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Michael Slater collection on microprocessors
X4062.2007
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Title: Michael Slater collection on microprocessors
Identifier/Call Number: X4062.2007
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
10.42 Linear feet,
8 record cartons and 1 manuscript box
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1987-1999
Date (inclusive): 1977-2000
Abstract: The Michael Slater collection on microprocessors contains conference proceedings and other publications focusing on microprocessor
technologies and industry trends. The collection spans 1977 to 2000, with most of the material dating from 1987 to 1999 when
Slater founded and led the company MicroDesign Resources (MDR). The collection contains conference material, analyst reports,
manuals, and specifications documenting microprocessors and microcomputers in the 1980s and 1990s. An expert in microprocessor
equipment, Slater founded the well-known newsletter Microprocessor Report used by engineers and industry professionals. In
1999, Slater left MDR and it was acquired by Cahners, becoming part of the analyst group In-Stat.
creator:
Slater, Michael, 1955-
The collection is open for research.
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying
any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the
Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer
History Museum as owner of the material.
[Identification of Item], [Date], Michael Slater collection on microprocessors, Lot X4062.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog
[#], Computer History Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Michael Slater, 2007.
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.
Scope and Content of the Collection
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.
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Series 1, Conference and symposium material, 1978-1998, bulk 1988-1998
Series 2, Reports, books, and newsletters, 1979-2000
Series 3, Manuals and product descriptions, 1977-1996
Physical objects and ephemera were separated from the main collection. These objects are made up of binders and folders for
MDR’s annual Microprocessor Forum with chips embedded in their covers. To view catalog records for the separated material
search the CHM catalog at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/ .
Slater, Michael oral history, 2016-05-16, Lot X7807.2016, Catalog 102738141.
Related Collections at Other Repositories
Stanford University, Computer Science Department, HCI Group, CS547 seminar video recordings, Call Number SC1217.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Computer Industry
Microcomputers
MicroDesign Resources
Microprocessors