Bechtolsheim was born at Hängeberg am Ammersee, Bavaria, the second of four children. The isolated house had no television or close neighbors, so he experimented with electronics as a child. His family moved to Rome in 1963. Five years later, in 1968, the family relocated again, to Nonnenhorn on Lake Constance in Germany. Aged 16, he designed an industrial controller for a nearby company based on the Intel 8080 which he then programmed in binary as he had no access to assemblers. Royalties from the product supported much of his education.

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