Morrow Designs
George Morrow | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 30, 1934 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | May 7, 2003 (aged 69) |
| Occupation(s) | Computer pioneer, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Advocacy of the S-100 bus standard, founder of Thinker Toys, Inc. / Morrow Designs, member of Homebrew Computer Club |
George Morrow (January 30, 1934 – May 7, 2003) played a significant role in the formative years of the microcomputer sector in the United States. He was instrumental in advocating for and advancing the S-100 bus standard that many early microcomputers utilized. Recognized as "one of the microcomputer industry's iconoclasts," Morrow established Thinker Toys, Inc. (which later became Morrow Designs) and was actively involved with the Homebrew Computer Club.
Early life and education
Morrow was born in Detroit in 1934. Though he initially left high school prematurely, he returned to formal education at age 28, earning a bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University followed by a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma. While working toward a PhD at UC Berkeley, his interests shifted toward computing and programming. Around this period, coinciding with the launch of the Altair 8800 in 1975, he began participating in meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club.
Career
Beginning in 1976, Morrow embarked on designing and marketing computers and related hardware under several company names—starting with Thinker Toys (which was renamed due to trademark conflicts) and later operating as Morrow Designs. His initial offering was an Intel 8080 board equipped with an octal keypad; however, it failed to attract hobbyists who preferred binary input methods. Subsequently, he developed a 16-bit system based on the National Semiconductor PACE, collaborating with Bill Godbout, Chuck Grant, and Mark Greenberg. Disputes led Grant and Greenberg to establish North Star Computers. Additionally, Morrow marketed 4 KB S-100 memory boards before forming a partnership with Howard Fullmer in 1977.
The Equinox 100, distributed through Fullmer’s Parasitic Engineering, was a robust 8080-based system but faced stiff competition from emerging Z80-based machines. Morrow then concentrated on selling floppy disk drives tailored for S-100 systems, offering a package that included an external 8" drive, controller board, CP/M, and CBASIC—an attractive bundle at the time.
In 1982, Morrow launched the Micro Decision series: cost-effective single-board Z80 computers priced below $2000 that supported terminal connectivity. These were aimed at business users and competed with CP/M platforms such as IBM’s Displaywriter. The systems incorporated an NEC u765-based floppy controller akin to those found in IBM PCs, RS-232 ports for peripheral devices, and underwent several hardware updates enhancing power supplies and expansion capabilities. The series culminated with the MD-11 model featuring 128k of memory, CP/M 3.0 operating system, and optional 10MB hard disk drives.
Although these machines offered solid hardware paired with bundled software suites, CP/M-based platforms quickly lost market share to the rising dominance of MS-DOS/PC DOS, propelled by aggressive marketing from Microsoft and IBM.
In 1984, Morrow introduced its inaugural IBM-compatible portable computer—the lunchbox-style Morrow Pivot, distinguished by its unconventional design. This same model was licensed to Zenith Data Systems as the Z-171. Zenith’s stronger brand recognition and government contract acquisitions—facilitated after a former Morrow executive joined their team—enabled it to outperform Morrow’s own sales. Financial challenges forced Morrow Designs to declare bankruptcy before the end of that year.
Following his departure from the computer industry, Morrow dedicated himself to collecting and digitally restoring original 78 RPM jazz and dance recordings from the 1920s and 1930s under his Old Masters label. He died in May 2003 due to aplastic anemia.
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