Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/02/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks for an interesting lesson. I do remember the 1984 commercial; it was also the year of another vintage commercial, Where is the beef?! You have a typo in your text, the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, not 1985 (as you also imply in the previous paragraph). I remember buying my first PC, a clone of the PC, in 1984 or 1985, a huge investment for a graduate student. The following year, I upgraded the computer by replacing one of the floppy drives with a 10 MB hard disk, another big investment. Cheers, Nathan Nathan Wajsman Alicante, Spain http://www.frozenlight.eu http://www.greatpix.eu PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ YNWA On Feb 14, 2013, at 11:30 PM, Herbert Kanner wrote: > People often ask: "What was the first personal computer?" That is a > futile query; it depends too much on the definition of personal computer, > a definition that can be quite flexible. So what I'm going to cover here > are the personal computers that had a significant effect on the future. > > First is the Altair, circa 1975. It was advertised as a $400 kit in > Popular Electronics magazine and the company in Albuquerque, MITS, was > swamped with orders. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002888.jpg.html > > Two young squirts, Bill Gates and Paul Allen phoned MITS and said they had > a Basic (programming language) interpreter for the Intel 8080 chick what > was its "brain". They actually had not even started programming the > interpreter, but fortunately for their enterprise, MITS told them that it > would be about a month before they actually had an assembled and working > kit. > When Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque and demonstrated the interpreter, > typing "Print 2+2" and getting back "4" the MITS people were astounded; it > was the first time they had actually seen their computer do anything. > > Here is a picture of the Altair. Until the the programs enabling it > enabling it to read paper tape and use a keyboard are loaded, it had to be > programming one bit at a time using the toggle switches on the front, and > until it had the program for driving a printer, results had to be read one > bit at a time from those lights on the front. It was clearly originally > intended as a toy for a hobbyist. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002887.jpg.html > > The effect on the future was: Bill Gates and Paul Allen licensed MITS to > use their interpreter and created a company named Micro-Soft, later to be > renamed Microsoft. > > Next is the Apple 1, circa 1976. Steve Wozniak built one for his personal > use, showed it off at the Homebrew Computer Club, and his buddy, Steve > Jobs, decided they could make some money from it. He beat the bushes and > found a store called The Byte Shop in Mountain View, CA that was willing > to take fifty of them at $500 each and mark them up 1/3, to an unrounded > price of $666.66. The Steves were under the illusion that all they had to > supply was a printed circuit board and a bag of parts. The Byte Shop > disillusioned them and a frantic assembly and testing operation ensued. > The printed card in front of the artifact is therefore erroneous, and I'm > waiting for the Museum to update it. The company, Apple Computer, was > created at that time. The user still had to furnish a keyboard and a > television set as the monitor. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002890.jpg.html > > The Apple 2 appeared one year later. You can already see the fine hand of > Steve Jobs sculpting the external appearance of the device. In the first > version, cassette tape was the medium for loading programs, but later > versions provided an operating system for floppy disks. Two years later, > 1979, Dan Bricklin and Bob Franskton market the first spread sheet, > Visicalc. It was so appealing that Apple salesmen could walk into a > business establishment with an Apple 2 under their arm, demonstrate > Visicalc, and the proprietor would be sufficiently impressed to buy the > computer. My personal opinion is that this success may have been what > persuaded IBM to produce the IBM PC in 1981; they realized that such > devices were than a toy and that there could be serious market for them. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002895.jpg.html > > > In 1985, IBM introduced the first model of the PC. To a certain extent, > their heart was not entirely in it. All IBM equipment, prior and since, > was completely manufactured by IBM: hardware, software, the lot. But the > PC was an exception. The computer chips came from Intel. The operating > system came from Microsoft, which bought it from Seattle Software. Except > for the physical box, the only IBM contribution was the software for > communication with a floppy disk, known as "BIOS" for Basic Input Output > System. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002897.jpg.html > > Who can forget the amazing Super Bowl commercial that introduced the > Macintosh in 1984. Here is a picture of the original Macintosh model. It's > screen was monochrome and didn't even have gray scale; it could just draw > fine lines with remarkable resolution. > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002900_001.jpg.html > > > Herbert Kanner > kanner at acm.org > 650-326-8204 > > Question authority and the authorities will question you. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >