WEBVTT - The History of Texas Instruments - Part Two 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.840 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.079 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pallette and 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.200 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:29.000 Sitting across from me, as always his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.159 The stars at night shine big and bright. So this 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.760 is going to be part two. It was almost part 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.520 one of the history of Texas Instrument but thank goodness 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.720 for the undo button because our producer deleted our first episode. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.240 And then yes, but we have to share that because 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.120 we must shame him that, and and and we're still 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.200 calming down. The breathing is returning, like, oh, we don't 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.600 have to redo that, alright, So yes, part two of 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.360 the History of Texas Instruments. Now, you may remember that 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.040 in our last episode and the last episode of tech Stuff, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:08.360 we left off where Texas Instruments had gone in D space. 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.360 I think yeah, around around the time also when when 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.640 Jack Kilby who uh was, was forced to work while 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.920 everyone else was taking a break because he hadn't been 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.680 with a company very long and had a crude vacation time, 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.640 just fooling around the office and decided to come up 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.000 with the integrated circuit. No big deal, just something he 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.480 did on everyone else's vacation show. You guys, you will 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.800 go to Hawaii. Wouldn't make an integrated circuit get more 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.000 rewards than all of you put together? And he did? 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.039 Um didn't, well maybe not put together. No, he didn't needn't. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:41.960 He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.080 do that. But in nine t I came out with 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.240 the first commercial integrated circuit. Uh. Basically, you know it 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.920 was commercialized the product, right, the one was clearly just 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:57.000 a prototype, just as the transistor that Bell Labs made, 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.440 uh like a decade earlier was to prototype more than 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.120 a decade earlier. Yes, so they're they're starting to come 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.080 on the market. And again something we talked about not 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.560 too terribly long ago on tech stuff and something we 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:14.040 have a nifty needo article about the first gallium arsenide 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:19.440 solar cells were produced. Um. This is a period of 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.120 intense development. Again, we're talking post war United States. There's 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.799 a lot going on in in industry. Space race is 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.560 starting to yep yep um, and there's a lot going 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.760 on the company is uh we were we were talking 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.960 about Mr. Haggarty, who had been a lieutenant in the 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.440 United States Military who came on board after working with 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:46.000 the company as a a manager for procurement, came on 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.720 board and joined Texas Instruments. UH. He ended up being 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.040 one of the company's very important leaders, and he came 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.240 up with the objective strategies and tactics approach. UM. This 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.519 is basically the kind of UH, you know, finding ways 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.520 to get the semiconductor tech achnology that they had developed 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:06.440 into all kinds of electronics and computing products. UM and 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.480 you know, there were companies in Japan taking advantage of it. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.000 You might have heard of a couple of these guys, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:18.359 I don't know, um Mitsubishi, Sony, Canon, IBM Japan, and Furukawa, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.840 which was the parent company of Fujitsu. UM And basically 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.000 t I became a supplier for these companies during this 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.760 period in the early nineteen sixties, UM and UH you know, 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.400 they they talked about the possibility in January of nineteen 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.320 sixty four, working with the Japanese government of UH coming 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.280 up with a subsidiary of t I. It based in 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:48.120 Japan itself. Um and basically they you know, they took 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.320 him a little while, but they worked that out. UM. 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.680 And uh, you know in the in the nineteen sixties, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.600 you know, this is when t I was an industry 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.600 leader and semi conductors and circuits. UM. They were supplying 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.080 companies all over the world and they were developing international subsidiaries. Yeah. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.480 At that point, again, you wouldn't necessarily be owning a 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:11.600 product that says Texas Instruments. You would be owning products 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:15.760 that had lots of texture Texas Instruments components inside them. 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:20.920 Because apart from the transistor radio that really helped Texas 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.240 Instrument get a foothold in this industry. I mean that 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.960 that demonstrated the power of the transistor. Apart from that, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.559 they really had not invested in the consumer electronics market 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.040 at all. That just wasn't their focus. They were focused 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.000 on corporate electronics. So they're electronic components. Yeah, sorry, I 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.120 didn't mean their B two B if you will with 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.320 you know, business to business. So they are they are 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.120 an O E M manufacturer. They give the the parts 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.000 to the guys who make the other stuff that you 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.960 buy off the shelf. They make the other stuff possible. Yes, 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.040 that's a sky But actually B A s F does 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:00.120 that kind of thing to so, um, they really do well. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.839 I mean, that's your Thingum, So, where where are you 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.119 on your timeline? Nineteen sixty seven is about where I'm at. Okay, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:12.560 So in nineteen sixties seven, Texas Instruments went and invented 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:17.719 the first handheld calculator. Yeah. Um, if you haven't ever 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.080 been to t i's website t I dot com, you 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.280 really should go and check out the interactive timeline because 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.000 that's that's where I've gotten a lot of my information. 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:26.599 But they actually have a picture of this thing. It 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.480 looks like, Um, if you've ever seen the old style 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.520 keyboard with a detachable number pad, this sucker is huge. 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.120 It's pretty enormous, but but still is small compared to 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.479 the calculating and adding machines that were popular at the time. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.599 And you gotta remember that before the integrated circuit, before 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:52.279 the transistor, calculators were all mechanical devices. Yeah, you know, 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.400 these were mechanically based calculators, and so the transistor in 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.680 the integrade circuit really led to the electric calculator. So 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.919 in nineteen sixty seven, Texas Instruments, Uh, they demonstrate the 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:09.279 first handheld calculator. It's not meant for uh consumers yet. 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.800 This was really again another prototype and it was able 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.920 to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and that's it. 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.039 And it had eighteen keys at a visual output that 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:26.840 displayed up to twelve decimal lights. What Yeah, twelve decimal 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.719 digits all the way up to that um which, when 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.680 you think about it at that time, extremely impressive. Yeah. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.920 I mean this is in a way this is the 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.680 beginning of the electronic computer industry as well. I mean 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.279 there are other developments going on in various other companies, 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.080 all at the same time, but this is leading the 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.679 way to the consumer computer market. Developments like this really 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.640 were very instrumental in that. Now in nineteen seventy one, oh, 0:06:55.480 --> 0:07:01.160 you have some more information between and just even Jack 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.520 Kilby received the nineteen sixty nine National Medal of Science 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:14.679 from President Richard M. Nixon on February friends. So just 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.840 just a note, I tracked the Jack Kilby Express when 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.080 I was going well. In nineteen seventy one, Texas Instruments 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.360 develops the single chip microcomputer for calculators, which means that 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:32.400 they've now reduced the circuitry, the size of the circuitry, 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.800 the miniaturization process has gotten to the point where they 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.360 can put everything that a calculator needs to be able 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.880 to perform calculating functions on a single chip. Now, this, 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.440 this coincides with this is like a demonstration of what 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.600 Gordon Moore had said just a few years ago. Now, 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:50.960 Gordon Moore, as you may remember, was one of the 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.080 co founders of Intel, Yes, and he had come up 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.560 with this observation that we now call Moore's law. But 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.040 truly it is an observation that the number of discrete 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:06.440 elements on a UH on a given sized chip of 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:12.600 silicon will double every twelve to twenty four months. The 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.000 the actual number varies depending on when you look at 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.600 Moore's law, but in general now we say every two 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.000 years that the number of elements on a chip will double. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.720 So that means in effect that not only are they 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.560 becoming twice as complex every two years, but twice as powerful. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.200 They're able to do twice as much as the ones 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.760 from two years previous. So this is really kind of 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.719 the single chip micro computer for calculators is kind of 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:43.160 a demonstration for that. Just just two years previously, it 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.000 would have taken a chip twice the size, or two 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.319 chips to be able to do what they could fit 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.839 on one chip in UH. So we're actually seeing Moore's 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.840 law play out in the market. It's it's showing to 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.640 be a true observation, which I think is really interesting. Now, 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.640 it wouldn't be until nineteen seventy two that Texas Instruments 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:09.520 would introduce its own calculator to the marketplace. Up to 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.480 that point, what Texas Instruments was doing was just what 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.520 we've been saying all the time. They've been supplying elements 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.559 to other manufacturers. But in seventy two they decided to 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.400 get into the consumer marketplace with the t I hundred, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.040 which is not a terminator, uh, it is the data 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.720 math calculator, which cost a hundred and forty nine dollars 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.600 and nine cents as its retail price. And so this 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.320 was the first consumer electronics piece that Texas Instruments had 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.840 had really gone for since the radio and uh and 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.880 and this one actually looks pretty clunky too, if you 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.200 ever take a look at it. Yeah, it's it's big. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.680 It has that that um uh two thousand and one 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:56.280 rounded space. Look and look to it which is I 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.360 think characteristic of what the space age will look like 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.000 when you're in nine seventy two, right right, it's very 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.280 kind of modular, almost like you're looking at like this, 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.880 this would fit aboard the space station in in uh 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:13.920 two thousand one. Um, how could could do your taxes 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.920 on it? I'll could do your taxes. I'm afraid I 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.800 can't video right off on that, Dave. I'm afraid I'm 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:25.480 not a dependent Dave. So my next date is in 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.760 would that be for the SR fifty two? Actually, when 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.160 Jack Kilby got the v k's Working Award from the 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.640 National Academy of Engineering, so you definitely have the Jack 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.840 Kilby Award Timeline. Oh yeah, I got it all right, 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:42.760 Well we'll just keep going with that. Well, I just 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.720 it just I mean, it's sort of a funny aside 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.920 for me and apparently Jonathan, but it also shows how 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.600 important the I C was. You know, Jack Kilby's family 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:58.280 crest is a barracuda eating Neil Armstrong. Why do you 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.120 do this? Okay? So yeah, that that was and also 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.679 the thing that Jonathan, yes, the is the thing that 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:13.240 Jonathan said, yes, a programmable calculator. It had magnetic card storage, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.800 which meant that you could actually program stuff on the 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.720 calculator in order to do scientific calculations UM, which that 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.880 was revolutionary as well. And it was again Texas Instruments 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.640 own product. So this is another consumer product. It used 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:31.559 the algebraic operating system which was developed by Texas Instruments itself, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.240 and it came with twenty two program cards and it 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:41.160 costs just just a few bucks short of four dollars. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.200 three dollars. Had uh those program cards. I'm not sure 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.600 it said the t I sight says non volt non volatile. 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:51.920 So I'm thinking that that you couldn't do a lot 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.839 of you know, programming and storage. I think I think 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.280 it means that you couldn't make them explode. Okay. So, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.679 and they also in seventy five began to make another 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.400 consumer product which other companies were working on as well. Uh. 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:11.000 And also UM had had uh it featured in the 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.840 works of a Mr. Douglas Adams digital watches. Yes stuff 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:22.559 what beeps, Yeah, the digital watches, of course, we're uh, 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.800 those were several companies were making digital watches at that point. Again, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.160 we've reached a point now where the integrated circuit has 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.600 has reached level of manjurization where you could do some 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.680 tiny circuits in a watch and replace the old analog 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.760 watches with digital ones. And now, most digital watches at 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.400 that time were a hundred dollars or more, maybe a 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.240 hundred fifty dollars or more. So Texas Instruments decided to 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.200 try and aim for a lower price market, so most 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.320 of their digital watches were priced at forty dollars or less. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.160 So that that helped them get a jump on on 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.280 that particular segment because there were plenty of people who 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.160 thought digital watches were pretty cool click Douglas Adams, but 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.760 they just couldn't afford them. Yeah, a couple a couple 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.920 of things that we UH skipped because my notes are frenetic. 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.240 They have lots and lots of things in them. Uh. 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.199 Nineteen seventy three, uh t I founder Eugene McDermott passed 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.040 away UM and nineteen seventy four there was a new 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.439 program that t I established in the company called Idea 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.640 and basically it was an R and D group where 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.720 they wanted to see UH the I. The idea was 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:34.439 that if an idea came through idea UM that managers 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.520 were authorized to go ahead and give it the green light. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:39.920 You know. Oh dude, that's really cool, go with it. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.280 And a lot of the educational uh materials that that 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:47.720 t I produced later on were products of this particular 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.640 group project. Yes, one of Jonathan's favorites, which will come 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.160 up in a minute. That's why I wanted to set 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.160 the stage because one of the things that they were 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.120 working on was a speech synthesizer, yes, which does come 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.200 in to play a second. So I just want to 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.480 make sure that we we covered that real quick before 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.120 we get into one of Jonathan A couple of Jonathan's 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.320 favorite yeah. I actually the next two products I have 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.040 to talk about I owned as a kid. R This 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.760 dates me somewhat and I didn't so I thought they 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.480 were cool, but I didn't have one. In nineteen seventies six, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:23.520 Texas Instruments introduced the Little Professor, which looks like a 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.960 calculator with a little owl like visage on the calculator 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.520 and guys wearing a miter board. Yeah, he's he's yeah, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.200 he's got he's got one on the top of his 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.240 head where actually the black part of the calculator there's 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:40.440 supposed to be the mortarboard. Uh is uh where the 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.120 readout is? Yeah, so uh it was actually not just 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.800 a calculator, but it was a a learning device. It 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:52.000 was to teach you how to uh perform mathematical operations. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.680 And um I was you know, I owned one of these. 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.120 I actually used these to one of these to learn 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.360 how to do basic mathematic operations. And and I have 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:07.600 fond memories of this device. Um. You know, because I 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.600 was a geek even as a little kid, I was 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.400 a geek, and I found learning to be fun. And 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.479 I've always found learning to be fun, which is coincidentally 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.320 why I love my job here. So I have incidental 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.320 I have, ironically is why I enjoyed In an Atlantis 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.880 more setway, it's ironic that I enjoyed my job, you know, 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.200 um T I I have T I to thank a 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.240 lot for some of these uh devices because they were 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.760 instrumental in my learning process. So the Little Professor was 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.480 definitely one of the ones I owned, and I also 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:41.880 owned the other one I was going to talk about 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.120 that was introduced in nine. Development had been going on 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.680 for several years before that. When seventy eight it hit 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.680 the market, and it was the Speaking Spell and spin 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:55.560 Spell also was very important in uh the documentary film 0:15:55.720 --> 0:16:00.560 Toy Story Um, as I recall, also can give you 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.560 an idea when you need to phone home. Yes, also 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:08.080 important in the documentary e T The Extraterrestrial Uh. But yeah, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.160 this is part of the idea program. Yeah. And it 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.280 had the synthetic speech incorporated into it, where the the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.520 toy would say something and you would be asked to 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:19.920 spell it. And it was a way of learning how 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.920 to read and to spell. And uh, I remember having 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:25.760 one of these, and I actually I think a couple 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.240 of kids in my neighborhood had them. And yeah, I 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.520 enjoyed using one of these as well. I mean again, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.680 thank you t I. And in fact, the next product 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.720 I have to talk about I own that too. Would 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:44.000 this be the T Stroke four? Yes, actually be slash 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.200 for a for me but uh, which technically didn't come 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:53.200 out until nine. T I decided to enter the uh 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.120 personal computing market, and at that point there were very 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.760 few other personal computers on the market. Is the earliest 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.200 days of the personal computer age. Yeah, you could have 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.000 seen one of these if you were at CS in 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.360 June nine nine. Of course, I was only eight years 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.000 old at that point, so yeah, I was I was 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.560 busy awaiting. I was I was. I couldn't go because 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.040 I was spending all my time eagerly awaiting the Empire 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.680 strikes back, which wouldn't come out until Um there was 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.560 only fifty dollars. Yes, that was one of the reasons 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.760 why we had the T I T I N N 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.119 slash four A because that one was slashed to five dollars. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.639 But the this was a This was a computer which 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.800 probably doesn't really resemble the way we think of computers 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.600 right now. Um, if you were to buy just the 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.760 very basic set, like if you if you had just 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.399 the base unit, it was a It looked like a 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.240 keyboard that on the right hand side had a big 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.719 cartridge slot that was in there, and you would slide 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.880 the cartridges in horizontally, not vertically. They didn't stick out. 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.879 They stuck. They didn't stick up, not right, not like 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.560 an Atari, more like a Nintendo. But there was no 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.040 cover that came down over the cartridge. And uh, you 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.800 would plug this into a monitor or television. We had 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.600 ours plugged into our TV, and uh, this is the 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.600 computer system where I played Hunt the Wumpus. I've talked 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.760 about Hunt the wamp Us a lot. It was. I mean, 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.520 there's certain things in your childhood that stick with you, 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.720 and Hunt the Wumpus stuck with me. I was terrible 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.080 at that game. I hated it, but I played it 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.840 a lot because it's what I owned. So anyway, Uh, 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.399 the Texas Instrument computer. That's one of those computers that 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.879 you hear a lot of engineers talk about how you 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:45.720 know they cut their teeth sometimes literally on the Texas instruments. Uh, 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.920 t and um, it's a it was. It was pretty revolutionary. 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.840 It the price tag definitely kind of hurt the sales 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:56.600 for the first couple of years, which is why t 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.280 I went back and started to make some changes to 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:04.520 the device and then released the new model at five. Yeah, 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.520 except it wasn't all sunshine and roses for this one, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:15.399 because there was a manufacturing problem that lead to disastrous 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.240 results for t I. Yeah. And I actually wasn't aware 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:19.920 of this until I did the research, because I guess 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.560 because I never had a t I ninety nine. But yeah, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.439 apparently there was a manufacturing problem that could cause people 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:31.200 under certain circumstances to get an electric shock when using 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.399 the computer, which you know you don't want well, standing 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.800 in a bucket of water is not the ideal situation 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.600 for you to use your computer anyway. Well, I'm pretty 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.719 sure that in this case it was it would take 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:44.560 a little more than that. It was actually the power 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:46.520 supply and was it was the power supply sentence I 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.520 didn't have one of these. Was the power supply external 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.520 on this computer? I honestly can't remember. I just curious, 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.680 you know, I honestly do not remember I remember using 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.680 this device, but I remember my memory is firmly of 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.479 me sitting on the floor of a living room with 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.880 this device plugged into a television set and playing Hunt 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.960 the Wampus beyond that can't help you, Yeah, they did, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.399 um t. I had to recall all these devices and 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.800 send out new ones, so they were off the shelves 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:16.719 for a while, and that didn't That never helps well, 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.960 especially during this era. You gotta remember Apple is tearing 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.919 it up with the Apple two. The Apple one was 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.680 not a huge commercial success. That was mainly a curiosity 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.919 for hobbyists, and it was sold. Do you remember how 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.520 much the Apple one was sold for six centered in 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.520 sixty six dollars and sixty six cents. So at this point, 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:37.600 the Apple two is on the market, and that's really 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.840 tearing it up in the in the home market place. 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.359 So t I being off the shelves, it was definitely 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.400 definitely a big blow to the company because they were 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.880 losing ground rapidly to Apple. And then of course later 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:57.840 on you had the ibm UH compatible computers really taking off, 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.240 and and at that point t I was sort of 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:05.920 left behind as far as the personal computer age is concerned. Ah, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.080 so what's next? Well, the next one I have is 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.159 an eight one. The next one you have is an 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.080 eight one? Okay, do you have anything before that? Or 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.640 should I just launch into it? Well, I'm catching up 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:20.919 on on my notes. Pat Haggarty passed away in um, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.480 so the the old guard, the people who started the 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.600 company are are starting to us pass on. Um oh, 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.120 well I have I have one in uh? Okay, Well, 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:35.600 in eighty one, the first solar powered calculator launches. Ah, yes, 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.200 the t I seventeen sixty six, which is pretty cool. 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.840 Yes indeed, yeah, yeah, I mean I I had a 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.119 Texas Instrument solar power calculators too. It almost sounds like 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.159 when I look back on my childhood that I was 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.840 like a Texas Instrument fanboy without knowing it. Yeah, you know, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.280 you know one thing that's missing from their interactive timeline 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.520 that I think is odd the T I thirty. Yeah, 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.840 that's it isn't showing up, which I think is odd 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.520 that they don't see it as a big deal. We 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:03.840 had a T I thirty. I wasn't allowed to mess 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.639 with it, um, but yeah they had, uh you know, 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.639 they might want to explain to our listeners. T I 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.880 thirty was, in my opinion, the calculator that kind of 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.320 really made a dent in the marketplace. It was ubiquitous 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.240 for a while there. I think, and and derivations of 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.320 the T I thirty. We have a couple around my 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.960 house now which are later model, you know, more sophisticated 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.720 solar powered this thing um that had the the red 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.359 l e eds for the display. So it's not you know, 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:37.720 I think of calculators today as having you know, l 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.640 c D black and white displays. Of course, people should 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:49.360 know smart would eventually evolve into cylons, right, I thought 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:54.320 those were toasters? Well it was. It was actually a terrible, terrible, 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.439 uh tragic love story between a T I thirty and 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:02.840 a toaster. Okay, all right then, so moving on. You 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.000 said you had something from two Yes, as a matter 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:10.080 of fact, I did. In two Uh, Jack Kilby was 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:15.560 inaugurated Inventors All of Fame. I'm telling you it was 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.639 a big deal. Like I said it it were. I 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:21.880 don't mean to make what's a joke because he's continuing 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.879 continuously getting honors. Doesn't do push ups, he pushes the 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:31.080 earth down. It was a big deal. Well, I mean, 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.240 at this point, integrated circuits are in so many different 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.240 kinds of things, from inventions all around the world, from 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:44.120 from companies all around the world. He revolutional, revolutionalized, revolutionized electronics. 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.600 So I just basics of computing and electronic It's a 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:50.800 running gag in this episode, but I really it's amazing 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.360 and he is being honored by people of all stripes 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:58.440 of engineering and electronics, so that is a positive thing. 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:00.919