One of the big technological leaps that made the personal computer possible was the disc drive.  Al Shugart, founder of Seagate, a key innovator in disc drives, passed away on Dec. 13 due to complications from heart surgery, according to Business Week.

Shugart’s influence went far beyond Seagate, however. His freewheeling, engineers-come-first philosophy helped propel the drive industry to a truly remarkable pace for innovation. Indeed, while even nontechies are conversant with “Moore’s Law,”—the idea that computer chips get more powerful at regular intervals—the storage capacity of a single drive has been increasing far faster than the processing power of microprocessors for many years.

Read the full article, including tales of his legendary antics here. 

Thanks to David Fumento for the pointer to the story.