11
The Apple I
I was never the kind of person who had the courage to raise his hand during the Homebrew main meeting and say, "Hey, look at this great computer advance I've made." No, I could never have said that in front of a whole garageful of people.But after the main meeting every other Wednesday, I would set up my stuff on a table and answer questions people asked. Anyone who wanted to was welcome to do this.
我永远没有勇气在家酿俱乐部举手说：“嗨，看我做的电脑有多大的改进！”我甚至不敢在一屋子人面前说这样的话——事实上，大家通常在车库聚会。但是，在两周一次的聚会上，我愿意把自己设计的东西摆在桌子上，并回答人们的问题。
I showed the computer that later became known as the Apple I at every meeting after I got it working. I never planned out what I would say beforehand. I just started the demo and let people ask the questions I knew they would, the questions I wanted to answer. I was so proud of my design - and I so believed in the club's mission to further computing - that I Xeroxed maybe a hundred copies of my complete design (including the monitor program) and gave it to anyone who wanted it. I hoped they'd be able to build their own computers from my design.
通常情况下，我装配、调试好了机器，就开始了静静的展示，而当时被展示的那台电脑就是后来的“苹果I”（AppleI）。我从来没有事先想过我要说些什么，只是一边开始演示，一边回答大家的问题。很多时候，我会猜到对方想问什么。我为自己的设计感到自豪，也坚信俱乐部的使命是推进计算机技术发展，我把整个设计，包括显示程序复印了100份，供人们取阅。我希望他们能在这一设计的基础上造出自己的计算机。
I wanted people to see this great design of mine in person. Here was a computer with thirty chips on it. That was shocking to people, having so few chips. It was like the same amount of chips on an Altair, except the Altair couldn't do anything unless you bought a lot of other expensive equipment for it. My com puter was inexpensive from the get-go. And the fact that you could use your home TV with it, instead of paying thousands for an expensive teletype, put it in a world of its own.
我希望人们能看到“苹果I”的优点。这是一台只有30个芯片的电脑，这么少的数量足以让人震惊。虽然芯片的数目与“牛郎星”计算机差不多，但是后者必须要花钱买许多昂贵的配件才能发挥作用。我设计的计算机开始就不贵，而且可以连上家用电视机一起使用。它用起来自成体系，不需要花几千美元买个昂贵的电传打字机。
And I wasn't going to be satisfied just typing Is and Os into it. My goal since high school was to have my own computer that I could program on, although I always assumed the language on the computer would be FORTRAN.
我并不满足于输入0和1的设计。从高中开始，我的目标就是拥有一台自己的电脑，能在上面编程——当然，那时我以为会用FORTRAN语言编程。
The computer I built didn't have a language yet. Back then, in 1975, a young guy named Bill Gates was starting to get a little bit of fame in our circles for writing a BASIC interpreter for the Altair. Our club had a copy of it on paper tape which could be read in with a teletype, taking about thirty minutes to complete. Also, at around the same time a book called 101 Basic Computer Games came out. I could sniff the air.
我的计算机仍然没有自己的语言。那是1975年，一个叫比尔·盖茨的小伙子在我们圈内小有名气，他用BASIC语言为“牛郎星”电脑写解释程序。我们俱乐部有份记录在纸带上的程序，可用电传打字机的方式输入，需要30分钟。与此同时，一本叫《101种BASIC电脑游戏》（101 Basic Computer Games）的书出版了，它让我嗅到了计算机编程的发展方向。
That's why I decided BASIC would be the right language to write for the Apple I and its 6502 microprocessor. And I found out none existed for the 6502. That meant that if I wrote a BASIC program for it, mine could be the first. And I might even get famous for it. People would say, Oh, Steve Wozniak, he did the BASIC for the 6502.
这就是我认准了BASIC语言，并用它为“苹果I”及其6502微处理器写程序的原因。那时还没有为6502微处理器编写的程序，换句话说，用BASIC为其写程序是我的首创，我甚至因此小有名气——人们会说：“哦，是斯蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克为6502写的BASIC程序。”
Anyway, people who saw my computer could take one look at it and see the future. And it was a one-way door. Once you went through it, you could never go back.
无论如何，通过我的电脑，人们能看到未来的发展趋势。这是一扇单向门，一旦走过去，就再也回不来了。
- o -
The first time I showed my design, it was with static RAM (SRAM) - the kind of memory that was in my Cream Soda Computer. But the electronics magazines I was reading were talking about a new memory chip, called "dynamic RAM" (DRAM), which would have 4K bits per chip.
我第一次展示的设计，用的是SRAM（静态可读写内存），就是用在我“奶油苏打电脑”中的内存。可我正在读的一本电子杂志上介绍一种新内存芯片，叫DRAM（动态可读写内存），每块芯片中有4KB的存储量。
The magazines were heralding this as the first time silicon chip memory would be less expensive than magnetic core memory. Up to this point, all the major computers, like the systems from IBM and Data General, still used core memory.
这本杂志发布了这个趋势，就像第一次硅晶芯片价格低于磁心存储器。至那时为止，所有的主要的计算机，像IBM和通用数据公司仍用磁芯存储器。
I realized that 4K bytes of DRAM -what I needed as a minimum -would only take eight chips, instead of the thirty-two SRAM chips I had to borrow from Myron. My goal since high school had always been to use as few chips as possible, so this was the way to go.
我只需要8块DRAM芯片，而不需要从Myron借32片SRAM芯片了。我高中时立下的目标就是尽可能少地使用芯片，这是我一贯的方式。
The biggest difference between SRAM and DRAM is that DRAM has to be refreshed continually or it loses its contents. That means the microprocessor has to electrically refresh roughly 128 different addresses of the DRAM every one two- thousandth of a second to keep it from forgetting its data.
SRAM和DRAM最大的不同之处在于，DRAM需要不停地刷新，否则就会丢失内容。这意味着微处理器必须每两万分之一秒就将128个地址刷新一次，以免数据消失。
I added DRAM by writing data to the screen - I held the microprocessor clock signal steady, holding transitions off, during a period called the "horizontal refresh." You know how a TV scans one line at a time on your TV, from top to bottom It takes about 65 microseconds (millionths of a second) to scan each line on a U.S. TV. Well, it turns out that about 40 of these microseconds are visible and the other 25 microseconds are not. During this 25-microsecorid time, the so- called refresh period, I inserted 16 unique addresses to the DRAM. (I got these addresses for free, using the counters of the terminal, which were generating video signals.)
我通过屏幕显示将数据输入DRAM——我在一个叫“水平刷新”的周期里，稳定了微处理器的时钟信号，推迟转换。你知道电视如何从上到下逐行扫描的吗？在美国的标准，电视扫描一行需要65微秒（1微秒相当于百万分之一秒）。事实上，其中45微秒可见而另外25微秒不可见。这25微秒被称为刷新周期，这时，我可以向DRAM中加入16个独特的地址。我把原本用来产生视频信号的终端的计数器，转而用来得到免费的地址。
I had selection chips that selected the address to come from the horizontal and vertical counter chips of the terminal during this period. Amazingly, it only took two of these selection chips and maybe another chip or two worth of logic to do the whole thing. So I actually stole some cycles away from the microprocessor to refresh the DRAM.
我还设置了选择芯片。在刷新周期中，它们可以选择终端的水平和垂直计数器芯片的地址。令人惊叹的是，这只需要两块选择芯片，而另一两块芯片也有做这整件事的逻辑。所以我只是从微处理器里挤出些周期来刷新DRAM。
I would'Ve had no idea how to get a DRAM chip, but luckily, right around this time someone at the club who worked at AMI offered some 4K-bit DRAM chips for sale at a reasonable price. This was before they were even on the market. I see now that someone must've ripped them off from AMI, but I didn't ask any questions. I bought eight of them from the AMI guy for about $5 each and modified my design. I added some wires to the memory connector on the Apple I board so it could accommodate either an SRAM or DRAM board. I plugged the new DRAM board in, and it worked the very first time.
我本来没想到怎么弄到DRAM芯片，幸运的是，当时俱乐部中恰好有人在AMI工作。这让我以合理的价格买到了一些4KB的DRAM芯片——那时这种芯片还没有正式上市。我看到有些芯片上AMI的商标被撕掉了，但最终什么也没有问。我从AMI的员工那里以每片5美元的价格买了8片芯片，之后开始修改自己的设计。我在芯片与“苹果I”主板的内存连接处加了一些线，使之能适应SRAM和DRAM主板。我插进新的DRAM主板，一次性成功。
- o -
I had been showing off this exciting design of mine to Steve Jobs. He'd gone with me to Homebrew a few times, helping me carry in my TV. He kept asking me if I could build a computer that could be used for time-sharing - like the minicomputer a local company called Call Computer used.
我向斯蒂夫·乔布斯展示过自己的得意之作，还一起去过几趟家酿俱乐部。他帮我搬显示器，还一直在问我，能不能造出一台像CallComputer公司的微机一样的电脑，而且可分时使用。就在一年之前，我和斯蒂夫把我们的APRANET终端卖给山景城的CallComputer公司，授权他们生产和出售。
The year before, Steve and I had sold my ARPANET terminal to Call Computer in Mountain View, giving them the rights to build and sell it. Sure, I said. "Someday." It could be done, I thought, but it was ages off. Then he asked if 1 could add a disk for storage someday. I said, again, "Sure. Someday." This all seemed a long way off.
那时我说：“将来有一天能造出来。”我想，尽管可以造出来，但很可能“黄花菜都凉了”。他还问我将来是否能加一个存储用的磁盘。我给了他相同的回答，听起来前途渺茫。
Then, a few days after I got the AMI DRAMs working, Steve called me at work. He asked me if I'd considered using the Intel DRAMs instead of AMI's.
在我用上AMIDRAM几天后，斯蒂夫上班时给我打电话，希望我考虑用英特尔的DRAM取代AMI的芯片。
Oh, Intel's are the best, but I could never afford them, I told him.
“哦，英特尔的质量是非常好，可是我买不起啊。”我说。
Steve said to give him a minute.
斯蒂夫说让我稍等一会儿。
He made some calls and by some marketing miracle he was able to score some free DRAMs from Intel -unbelievable considering their price and rarity at the time. Steve is just that sort of person. I mean, he knew how to talk to a sales representative. I could never have done that; I was way too shy.
他打了几个电话，用一些他能制造的市场奇迹，从英特尔不花钱拿到些DRAM芯片——在当时，考虑到其昂贵与稀有，这简直让人难以相信。斯蒂夫就是这样，他知道怎么跟销售代表谈话。而我永远也做不到，我太害羞了。
But he got me Intel DRAM chips. Once I had them, I redesigned around them. And I was so proud because my computer looked smaller yet. I had to add a couple more chips to my computer to make it work with the Intel DRAMs. But the Intel chips were physically so much smaller than the AMI chips.
他给我弄到些英特尔DRAM芯片，而我也重新设计了电脑。让我自豪的是，电脑看起来更加小巧了。尽管我不得不在电脑中加了几块芯片，使之与英特尔的DRAM共同工作，但英特尔的芯片体积上比AMI的芯片小很多。
I have to stop here and explain what the big deal about having a smaller-sized chip is. Remember when I said my goal since high school had always been to have the fewest chips Well, that isn't the whole story. One time in high school, I was trying to get chips for a computer I'd designed. My dad drove me down to meet an engineer he knew at Fairchild Semiconductor, the company that invented the semiconductor. I told him I'd designed an existing minicomputer two ways. I found out that if I used chips by Signetics (a Fairchild competitor), the computer had fewer chips than if I used Fairchild chips.
在这儿，我不得不解释一下，体积小的芯片有什么重要意义。记得我从高中时就希望尽可能用最小数量的芯片设计计算机。有一次，我想为我的设计弄一些芯片。爸爸开车带我和一个仙童半导体工程师见面——仙童就是发明半导体的公司。我介绍了自己的设计，并且认为，如果用Sygnetics（仙童的竞争对手）的芯片，计算机所需芯片数量比仙童的更少。
The engineer asked me which Signetics chips I'd used. I told him the make and model number. He pointed out that the Signetics chips I'd used in the design were much larger in physical size, with many more pins and many more wires to connect, than the equivalent Fairchild chips. That added complexity.
这个工程师问我用的哪种Sygnetic的芯片，我告诉他款式和编号。他指出，那些芯片比仙童的同类产品体积更大，需要更多的引脚和线路来连接，而这增加了复杂性。
I was stunned. Because he made me realize in an instant that the simpler computer design would really have fewer connections, not simply fewer chips. So my goal changed, from designing for fewer chips to trying to have the smallest board, in square inches, possible.
我十分吃惊。因为他让我当时就意识到，真正简单的计算机设计意味着更少的连接，而不仅仅是少用几块芯片。所以，我的设计目标从减少芯片数量变成了降低主板面积。
Usually fewer chips means fewer connections, but not always. Back to the Intel DRAM design of the Apple I, switching from AMI to Intel DRAM memories meant I could reduce the total size of the board, even though I had to add a couple extra chips to do it.
通常，芯片越少意味着连接越少，但是不尽如此。以“苹果I”的DRAM设计为例，从AMI的DRAM变为英特尔的产品，意味着降低了主板的面积，尽管我还需要增加几块额外的芯片来做到这一点。
And looking back, what a great, lucky decision it was to go with Intel's chips. Because that chip design eventually became the standard for all memory chips, even to this day.
回想起来，采用英特尔的芯片，是一个伟大而令人庆幸的决定，因为这种芯片设计方式最终成为所有内存芯片的标准，至今如此。
- o -
By Thanksgiving of 1975, Steve had been to a few of the Homebrew meetings with me. And then he told me he'd noticed something: the people at Homebrew, he said, are taking the schematics, but they don't have the time or ability to build the computer that's spelled out in the schematics.
1975年的感恩节前，斯蒂夫和我到家酿俱乐部的聚会去了几次。他留意到，家酿俱乐部的人经常使用图表，但是他们没有时间和能力设计一台计算机打印这些图表。
He said, "Why don't we build and then sell the printed circuit boards to them" That way, he said, people could solder all their chips to a printed circuit (PC) board and have a computer in days instead of weeks. Most of the hard work would already be done. His idea was for us to make these preprinted circuit boards for $20 and sell them for $40. People would think it was a great deal because they were getting chips almost free from their companies anyway.
他提议，设计一些印刷电路板卖给他们。这样，人们可以把需要的芯片焊在印刷线路板上，以前要几周才能做出来的电脑，现在只需要几天。最困难的工作大部分已经完成。他的主意是，我们以20美元的成本生产预先印好的线路板，以40美元售出。大家觉得这个价格很划算，因为他们有办法从各自的公司搞到免费芯片。
Frankly, I couldn't see how we would earn our money back. I figured we'd have to invest about $1,000 to get a computer company to print the boards. To get that money back, we'd have to sell the board for $40 to fifty people. And I didn't think there were fifty people at Homebrew who'd buy the board. After all, there were only about five hundred members at this point, and most of them were Altair enthusiasts.
老实讲，我看不出我们怎么赚这个钱。我说，已经为印刷主板投了1000美元了，要赚回这笔钱，我们必须以40美元的价格向50人卖出这些主板。可是我觉得在家酿俱乐部里愿意买这种主板的人没有50人，毕竟这儿只有500名会员，而其中大多数都是“牛郎星”电脑的忠实拥护者。
But Steve had a good argument. We were in his car and he said - and I can remember him saying this like it was yesterday: "Well, even if we lose our money, we'll have a company. For once in our lives, we'll have a company."
我跟斯蒂夫各执已见，在他车里争论起来。他说——我清楚记得他说的话，仿佛就发生在昨天——“好，就算赔钱也要办公司。在我们一生中，这是难得的创立公司的机会。”
For once in our lives, we'd have a company. That convinced me. And I was excited to think about us like that. To be two best friends starting a company. Wow. I knew right then that I'd do it. How could I not
“一生中难得的机会”这话说服了我，让我想起来就激动。两个好朋友开始创业了，哦，那时我知道自己愿意走这一步。我怎么能拒绝呢？