The Michael Slater collection on microprocessors contains conference material, analyst reports, manuals, and specifications collected by Michael Slater, primarily during his time as principal analyst at MDR from 1987 to 1999. The collection as a whole spans 1977 to 2000. Topics that are prominent in this collection include microprocessors, microcomputer industry trends, RISC architecture, and transputers. A little over a third of the collection is made up of proceedings from conferences and other events -- especially the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) and COMDEX (Computer Dealers' Exhibition). Many of the events in this part of the collection were organized either by Microsoft or Intel. This collection also contains Slater’s collected newsletters, analyst reports, books, and technical papers. Analyst reports cover computer industry trends and forecasts for various technologies and the newsletter with the largest holdings in this collection is MDR’s Technology Roadmap. The last part of this collection comprises manuals, specifications, and product descriptions for microprocessor-related products, with equipment from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel being especially well-documented.
Biographical/Historical Note
Michael Slater was born in 1955 in Los Angeles. He attended UC Berkeley, earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1977. While at UC Berkeley, Slater developed an interest in microprocessors, and after graduating, he went to work at Hewlett-Packard, where he developed circuit designs for microprocessor-based systems and wrote training manuals. In 1980, Slater left HP to teach at various institutions, including University of Santa Clara, and started working on freelance electronic design projects under his company Gryphon Engineering. In 1987, Slater wrote Microprocessor-Based Design: A Comprehensive Guide to Effective Hardware Design, and founded his next company, MicroDesign Resources (MDR). That same year, Slater began editing and publishing the Microprocessor Report newsletter, which provided current microprocessor information and analysis, and in 1988 he founded the MDR conferences Microprocessor Forum and Embedded Processor Forum. MDR was acquired by Ziff-Davis in 1992 and Slater left the company in 1999, the same year it was acquired by Cahners. In 2010, the Linley Group purchased Microprocessor Report, which it still publishes as of March 2017. After leaving MDR, Slater continued his freelance work, now under the business name Topaz Web Solutions, and he founded Fotiva in 2000. After Fotiva was bought by Adobe, Slater worked as Adobe’s director of digital imaging research until 2006. In 2007, Slater founded Webvanta, a website development company, and ran it until his death on June 19, 2016.
These folders include analyst reports on RISC architecture and its impact on the computer industry, RISC trends and markets, RISC vs. CISC, and IBM's RS/6000 workstation strategy.
Includes material related to personal systems, 3 and 5 volt microprocessors, and the 6x86 microprocessor. Also includes a guide to protecting IBM information assets.
Includes material related to Pentium, microprocessors; flash memory; 16-bit embedded controllers; OEM boards, systems, and software; i750, i860, i960 processors and related products; peripheral components; networking; 80376 family; packaging; and connectivity.
