Steve Wozniak's enterprise play
- 09 February, 2009 10:21
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been involved in a lot of technology startups since leaving Apple in the 1980s, many related to the mobile and consumer electronics industries. His latest venture: An enterprise storage firm based in Salt Lake City.
Fusion-io, maker of the ioDrive solid state drive, announced Thursday that Wozniak has joined the company as chief scientist. Wozniak was already on the company's advisory board.
According to a Fusion-io press release, "Wozniak will act as a key technical advisor to the Fusion-io research and development group. He will also work closely with the executive team of Fusion-io in formulating a company strategy that will accelerate the expansion of major global accounts."
The ioDrive puts solid state storage on a PCI-Express card. The press release claims that it offers "I/O performance that surpasses that of mechanical disks by hundreds of times." The drive is geared for the enterprise market, but the company is working on a consumer version called ioXtreme.
Wozniak has founded or been involved with other technology companies since he left Apple. He started CL9, which created an early universal remote control. He also co-founded Wheels of Zeus, which made consumer-level GPS systems. Neither company is still in business. In 2001 he joined the board of directors of mobile Internet services company Danger, Inc. The company was acquired by Microsoft last year.