Dramatic oversized color semi-glossy 26″ x 20″ photograph of a pair of hands typing on the keyboard of an Apple III, signed on the backing in black felt tip, "Jerrold C. Manock." Framed and in fine condition.
Manock recalls: "Dean Hovey, of Hovey-Kelly Design in Palo Alto, CA, and I did the product design on the Apple III Computer. It was an interesting project because it was a dual-processor machine AND the FCC had not yet finalized RFI and EMI emissions standards. Thus the Apple III chassis had to be absolutely 'bullet-proof' emissions-wise. We chose an aluminum die casting from Doehler-Jarvis (Ed Stassner, Manager) in Toledo, OH, that was closed on the bottom with a steel sheetmetal cover with bendable fingers for metal-to-metal contact. And there were very visible heat-dissipating fins on the rear of the chassis. Because of longer MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) statistics, the initial design had the power supply buried under the full-width motherboard. Steve Jobs vetoed this idea stating that 'every Apple Power Supply will be separately removable.' This meant that the motherboard lost 1/3 of its available real estate, i.e. the PCB traces had to be closer together. The resulting PCB was hand laid-out with tape (by Collette Askland)... the last Apple PCB motherboard done via this method.
The Apple III pilot run showed some non-repeatable operational failures which were initially attributed to excessive heat build-up of components on the motherboard. I did many tests measuring component temperatures and added numerous copper springs that conducted heat from chips directly to the outside casting. This reduced component temperatures, and the product was released, debuting at an electronics convention and show at the Anaheim California Convention Center next to Disneyland. Very soon after production release reports came in that the operational failures were continuing... the blame falling on me for insufficient heat management in our design. Rumors spread, and sales were affected. Finally, John Zori, the Apple Lab Manager, looked at the motherboard under a microscope and saw that due to imperceptible-to-the-eye wavering of the trace lines, tiny threads of solder were connecting some traces. These threads acted like fuses, melting and disappearing when a failure occurred. Thus the mystery was solved! I think the PCB was re-laid-out with photographic accuracy. But the reputation for Apple III unreliability would not go away and the product was sold to Sun until the existing stock of parts was exhausted. The take-away... Dean and I should have defended more strongly our decision to bury the power supply. If so, the wider separation of the traces would probably have eliminated the formation of failure-causing solder jumpers, and the Apple III would have been another Apple success. Finally, if John Zori had not discovered the tiny solder jumpers, I would have probably been fired and would not have been selected for working next with Jef Raskin on the then-new Macintosh project.
This is a long story about the Apple III photograph which I selected to have printed and framed for myself because I was very proud of the design which I thought showed clear roots to the Apple II as well as a dynamic, innovative form dictated by unclear emission requirements." From the collection of product design engineer Jerrold C. Manock, and accompanied by a letter of provenance signed by Manock.
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