Look Who it Was Random video

Oral History of Stephen "Steve" Bisset

1,241 views · Published 3 March 2015 · 1:15:17 · Indexed 30 October 2026

Channel: Computer History Museum · 2015 · Science & Technology

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Interviewed by Paul Sakamoto, on July 30, 2014, in Mountain View, California, X7240.2015

© Computer History Museum

Steve Bisset was born in Australia, the son of a civil servant. While still in Australia, he set up a surfboard exporting business, and in 1969 he came to the US and spent the summer setting up distributorships for these surfboards. He was admitted to Caltech based on his willingness to play football! Once there, he was inspired by Professor Carver Mead and learned of the place known as “Silicon Valley.” After graduating, Bisset went to work at Hewlett Packard for a short time before finding a real home at Intel doing microprocessor design. He showed a real knack for product definition and helped define a number of 8080 peripheral chips. 

Bisset developed the entrepreneurial bug and spent his spare time thinking up ideas for new companies. He settled on building a new type of tester to test the microprocessors Intel and others would be pumping out in high volume. He founded Megatest in 1977. Their product focus was a cost-effective tester for high volume microprocessors . . . and later EPROMs. Memory testing eventually became their major focus.  By 1980, they were a $10 million company. The company grew rapidly through 1985, but hit hard times in the late 1980s. It took several painful years to get it back on a solid footing. In 1995 Megatest was purchased by Teradyne for $245 million. 

Bisset was very proud that he was able to turn the company around after such a long difficult period and that the company foreshadowed several of the new management approaches that later became common in Silicon Valley.

* Note:  Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102739943

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

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