nicholaA@batman.moravian.EDU (Andy Nicholas) (02/06/90)
Recently there was a conference on America Online in which Tony Fadell, one
of the principals of ASIC Enterprises was present. ASIC is building
a 20-Mhz 65816. I was heavily skeptical whether this was actual reality
until one of our friends on the net sent me this article:
(Incidently, there is a picture of Tony Fadell in this article holding what
look to be 40 pin PLCC 65816's up close to the camera, so this kid is for
real :-)
Reprinted without permission, University of Michigan _Michigan Alumnus_,
November/December, pages 32-34.
U-M Student Cashes In On (Micro)chips
When U-M junior Anthony Fadell, 20, approached his relatives for venture
capital, he cautioned them to invest only money they were willing to "throw
away." His uncle loaned him $5,000 on that basis. In return, Fadell offered
him 10 percent of gross profits and a promise to graduate. He still has three
semesters to complete, but sometime sooner than that he will likely make his
uncle an even richer man.
Fadell is vice-president and half owner of ASIC Enterprises, Inc..
(Application Specific Integrated Circuits). With his partner, William C.
Hayes, Fadell designed and built a microprocessor chip. The chip already
existed but only had eight megahertz capacity, not fast enough for one computer
engineering company that supplies components for the Apple II gs. This
company, which had built a new add-in board, was looking for someone to make a
chip with a 20 megahertz capacity, said Fadell. "No one wanted to touch the
project," not even the chip's original designer. Fadell figured that if he
and Hayes could build it, "there would be a 'for-sure' market."
Fadell mey Hayes this past summer, while working an internship with a
computer engineering company in California. Fadell, who had designed software
for the Apple II, knew the product thoroughly. Hayes knew a little about the
Apple market, but had successfully designed and built a computer chip. One
chip led to another.
Fadell, a self-described "computer hacker" since age 10, bought his first
computer two years later. He earned the money caddying at a nearby golf-course
and with better-than-matching funds from his grandfather, he purchased an
Apple. At 16, he went to work as the only employee - a shipping clerk - of
a computer mail-order firm; within two years the company's revenues reached
$200,000 per month and Fadell was developing software. He was working 80
hours a week between his job and school. When he left the company for U-M's
engineering program, he only earned $8 an hour and had no financial stake in
the company. He knows he got a bad deal, but there's a positive, too -
experience and exposure. Summers, he traveled to trade shows where he met
Apple representatives and software designers. "People got to know me
personally and professionally." So when Fadell - even though he only had
software experience - wanted an internship with an industrial electronics
firm, he needed only to ask. Dave Hewitson, vice-president of Ronan
Engineering in Woodland Hills, CA, answered with a summer offer. "I didn't
even need to show him a resume'."
Fadell wanted to go to Ronan in order to learn how to build a computer.
He did - and much more. "I learned exponentially," he says. Designing a
single-board computer and software for the DELMARVA (Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia) Nuclear Power Plant, was Fadell's biggest project of the summer, at
least for Ronan. The idea for the microprocessor developed after talking to
Hayes one night after work. In no time they were incorporated.
They spent the first four weeks of their joint venture preparing the
design work on paper. Over the following six weekends, from 5 p.m. Friday
to 8 a.m. Monday, they lived in a computer design center, slept on the floor
(but only for four hours a night), brought their meals (occasionally ran to a
nearby donut shop), and worked feversishly on two supercomputers that they
rented for $30 an hour (Hayes had connections that allowed for this discounted
arrangement, otherwise their access time on the computers would have been
prohibitively expensive). Even so, they worried that their funds would run out
before they had fully tested their design on the computer. The completed the
prototype with $1,000 remaining and even videotaped the project.
Once they had the design prototype, a computer manufacturing representative
took over. He found a chip manufacturer willing to fabricate the chip at a
low cost and guranteed that the chip design would work.
In September, within weeks of starting classes and moving into his
fraternity house, Fadell flew to Dallas to sign a contract with the add-in
board manufacturer. (The contract stipulates that Fadell cannot release the
terms of the contract nor reveal the name of the company until the chip is in
production). In return for a two-year exclusive in the Apple market, the
manufacturer signed a large purchase order and agreed to pay for a two-year
exclusive.
By Jnuary 1990, if all goes well, Fadell and Hayes's chip should be
thoroughly tested and "ramped up" for production. In the meantime, Fadell's
fraternity brothers in the Psi Upsilon house don't turn off the noise until
2 a.m., and he's carrying 14 credit hours, freelancing for Ronan, and working
on a number of "top secret" design projects with Hayes (they have another
business: HTH which stands for Hi-Tech Hobbies. ASIC also plans to design
other chips for different markets and bid for contracts). While his classmates
in EECS 370 (Electrical Engineering Computer Software) - a required course
in which students must design software and computers ("I've been doing that
for years") worry about earning "As", Fadell worries about his
microprocessor. "My name is mud," he says, "if this turns out to be
vaporware."
At turns he's philosophical, hopeful, confident. "What I've invested is
mostly my time, losing $5,000 won't ruin my life." He estimates he's worked
the equivalent of a year in the last 4 months. "That chip is my resume' if it
works." And if it fails, well, he's had a tremendous time negotiating some
pretty big contracts. But on the whole, he says with a big grin, "I'm
confident it's going to work."
--
Yeah!