Don Knuth

Lee Felsenstein
The Osborne Odyssey

 

Lee Felsenstein was a participant in the personal computer industry even before the beginning, attending the potluck dinners at People's Computer Center in Menlo Park in 1973 for a small group who fantasized the imminent coming of personal computers. A recent EE graduate of UC Berkeley, he self-published a specification in 1974 entitled "The Tom Swift Terminal" which detailed the design of a modular personal computer with integral video display. By the time the Altair kit computer was announced in 1975 he moved to implement some of these visions as the VDM-1 video display module and the Sol-20 computer, both manufactured by Processor Technology Corp. He came to Adam Osborne's attention through his reputation and some consulting work he did for Osborne Associates, and in 1980 was asked by Adam to design the Osborne-1 portable computer in exchange for a percentage of the company stock. He became VP of Engineering for Osborne Computer and later became "R&D Fellow", where he ran the R&D labs. After the Osborne bankruptcy he ran his own design company, Golemics, Inc. where among other things he designed the first wearable computer. He spent 8 years at Interval Research Corp., and currently designs medical instruments for Pemstar Inc. in San Jose. He lives with his wife Lena Diethelm in Palo Alto, and has recently been honored by the Tech Museum of Innovation for work in designing a wireless telecommunication system for use by remote villages.


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