Apple Co-Founder Credits Childhood Glimpse of the Future for Computer Insight

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, says that his father's work as an electrical engineer for Lockheed helped guide him into computing. Speaking at the plenary session opening MILCOM 2010 in San Jose, California, Wozniak related how his father would take him to technology shows to spur his interest in the field. Wozniak described how, in the late 1950s, one exhibitor showed him a diagram of some squares connected by lines. "This is a future chip," the exhibitor said, "that will hold six transistors on a single bit of silicon." Wozinak thought that he would be able to listen to a better transistor radio, but his father advised him that these "chips" would be hugely expensive and available only to the military. Ultimately, obsolete versions would trickle down to the consumer. Wozniak was embittered at that thought, but his curiousity was aroused. Now, he pointed out, it is the private sector--especially the computer and gaming industries--that are driving technology advances.