Until six months before its launch in January 1984, Apple's Mac had a 5.25-inch floppy-disk drive, but because of high error rates, that device had to be replaced by a Sony 3.5-inch drive.
Mr. Macintosh, seen here at the left side of the circuit board, was a mysterious little guy who was supposed to live inside each Macintosh, as represented in a drawing by the Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon, commissioned by Steve Jobs.
The original concept for the Macintosh, conceived by Jef Raskin, was more horizontal and portable. When Jobs took over the project, he reoriented it vertically so it would more easily fit on a desk.
Steve Wozniak surrounded by (starting from left) Larry Kenyon, Patti Kenyon, Randy Wiggington, Terry Oyama, Andy Hertzfeld, Ron Nicholson, Jerry Manock, Dan Kottke, Rod Holt, Gabreal Franklin (host of the event and former president of Mac software company Encore Systems) and Rich Whicker.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak reminisces with Andy Hertzfeld, who wrote much of the Macintosh's system software, including the User Interface Toolbox.
While Andy Hertzfeld (right) was working on operating system software and other elements to get the Macintosh to market , Guy Kawasaki was serving as the chief evangelist for the new machine that would shake up the world.
The Macintosh hardware trio: Holt, Nicholson, Kottke
Rod Holt was vice president of engineering during the early years of Apple, and worked on the Macintosh power supply; Ron Nicholson worked on the Mac's disk controller and CMOS clock chip; and Dan Kottke joined the Mac team in 1981, building prototype circuit boards for programmers.
The Kenyons were a core part of the original Mac team. Patti left the company until shortly after the Macintosh shipped and Larry stayed at Apple until 1996.
Woz surrounded by (starting from left) Larry Kenyon, Randy Wigginton, Ed Ruder, Terry Oyama, Andy Hertzfeld, Ron Nicholson, Jerry Manock, Dan Kottke and Gabreal Franklin, host of the event and former president of Mac software company Encore Systems.
Rod Holt worked at Atari, where Steve Jobs also briefly worked. When Jobs was having trouble with Apple II hardware, he managed to get the very experienced Holt to help out. He joined Apple in 1976 and left in 1984.
Wendell Sander: Designer of the Integrated Woz Machine
Wendell Sander was the designer of the Apple III, and created a single chip that included all the functionality Woz's disk controller. It was called the "IWM" chip, which stood for the "Integrated Woz Machine."
Woz tells former Apple vice president of engineering Rod Holt how he would hold the wiring solder in his mouth as his hands were connecting the wires to pins on the circuit board.
