Computer tech pioneer Max Palevsky dies

SAN JOSE, USA: Max Palevsky, a computer technology pioneer and venture capitalist, died of heart failure at his Beverly Hills home on Wednesday. He was 85.

The early high-tech pioneer transformed mainframe computer builder Scientific Data Systems into an industry powerhouse that he sold to Xerox for $1 billion in 1969, said an AFP report.

The billionaire financier and philanthropist then became a founder and director of the chipmaker Intel. Palevsky was born in Chicago in Born July 24, 1924.

According to Wikipedia, Palevsky graduated from public high school in Chicago, while he earned a B.S. in mathematics and a B.Ph. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1948. Hi did post-graduate work in philosophy at UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago.

Palevsky discovered computer technology through a lecture at Caltech by John von Neumann about the advent of computer technology, and the possibility of building a device to correct its own errors.

With his background in logic and electronics, Palevsky first worked on a computer project in 1951 for $100 a week designing computers at Northrop Aircraft, designing the MADDIDA (magnetic drum differential analyzer).

Invented by physicist Floyd G. Steele, MADDIDA, built between March 1950 and January 1951, was priced from $25,000 to $30,000. Intended to help analyze differential equations, MADDIDA would prove to be the last and most sophisticated dedicated differential analyzer ever built, from then on all attention turned to electronic computers.

Almost immediately after he joined Northrop, the division was sold to Bendix Corporation. Palevsky worked at Bendix from 1952 to 1956 designing digital differential analyzers as a project engineer, working on the logic design for the company's first computer.

In March 1957 Palevsky went on to work at Packard Bell at a new affiliate of the company which he started called Packard Bell Computer Corp. in a store front at 11766 W Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

Then, Palevsky helped the company develop the first silicon computer, which became the Packard Bell PB250, which was modestly successful.

In 1990, Palevsky gave 32 pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and, three years later, he added 42 more pieces to his gift. In 2000, he donated $2 million to the museum for Arts and Crafts works.

The youngest of his parents three children, Palevsky grew up at 1925 1/2 Hancock Street in Chicago. His older brother Harry was a physicist, while his sister Helen married Melvin M. Futterman. Palevsky was married and divorced five times and had six children.