Silicon Cowboys is a 2016 American documentary film that follows the meteoric rise of Compaq, a personal computer company founded by three Texans in 1982 in the Greater Houston area. The three founders are featured—Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto—along with the New York venture capitalist Benjamin M. Rosen who served as chairman. Archival footage and recent interviews combine to tell the story of how Compaq started producing the first portable ("luggable") IBM-compatible computer. The narrative shows how the company faced challenges in the marketplace, growing quickly, and eventually beating industry giant IBM in the PC category: a David-and-Goliath story.[2][3]
The filmmakers include snippets of the two contemporary TV series—Silicon Valley by HBO and Halt and Catch Fire by AMC—about the PC revolution in California's Silicon Valley and its counterpart technology center in Houston, Texas. Halt and Catch Fire creator Christopher Cantwell