, and when it was first released there was nothing available to plug into this slot. It was
entirely contained on a single printed circuit board, only sixteen by twelve inches in size
(most hobby computers of that time needed at least two boards), used only 30 or 40 chips,
and because it could run BASIC programs it got people's attention."
By early 1976, Wozniak had a fully-functioning machine which he'd show-off at
Homebrew Computer Club meetings, updating friends regularly with regard to ongoing
tweaks and enhancements, and also gathering comments and suggestions.
Enter Steve Jobs. Just a few years younger than Wozniak, Jobs was a good friend with
whom Woz had once designed an arcade game - "Breakout" - for the Atari. Jobs hovered
over Wozniak's shoulder all during the design of his computer, and made several key sug-
gestions which were incorporated into the final version. Jobs, more the entrepreneur, pro-
moter and salesman as opposed to Wozniak the pure technologist, early on proposed to
Wozniak that they manufacture a few printed circuit boards for Wozniak's machine and sell
these to those members of the Homebrew Computer Club who might want to build their
own computers along Woz's design.
Pooling their meager financial resources and selling the circuit boards as their first
product, the two formed Apple Computer Company on April 1 - April Fools' Day - 1976.
Jobs had recently worked at an organic apple orchard, and liked the name because - as
he told an interviewer years later - apples were healthy, came in an efficient and attract-
ive package, and were in all ways "perfect." In turn Jobs, who never lacked for ambition,
wanted the firm to grow into the "perfect" company.
The firm's first logo showed an apple about to drop down onto the head of Sir Isaac
Newton, inspiring his great revelation about gravity. Through the years, some writers have
suggested that the name was chosen in some sort of homage to the Beatles, whose record
label bore the same moniker. This seems not to have been the case, though in the coming
decades the potential infringement on the Beatles trademark was to cost Apple serious dol-
lars in licensing fees paid to the Beatles' firm.
