Because of its reputation and the fact that he was an Illinois native, MacGregor chose Illinois's MCS program. After passing the qualifying exam, he switched to the MS program. His first job after graduation in 1980 was at Motorola in Austin, Texas, where he did the design work for the 68010 and 68020 microprocessors. In 1985, in an effort to broaden his horizons, he decided to get a PhD in information science from Kyoto University. Motorola was a valuable part of MacGregor's education.
Industry is the real graduate school of microprocessors.
The practical experience gained by working for industry could better prepare him for refining his technical skills in graduate school. Studying in Japan would do that while allowing him to further cultivate his interest in the Japanese language and culture. Solbourne makes UNIX-based computers compatible with Sun Microsystems workstations. In 1992, MacGregor went to Data General Corp., where he headed the hardware development group for the company's Aviion line of UNIX computers. So much of business is understanding what people mean, who you can trust, what their values are, and what types of things are important to them.