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Interview :: Civil & Human Rights : Education : Labor : Political-Economy |
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Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
Current rating: 0 |
by Philip Stinard repost from SFIMC
Email: pstinard (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
08 Dec 2004
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The official history of the development of the first microprocessor (“History of the 4004”, IEEE Micro, December 1996, pp. 10-20) leaves the reader with the impression that Federico Faggin, Marcian (Ted) Hoff, Stanley Mazor, and Masatoshi Shima were the sole designers and inventors of the 4004 microprocessor. These men, however, stood on the back of a giant, an unassuming young black inventor by the name of Wayne Douglas Pickette. Wayne’s contributions to the development of the 4004 have largely gone unrecognized by his former employer, Intel. Wayne has maintained collegial relations with former Intel coworkers, and when they speak, they often reminisce about those early days of microcomputer development. Wayne’s coworkers recognize his accomplishments; Intel, however, remains silent. |
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Microprocessors have revolutionized the world of technology, allowing computers to evolve from room-sized devices costing millions of dollars, accessible only to research institutions, to small, powerful, inexpensive devices that fit on one’s lap or in the palm of one’s hand. They are a part of everyday life for millions of people, serving as controllers for devices ranging from cell phones and DVD players to automobiles and airplanes. The microprocessor is arguably one of the greatest technological advances of the Twentieth Century.
The official history of the development of the first microprocessor (“History of the 4004”, IEEE Micro, December 1996, pp. 10-20) leaves the reader with the impression that Federico Faggin, Marcian (Ted) Hoff, Stanley Mazor, and Masatoshi Shima were the sole designers and inventors of the 4004 microprocessor. These men, however, stood on the back of a giant, an unassuming young black inventor by the name of Wayne Douglas Pickette. Wayne’s contributions to the development of the 4004 have largely gone unrecognized by his former employer, Intel. Wayne has maintained collegial relations with former Intel coworkers, and when they speak, they often reminisce about those early days of microcomputer development. Wayne’s coworkers recognize his accomplishments; Intel, however, remains silent.
Wayne Pickette was a self-taught childhood electronics prodigy. Wayne recalls reading 2,000 words per minute with 90% retention by the time he graduated from San Martin (California) Elementary School. His early interests included designing a computerized video system for sharing library materials over TV, which he worked on during his high school years; and robotics. In 1967, at the age of 17, he purchased a PDP-8/S computer in order to perform calculations for his projects. The need for smaller computers for controlling self-contained humanoid robots led to the first design for a microcomputer, a PDP-8 with all of its logical functions placed on a single microchip. Wayne presented his design to Fairchild Semiconductor in February of 1968, but the company rejected his idea as “crazy.”
Wayne worked for IBM during the summer of 1968 performing logic design for IBM's Project Winchester, which led to the creation of the hard drives commonly found in today's personal computers.When Wayne started working for Intel in Spring of 1970, he brought his ideas of computer architecture and miniaturization to the project to develop a business calculator, which then became the first microprocessor, the 4004. The following interview captures Wayne’s reminiscences about his crucial role in the development of the microprocessor. The author verified Wayne’s statements with a trusted Intel employee who wishes his name to be kept private for fear of reprisals.
The Interview
PS: How did you get the idea of putting a computer on a chip?
WP: I had a science fiction book lying on the table next to my bed that I hadn’t read yet, called “I, Robot.” When I got about two thirds of the way through the book, a few lights started to click on in my head, and I said, “You know something? This is not science fiction. This thing is possible.” And I started making a list of stuff that had to occur before you could make a robot. The list included power, skeletal, brain, eyes, the whole thing. When I got down to the computers, I figured it would take 300 computers inside this robot to make it work in a human-like manner, all of them working together, a minimum of 300 computers.
PS: And you basically had details as to what their functions would be.
WP: Yes, specifications. Not all of them the same, but 300 computers. I figured that if I wanted this robot to be normal, without having a semi-trailer following it full of air-conditioning and generating equipment, I had better figure out a way to get the computer down to thumbnail size from the size that was sitting on my desk, which was 100-some pounds, a monstrosity, a PDP-8/S talking to me through a teletype.
And, after all that got through popping through my head—I already knew logic—I made this original drawing. [Brings out 1968 drawing of a circuit diagram, with neat penciled handwriting on thin, delicate crumpled paper.]
That’s my organization. That was the diagram that I presented to Intel. It’s a PDP-8/S normalized down to 19 integrated circuits, using serial communications between the registers, and parallel communications through the registers, which means that it uses shift registers and latches and stuff, which are small logical components. The core of this thing is a 74181 arithmetic element. And it turns out that the instruction set for this 74181 matches the PDP-8 exactly, so I didn’t need an instruction decoder—it was already built in. The general idea was to shift data into the accumulator, do an operation on it, shift it out and put it back in memory, shift data and program into the appropriate registers, perform an operation, shift the data back out to memory. Basically, just what the PDP-8/S does. The only difference is that it was miniaturized down into a little board about that big. [Holds hands about a foot apart.] And it ran off of 5 volts, and it talked to a teletype though a serial interface.
PS: When did you do this diagram?
WP: Late ’67, early ’68. Well, when I called up Fairchild after I finished this, they told me everything had already been done in computers. They said, “What you want to do is impossible. By the way, you’re crazy.” They hung up on me.
PS: Why did they think this was crazy? Did they give any reasons? Are these components that already existed at the time, and they just had to manufacture them?
WP: No. This was putting something on an integrated circuit, whereas before, the only thing that had been put on an integrated circuit was logic functions. I wanted to put the arithmetic element, instruction logic, timing logic and register logic, taking all of these different IC’s and combining them on one chip. Inside here, there are about 1,840 gates, and the limit at that time was 3,000. So, it was within the realm of creation.
[Conversation shifts to a discussion of the 4004 microprocessor.]
The 4004 wasn’t like this. The 4004 was dictated by [the Japanese company] Busicom, because Busicom wanted a calculator, and Busicom’s Masatoshi Shima wasn’t even about to allow anything not meant for a calculator in his calculator chip. Yung Feng, working for Intel’s Federico Faggin, gave me the first working 4004, 4002 & 4003 chips in late summer 1970. It was a real war to get that thing introduced; one reason was that Busicom went bankrupt. Intel management gave up on the product. They basically said that it was too technical, and no engineer would fool with it. Ted invited me to dinner over at his house, and we talked about the microprocessor. He gave me a copy of a book called “Future Shock,” which depicts society’s resistance to change. He said he hoped that would tone me down a bit—it didn’t.
When we had to vote [on whether to introduce the 4004 at the 1971 Fall Joint Computer Conference in Las Vegas], I was a 21-year-old black kid sitting in the conference room with all these high mucky-mucks, [Intel President] Dr. Robert Noyce, [Vice President] Gordon Moore, [Director of Operations] Andy Grove, [4000 series creator] Federico Faggin, [Intel Memory Systems Manager] Torstein Lund, and Ed Day. Ed Day was the head of marketing at the time. A couple of other managers were there, there were at least nine people at this table. Ted Hoff, myself, Stan Mazor, Hal Feeny. Shima wasn’t there—he wasn’t an Intel person at this time.
Anyway, when we voted whether or not to take it to the show, I was the only aye at the table. I was completely flabbergasted. I stood up, banged my fist on the table, called them all blithering idiots, and stormed out of the conference room.
PS: Why didn’t they want to show the microprocessor in Las Vegas?
WP: They didn’t think it was going to be successful. They thought it was too limited, that it was too complicated. No engineers would even look at it.
I asked for a private meeting with Dr. Noyce. He said, “What is it you want?” I said, “I came to plead with you in the case of the 4004 Demo System. I want to show it in Las Vegas.” And when we talked, he finally said, “All right, you can take it there, but these are the conditions. If everything turns out okay, you don’t have anything to worry about. If it doesn’t turn out okay, YOU and IT can stay in Las Vegas.” I said I would happily take those terms.
It was all at my own expense. They did not give me any money advance. I jumped into my car and headed for Las Vegas, probably about 3 in the afternoon. I made it to Las Vegas sometime around 4 in the morning. We got set up on a table probably not much bigger than a lamp table. Intel Memory Systems had the back room in this suite, and I was out in the front room, on this little table, while Stan Mazor went down and distributed some leaflets on the floor. Then, people started to show up: About 150 people the first day, about 500 people the second day, and over a thousand on the third day. I mean, I had a line going out the door, all day long. The door was open all the time, but the line was going out the door. And I was taking them one at a time. One of the people in line on the third day was Dr. Noyce. And he said, when he got to me, “You’re doing a good job.” He said, “I don’t care what you do between Thursday evening [that day] and Monday morning, but you’d sure as hell better have your butt back in Santa Clara Monday morning,” and he handed me an envelope. I didn’t look in the envelope. I just said, “Thank you,” and stuck it in my jacket pocket, and went on to the next person. Later, I opened the envelope and found that he had given me $2,500.
I learned many years later from Paul Metrovich, another coworker, that they intended to fire me when I came back.
PS: Why?
WP: Because I called it a microprocessor, and I took it there. So I came back with success. Dr. Noyce had already given me $2,500, and they were still intending to fire me. Paul said that the phone was ringing off the hook Monday, so they forgot to fire me. [Laughter.]
PS: I found this paper from the IEEE Micro Journal on the history of the 4004, by Faggin, Hoff, Mazor, and Shima.
WP: Oh, I’ve read it.
PS: Do you feel that they’re rewriting history?
WP: They rewrote history, because very simply, they couldn’t adjust for me, and I know that when I walked into Intel, they had no inclination of building this thing the way it was built. Federico hadn’t even been hired yet. He was hired after me. When Tor Lund came on his first visit to the company, he was told by Ted that the most amazing thing had happened. Ted had always wanted to build a computer, but he never thought that he’d be putting a computer on a strip of silicon! Tor said I was already there at the company the day he arrived in March, 1970, and Ted said this to him. What does that tell you? In fact, Ted was still overwhelmed with all that had occurred as he attempted to convince Tor to join Intel!
They were going to build a set of calculator chips, custom calculator chips for Busicom, and Federico’s time and work estimate was much too expensive to accomplish these four chips. He had brought this information to Ted’s office while I was sitting in there talking to him about this computer on a chip. Ted looked the estimate over for a couple of seconds. After Ted finished looking it over, he looked up and said, “This will not work out. It’s much too expensive.” And I knew it was the calculator project that Federico was working on. So I said, “Ted, we’ve just been talking about a general-purpose computer on a chip. Why can’t we make this computer on a chip and program it to act like a calculator, along with other applications? In fact, it would be cheaper, because we have more applications.” And he said, “That’s a thought I’ll take into consideration. I have to go to a meeting, you wait, sit right there.”
Ted had to go to this speakerphone meeting in Gordon Moore’s office between Busicom and him, with Shima nearby, and they were talking about the calculator project. Shima was mad, because they hadn’t done anything. I mean, Federico was just starting to look at the chip design. He hadn’t done anything, and Shima was expecting all these chips to be done already. Shima was walking on the ceiling. But anyway, Ted hit them with this intriguing idea, and they went for it, and Busicom agreed to pay half the cost of the creation of the 4004. Ted came back to his office with me waiting there; his eyes were wide behind his glasses! He said one sentence, “They went for it!” At that point, it was defined to have 90 percent of the same instructions that the calculator chip would have had. It was a software investment, so what Shima had already created would not be lost. Like I said, my attempts to get him to include an Exclusive OR instruction fell on deaf ears. He wouldn’t have anything to do with it. He knows of my existence, if only for those three or four days that we were defining the 4004 and making sure that everything was copasetic, and getting descriptions over to Federico, who immediately began to work. Of course, Federico said that all he got was scraps of paper in his interview, he said he got three scraps of paper with some block diagrams on them. Now, if they’d been working on it for two years, how come he only got three scraps of paper with some diagrams on them? Come on! Right there in his interview, he puts the lie to the idea that Intel and Busicom had been working on the 4004 for three years. Moreover, even if Intel was formed in late 1968 and Busicom began discussions in 1969, my diagram was completed in early ’68 and the prototype logic hardware was completed while INTEL was still forming. Sorry, guys, I was there first.
[A 1972 picture of Wayne and a circuit diagram from 1968 are in comments below.] |
See also:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/1707159.php
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This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license. |
Comments
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by someone
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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Thank you, Phil, for going through with your promise. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Phil Stinard
pstinard (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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Thank you, Someone, for your kind words. And thanks to ML for spotting the article on the SF Indymedia site and reposting it here, taking the time to put the "PS" and "WP" in front of the questions and answers (the questions were bolded in the original), and uploading the photo of Wayne. Wayne is brilliant, and his story is fascinating. I hope that other people will follow up on it and help Wayne get some of the recognition he deserves, not only for his past accomplishments, but also for his present and future accomplishments. |
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Clarification on the Stinard article |
by Phil Stinard copied from related article by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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I'd like to clarify for the readers how I came to write my article on Wayne, and why I posted it on the San Francisco site.
I'm an Urbana resident, so the article was locally produced. I became interested in Wayne's story because of Anna's writings on the UCIMC web site. I thought to myself that if there was an ounce of truth to it, it's a story of social injustice that needs to be investigated and told. I wrote to Anna, who suggested that I interview Wayne. I interviewed Wayne and Anna for nearly three hours, and transcribed the entire interview. The interview was wide-ranging, but after thinking it over, I focused on the section that I finally ended up publishing. I told Wayne that before I could publish it, I would need to verify the facts. Wayne put me in phone and email contact with a current Intel employee whose name is well-respected and associated with the early days of Intel. I questioned him and submitted the interview to him for his comments, and he told me that it was all true, that he had the greatest respect for Wayne, and that the way Wayne told the story is how things really happened at Intel. He also told me that he couldn't go on record publicly for fear of losing his job and benefits.
I completed the article and decided to submit it to the San Francisco Indymedia site first because that site is closest to Silicon Valley, and maybe there was a chance that some of Wayne's former coworkers would read it and try to make contact with him. I'm planning to repost to the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York sites later. I was going to repost it here, but ML got the jump on me. (Great work, ML! How did you find the article so quickly?)
I'm glad that Anna posted her recollections of Wayne also. Note how the sections that cover the same events are consistent with each other. Anna covers additional events that I didn't have time or space to include in my article, and many things that Wayne didn't have the time to speak to me about. This is a great story, and there's still a lot that hasn't been told! Understand that Anna is frustrated by the slow uptake on Wayne's story, and that she and Wayne are barely making ends meet. Have some patience and understanding, and don't let petty arguments get in the way.
I would really like to see Wayne's story get picked up by the mainstream press, but I'm realistic that it probably won't happen. Wayne's story goes against the fabric of history as it's been handed down by the rich and powerful, and correcting their mistakes and explaining their inconsistencies would require too much effort for most journalists. People at Intel will talk, but getting them to go on public record is an uphill battle. Written records of Wayne's work seem to have been hidden away or destroyed. There are still leads to be followed, though, and more people to be interviewed, but many of the principals involved are getting old or have died. This would make an excellent project for a historian documenting how people's contributions can be erased from history. |
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Thanks for the Clarification |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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Phil,
Thanks for the clarification. I've made it a Feature. I was tempted to do this with it originally, but we try not to duplicate Feature content because many IMCs now syndicate their Feature content to the US IMC site:
http://indymedia.us/en/index.shtml
Looking at US IMC, it looks like SF IMC either did not make it a Feature (it did briefly appear in their National Newswire, though) and may not even particpate in the US IMC, since I see none of their articles there. There is a long explanation for why that probably is, but US IMC should pick it up from here now that I've made it a Feature.
Thanks for having the forebearance to take this story to a successful conclusion. We really tried to make it work out before ourselves, but, uh-hum, how shall we say...interpersonal conflicts got in the way.
As you've correctly noted, it is a compelling and important story of the unacknowledged contributions of Wayne Pickette to the modern world as we know it. I'm glad this worked out for you, and for Wayne and his wife, who are struggling under difficult circumstances. As a historian of science and technology, I know how important his contributions are to telling the full story of the rise of computers in our society.
Also, now that we know you're a local author, there won't be any more misunderstandings about the eligibility of your articles for Feature status. Welcome to Indymedia! |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by anna epelbaum
aepelbaum (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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As I told Phil in private conversation, I think that rich and powerful people who are right now in charge of microprocessors, can be interested to have full clarification in order, for example, to have their own full recognition and subsequent rewards.. Therefore, I am not fully sharing Phil Stinard pessimistic approach, though I need to admit that his approach is certainly not less realistic than mine.
In any occasion , I am sure that Wayne Pickette's history should become widely know by African American community , as the very inspiring and positive example. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Phil Stinard
pstinard (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Dec 2004
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ML, the article has indeed appeared on the indymedia.us site, thanks to you. Next time I publish an article with indymedia, I'll do it though the UCIMC site.
Anna, now that Wayne's story is coming out, we'll see if the rich and powerful have a change of heart and start acknowledging Wayne's contributions, or whether it will be a protracted struggle for recognition. I hope for the former, but I'm prepared for the latter. |
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Wayne Pickette, circa 1972 |
by Philip Stinard
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Dec 2004
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Wayne Pickette, circa 1972 |
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1968 circuit diagram |
by Philip Stinard
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Dec 2004
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1968 circuit diagram |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Ktesibios
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
10 Dec 2004
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Just to underline Fairchild's blindness- a microprocessor which implemented the full PDP-8E instruction set was on the market by the late '70s- the Intersil IM6100. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by uh-nawn
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Dec 2004
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Great story, thanks Philip Stinard! When Anna E. started ranting about this one a while back, her style prompted my skepticism. Glad to see this posted here, written the way it is. Thanks! |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by goodriddancegipper
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Dec 2004
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I concur. Having unfortunately mired myself in a rather nonsensical debate, I should have devoted more time and attention to this story, eloquently detailing Wayne's very wrongful treatment. The story, as well as Wayne's current plight, is compelling and most unfortunate. It is a good thing that it has generated such a significant amount of interest, which should help sooner or later. Contrary to the opinions of some, this site has done a tremendous amount to publicize Wayne's plight. ML also deserves due credit for posting the story here, especially in light of having been more than unfairly treated by some in the past week. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by goodriddancegipper
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Dec 2004
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Re-posting something from another site was vitally important to Wayne's case. Phil himself thanked ML for doing the service and, considering the quality and importance of the post especially in comparison to the other about Wayne, I would say that ML deserves credit for doing that. ML didn't have to, yet did, then received more than an unfair amount of scorn for the way in which it was handled. 'Nuff said. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by goodriddancegipper
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Dec 2004
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BL:
I am far from "crediting him [ML] on everything." Anyone paying any sort of attention to my posts on this article should know that. I am simply saying that ML deserves "due credit," significant in this regard, for re-posting the story. If that helped to get the ball rolling toward helping Wayne and providing him with credit for his vital work toward the development of the microprocessor, then ML did an important thing, no? Phil seemed to think so.
Also, I have nothing to do with editing material in this site. Nor is the content of my posts affected by the decisions about what appears or does not appear on this site. As posted elsewhere, one of my own posts was stowed in the "Hidden" bin a while back, but you must have missed that. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Wayne D. Pickette
waynedougpick (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
12 Dec 2004
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I would prefer to view all comments, positive or negative, at least then I could add my own comment where it would improve or disapprove the information.
Phil covered some of the events up through 1971, there were many significant events throughout 1972 to 1975. What Anna has to say involves events since 1990.
The interaction with INTEL, and then Ted Hoff continued until 2002 when Anna and myself visited Ted, we were treated to a tour of his new home which was being constructed in the Los Altos Hills, California, just across the street from where Mr. Packard had his last home. During the conversation Mr. Hoff told me that when he and I combined our"crazy" ideas together it works.
Wayne D. Pickette |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by anna epelbaum
aepelbaum2yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
12 Dec 2004
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Though in 1996 the name of Wayne Pickette is not mentioned in History of Microprocessors, in 2002 the published in the USA Computer Encyclopedia in its volume 'People in Computers' already includes the special article about him (among less than one hundred of other such as Max Plank, Euclid and also Ted Hoff). It means that this story doesn't come out just now, but has been known at least for a while. The records about Wayne Pickette all over the Internet are another confirmation of the same. So, now it, certainly, depends on skills and persistence of Phil Stinard and other publishers and historians of science, who are interested on behalf of the national prestige and the truthful scientific and technological records to participate in the story's dissemination, whether the great achievements of American national scientists would finally receive the proper recognition and correspondent awards of the world, instead of still being one of the strange and not fully clarified pages of the history of science and technology. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Anna Epelbaum
aepelbaum (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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As this story is becoming more popular in Urbana -Champaign neighborhood, I think that it is the very right time now to write to Chancellor Richard Herman the open petition with as many signatures as possible to attract his attention to the situation of Wayne Pickette. Every university is drastically increasing its prestige and available funding when it gets more Nobel Prize winners. If "racial barrier" is crossed Wayne Pickette, Marcian Hoff and, maybe, other participants of this invention would be likely the winners of upcoming 2005 Nobel Prize, if properly recommended. The consequences of this event for the university and neighboring community would be, certainly, essential and positive. The consequences for the world, as the possibility for Wayne Pickette to fast implement and disseminate his revolutionary engine would become immediately available, are also impossible to overestimate.
It would be the real act of the support to the causes, which IMC claims to promote and to protect.
It would be also the action to promote the image of IMC of Champaign-Urbana above its current local scale.
So, let us go ahead, produce and submit such petition. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Ken Fortenberry
kenfortenberry (nospam) ameritech.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
30 Jan 2005
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I comment on this "article" only because there are some misguided folks who believe it merits inclusion in the Public I. As a piece of journalism
this "article" has no merit and anyone who would
publish it is both irresponsible and amateurish.
The author provides as a source one, count them one anonymous Intel employee. One wonders, does the author know this Intel employee as a reliable source indepently of the "article" or did the subject of the "article" recommend this anonymous Intel employee as a source ?
This "article" does not ring true. It sounds more like a disgruntled ex-employee who has captured a gullible and sympathetic ear. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Philip Stinard
pstinard (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
31 Jan 2005
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Ken,
It seems that it's not sufficient for you to keep this discussion limited to people who work with the Public i, but rather you choose to "stalk" the article as well.
You can publicly "wonder" all you want about my independent source, but we discussed this privately, and I told you that I was willing to put the IMC in contact with my source to verify the article for themselves. I came across the source independently before Wayne mentioned his name and considered him as someone who could possibly corroborate the story. When the name came up my conversations with Wayne, I called the source up and spoke to him by phone, then exchanged emails.
As for Wayne being a disgruntled employee, I don't think that it's right to suppress a story just because the subject is a disgruntled ex-employee. If a person is fired from a job unjustly, or doesn't get credit for a particularly important piece of work, they have the right to be disgruntled, and people report on such cases all of the time as examples of discrimination, injustice, or what have you.
I've responded only to the points that you have made in your public comment. We have had a much more extensive private conversation, and I have answered your other points there, repeatedly. I'm puzzled as to why you choose to drag this issue into the public when this is being dealt with privately by the Public i. I hope that ML hides your comments (and my reply) as "off topic". |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by S. Bisset
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
02 Feb 2005
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I joined INTEL Santa Clara in 1972. I was just in time to experience the excellent reliability and performance of the PDP-10 Engineering computer Wayne had set up. I overhear some managers I'll just use initials J.M, L.V discussing that Wayne would not object to his replacement without his consent. I just couldn't imagine Wayne not complaining about anything that was done without his consent. A day later Wayne had a terrible accident. His roommate Douglas Manchester was also injured in the same accident. I was amazed when Wayne made an appearance the next workday (Monday). He attempted to do his job normally with a paralyzed left arm. Another manager had been installed for the PDP-10 computer. This manager C.G. soon himself and the computer transferred to the Operations Department. The PDP-10 lost the reliability label under the new management almost immediately. Wayne was assigned a new project soon. He was assigned a Tech, J.R. who was to build the hardware while Wayne developed the software. J.R soon quit when he saw that the managers were deliberately setting Wayne up to fail. I could not believe these people were so heartless as to further punish someone who suffered just because he was doing a great job. I quit. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Steve Bisset
sbisset25 (nospam) hormail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
03 Feb 2005
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Sorry Chaps, bit ackward this format for an Aussie |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Steve Bisset
sbisset25 (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
03 Feb 2005
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See what I mean? |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Steve Bisset
sbisset769 (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
03 Feb 2005
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I forgot, sbisset25 (at) hotmail.com has the address book reception only option set. I set up sbisset769 specifically for communication with the crowd about Wayne. |
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Re: Intel’s forgotten past: Wayne D. Pickette, African American father of the microprocessor |
by Wayne D. Pickette
waynedougpick (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
06 Feb 2005
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Thanks Steve for your comment.
As for the comments from Anna Epelbaum, my Wife I belive the unfair treatment of them is totally unwarrented. Therefore I feel that any criticizm about her posting in my cause or in the cause of education as a direct affront to my self.
Wayne |
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