George Morrow

Who was George Morrow?

George Morrow was part of the early microcomputer industry in the United States. Morrow promoted and improved the S-100 bus used in many early microcomputers. Morrow was also a member of the Homebrew Computer Club.

Born in Detroit in 1934, Morrow was a high school dropout. At the age of 28, he decided to return to school, receiving a bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University, followed by a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma. He sought a PhD in mathematics from UC Berkeley, but while there became fascinated by computers and began working as a programmer in the computer lab there. Meanwhile, the Altair 8800 made its debut in 1975, and Morrow began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club.

Starting in 1976, he designed and sold computers, computer parts, and accessories under several company names, including Thinker Toys and Morrow Designs. His initial product was an 8080 board with an octal-notation keypad, but it proved unappealing to hobbyists who preferred the binary notation and flip switches of the Altair 8800. Afterwards, he attempted a 16-bit machine based on the National Semiconductor PACE CPU with the help of Bill Godbout, Chuck Grant, and Mark Greenberg. Differences between him and the latter two led to their leaving to found North Star Computers. He then sold 4k S-100 memory boards before attempting a new computer with Howard Fulmer in 1977. The Equinox 100 was a powerful machine in an attractive cabinet, but failed to attract much attention as it used an 8080 at a time when the Z80 was rapidly taking over. Morrow turned to selling floppy drives for S-100 machines. The package included an 8" external drive, controller board, CP/M, and CBASIC. In 1982, he issued the Morrow Micro Decision line, a group of single-board Z80 machines designed to answer the high price of computer hardware. Selling between $1200 and $1600, which placed it squarely in competition with the Kaypro II line, they were respectable business machines with an extensive software bundle, and came in a desktop case unlike the luggable Kaypros, but offered nothing new from a technical standpoint. It and its CP/M platform were soon displaced by the much more capable IBM PC compatibles. In 1986, Morrow released its first IBM-compatible computer, a lunchbox portable known as the Pivot II. Produced by an outside OEM manufacturer, the same model was also sold by Zenith Data Systems as the Z-171. In addition to its lower cost and more prominent brand name, Zenith won an extremely profitable contract to sell computers to the US government. Morrow filed for bankruptcy by the end of the year.