Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) is a retired American computer engineer who created the first wire wrap prototype of the

motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

for the original

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

. He became Apple employee #282 in February 1979 as an

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

service technician. He designed the motherboard for Apple's LaserWriter. Smith was working in Apple's service department when he helped Bill Atkinson add more memory to an Apple II computer in an innovative fashion. Atkinson recommended him to Jef Raskin, who, along with

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

, was looking for a hardware engineer for their newly formed

project. As a member of the design team, Smith prototyped five different motherboards using techniques based on

Programmable Array Logic Programmable Array Logic (PAL) is a family of programmable logic device semiconductors used to implement logic functions in digital circuits that was introduced by Monolithic Memories, Inc. (MMI) in March 1978. Introductory advertisement on ...

(PAL) chips to achieve maximum functionality with a minimal chip count and cost. His signature is molded into the original Macintosh case, along with the signatures of the rest of the Macintosh team. Smith left the company before the release of Apple's Turbo Mac design platform, with an internal hard drive and a further simplified chipset. He co-founded Radius Inc.

Personal life

Smith is retired and lives in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

.Inside the Mac Revolution
- Wired - 16 December 2004 He reportedly had

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

during the 1990s.''

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

'' by

Walter Isaacson Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American journalist who has written biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Doudna and Elon Musk. As of 2024, Isaacson is a profes ...

, page 253. In 1993, he was accused of "breaking windows, throwing a firecracker and leaving letters at the house" of

and the case was dropped when he accepted treatment. Actor Lenny Jacobson portrayed him in the 2013 film '' Jobs''.

References

External links

Revolution in the Valley
Andy Hertzfeld's book about the development of the Macintosh
Folklore.org stories about Burrell Smith
written by other Macintosh team members Living people Apple Inc. employees People with bipolar disorder 1955 births {{compu-bio-stub