The initial staff consisted of Bob Schreiner (the CEO), Dan Floyd, Jack Balletto, and Gunnar Wetlesen[1] and Zvi Grinfas.

The company became a major vendor during the late 1970s and early 1980s on the strength of their licensed production of the MOS 6502, one of the most successful microprocessors of the era.

Synertek's original production factories had been cobbled together with used equipment, and quickly ran out of capacity for ever-growing orders.

He had noticed while working at General Electric's computer division that the software was always late and overbudget and felt the same problem would kill their small company.

That would provide MOS with a second source agreement, something the market demanded at that time, while also giving them access to Synertek's existing line of designs that could be used as support chips for the 6502.

[6] Shortly after signing the deal with MOS, Schreiner's secretary told him two people were waiting in the office to talk to him.

Jobs explained that they were putting together a company to sell computer kits, and asked for a $30,000 line of credit so they could buy Synertek's 6502s.

In spite of them being dressed in jeans and sandals with "these Indian bead things around their heads",[7] Schreiner thought the idea was a good one based on his own experience building Heathkit systems.

In 1978, Synertek Systems released a 6502-based single board computer/evaluation kit called the SYM-1, a derivative of MOS Technology/Commodore Semiconductor Group's KIM-1.

[16] Floyd, Balletto, and Wetlesen left the company shortly after Honeywell's acquisition and went on to co-found chip maker VLSI Technology.

The fab in Santa Cruz never became operational because the people who would be able to start it up refused to move out of the valley as they believed the company would disappear and they would be stranded.

[14] The fab was eventually purchased by Western Digital, a Los Angeles area company who had no ties to the valley.

The only design added through this era was the low-end Zilog Z8 microcontroller, which Honeywell needed for a new line of programmable thermostats, replacing the original clockwork Chronotherm of the 1940s.

The site, at 3050 Coronado Drive, was later found to be contaminated with organic solvents (including trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride) and required Superfund cleanup to ameliorate hazardous releases into the aquifer.

When market conditions deteriorated, primarily because of business downturns at Atari, work was stopped at the Santa Cruz facility and it was sold.