Burrell Smith

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Burrell Carver Smith (born December 16, 1955) was a member of the original Macintosh design team at Apple Computer.
==Career==
===Apple Computer===
Smith was hired in February 1979 as Apple employee #282 and first worked as an Apple II service technician. While working in the service department, Smith helped Bill Atkinson add more memory to his Apple II computer than was thought to be possible for use in the development of the Apple Lisa. Atkinson recommended Smith to Jef Raskin, who was looking for a hardware engineer to help him with his newly formed Macintosh project.
As a member of the design team, Smith designed five different Macintosh prototype motherboards during the course of development. His techniques utilized Programmable Array Logic (PAL) chips to achieve maximum functionality with a minimal chip count.Five Different Macintoshes by Andy Hertzfeld, Folklore. Accessed 2006-04-24. Steve Jobs also became involved in the aesthetics of the board design.PC Board Esthetics by Andy Hertzfeld, Folklore. 1981-07. Smith also designed the logic board of the original LaserWriter printer.Burrell Smith: Macintosh hardware wizard by Dan Farber, CNET. 2014-01-22.
After clashing with engineering manager Bob Belleville, Smith left Apple in February 1985 before completing the "Turbo Mac" design platform, which would have included a 20MB NISHA hard drive with a new file system and a further simplified chipset. The project was completed as the Macintosh Plus and the NISHA drive became available separately as the Hard Disk 20 which was supported by the Hierarchical File System.HFS Origins: The Turbo File System by Dog Cow, Mac GUI. 2017-11-08. However, an internal hard drive would not be supported until the Macintosh SE.
===After Apple===
In May 1986, Smith co-founded Radius with Andy Hertzfeld and other members of the Macintosh development team. He engineered the company's first product, the Radius Full Page Display. Smith left Radius in 1988.Radius Inc. History, Funding Universe. Archived 2012-10-20.
==Personal life==
Smith reportedly suffered from during the 1990s.Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, page xv. In 1993, he was accused of breaking windows, throwing a firecracker and leaving letters at the nearby home of Steve Jobs in Palo Alto.
Smith has since retired and lives in Palo Alto, California.Inside the Mac Revolution - Wired - 16 December 2004
==Media portrayals==
Smith was portrayed by actor in the 2013 film dramatization Jobs.Jobs (2013): Full Cast & Crew, Internet Movie Database. Accessed 2022-10-06.
==References==
==External links==
*Burrell Smith at Folklore
*Burrell Smith at the WikiWikiWeb
* at Wikipedia
===Articles===
*The Lonesome Tale of Burrell Smith by Tim Knight at the Slope of Hope (2007-07-01)
===Books===
*Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made by Andy Hertzfeld, O'Reilly Media. 2004-12-06.
Category:Former Apple employees
Category:Former Radius employees