Steve Wozniak – meet the legend of the Silicon Valley

Date of publication: 11-08-2021 Update date: 10-04-2026 🕒 4 min read

Steve (or, more precisely, Stephan) Wozniak was born on 11.08.1950 in San Jose, California. His parents were American, with Polish and Ukrainian roots. He graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino and then enrolled at the University of Colorado, from where he was expelled for hacking the university’s computer system. That was only the beginning of the turbulent academic career of this young IT specialist. Wozniak attended De Anza College, but not much later he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, from where he was eventually expelled as well. Academic failures didn’t influence his ambitions and talent. In 1971, Wozniak, together with his friend, designed and built his first computer, which they named after their favourite beverage – Cream Soda. Perhaps the extremely popular devices produced by the technology giant would carry a logo with a glass and a straw instead of a bitten apple today, if it hadn’t been for an unpleasant incident – a journalist who was going to describe the device stepped on power cords, which finally led to irreversible damage to the first computer built by Wozniak. In the same year, the young computer geek worked for Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he designed calculators. That was where he met his future business partner, Steve Jobs.

The young visionaries started their cooperation in a controversial way. Wozniak designed devices that could break a telephone system and gave the opportunity to make phone calls without any charges, whereas Jobs got involved in selling them. In the subsequent years, the latter one developed his career in Atari, where the employees were provided with additional money in return for simplifying the constructions of games produced there. Jobs was interested in this form of additional income, but he lacked proper skills, so he offered to Wozniak an equal distribution of profit, if he met the challenge. As it turned out later, Jobs failed to keep the deal, and he understated the value of the bonus awarded to him, claiming it was USD 700 (including USD 350 for his partner), while the actual compensation amounted to USD 5000. However, this event didn’t affect the future life of the two founders of the technology giant. What is more, the experience from the work on Atari game projects, the Cream Soda computer, as well as the passion for Star Trek series gave to Wozniak strong foundations to engage in the work on the computer that went down in history, namely Apple I. He offered the prototype of his design to his employer at that time, HP, but the company wasn’t interested in the project. In this situation, Jobs convinced his friend to set up their own business, and this is how Apple Inc. was born. In order to start the production, Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator, and Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus. The investment paid for itself very quickly. Just after the first presentation of the computer, one of its participants ordered 50 devices. They were also lucky in developing the company – the founders of Apple received financial support from Mike Markkula, who later became the head of Apple.

After the success of the first computer, Wozniak felt so motivated that he started to work on the next model – Apple II, which was the first personal computer displaying colourful graphics. The model was presented in 1977 on the West Coast Computer Faire and turned out to be extremely successful. In later years, Wozniak lost his memory temporarily due to a plane accident he caused while piloting. Then, he gave up running a company and enrolled back at the university in order to finally complete the degree. He succeeded in the 1980s, and it was also then that he took up a new project and founded a company called Unuson, specializing in the organisation of music festivals. The undertaking didn’t succeed, which pushed him back to Apple and designing computers. This in turn resulted in the development of the Macintosh series, now known as Mac. In 1985, Wozniak left Apple again to focus on other projects in the subsequent years. At the same time, he built his first programmable and universal remote control called CORE. After that, he designed the GPS tracker and founded Acquicor Technology. He was also devoted to educational projects – he created an educational service called WOZ U that received the school license over time. It supports local educational institutions by funding and developing technology curricula. He also funded a special prize for students using computer technologies in projects concerning art or business. Furthermore, he founded two museums and is a sponsor of Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Like many inventors described earlier, Steve Wozniak is an extraordinary person. Thanks to his openness and an unorthodox approach to technology, he revolutionized the computer industry. He became a true icon. His cameo appearance in the The Big Bang Theory proves his significance (even in pop culture). He was also invited to the TV show Dancing with the Stars. Personally, he is a fan of Segway polo and watches with vacuum fluorescent display.

When we have a look at the mainboard of Apple I, perhaps the most surprising fact will be that most of the components are mass-produced integrated circuits, except for the power supply circuit. Steve Wozniak designed his first project with the use of generally available items. RAM memories, microprocessors and other semiconductor circuits available on the market theoretically make it possible to construct a computer that will have many more possibilities and work exceptionally fast. However, the days of “home-made” computers seem to be long gone. Is it because of miniaturisation? After all, we can easily purchase chemical agents and tools to build precise PCB circuits, even for surface mounting (for example hot-air stations) – and all the necessary components cost little. The reason for that is different. Nowadays, nobody needs to devote their time to build a simple, experimental computer – because it can be bought.

Single-board computers, like Raspberry Pi, are distant descendants of Steve Wozniak’s constructions, especially of Apple II that was famous for its “expandability”. Hobbyists and geeks – engineers-to-be – who want to explore digital electronics have a wide range of options to choose from. They can start with microcontrollers – single circuits containing basic computer components, or they can turn to platforms such as Arduino or ESP32 that facilitate beginners’ work with programming – from a very early stage. How early? In 2013, “Woz” himself stated in an interview for BBC that these products are a great source of experience even for 10-year-olds. During the same conversation, he emphasised that the passion for creating is the most important factor here. So let’s get carried away by our imagination, grab soldering irons and keyboards – it’s time to create!

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