Re: First Personal Computers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Markoff <markoff () nyt com>
Date: September 10, 2009 9:56:05 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] First Personal Computers

Well I realize that this is an infinite regress, but if we are going  
to discuss candidates for the first PC I'm surprised that no one has  
recalled the LINC designed by Wesley Clark and Charles Molnar. This  
appeared in the New York Times awhile ago:

In the pantheon of personal computing, the LINC, in a sense, came first 
—more than a decade before Ed Roberts made PC's affordable for  
ordinary people. Work started on the Linc, the brainchild of the  
M.I.T. physicist Wesley A. Clark, in May 1961, and the machine was  
used for the first time at the National Institute of Mental Health in  
Bethesda, MD, the next year to analyze a cat's neural responses.
Each Linc had a tiny screen and keyboard and comprised four metal  
modules, which together were about as big as two television sets, set  
side by side and tilted back slightly. The machine, a 12-bit computer,  
included a one-half megahertz processor. Lincs sold for about $43,000— 
a bargain at the time—and were ultimately made commercially by Digital  
Equipment, the first minicomputer company. Fifty Lincs of the original  
design were built.

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:07 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Amy Wohl" <amy () wohl com>
Date: September 10, 2009 1:49:55 PM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: First Personal Computers

There are those who argue (lots of documentation here) that the Xerox  
STAR was the first PC, in terms of design.  I would disagree in that  
although it was designed for a single user it was not commercially  
available until 1980-81 (I was at the original announcement and was an  
early user). There were beta versions much earlier, but I’m not sure  
that counts.  Clearly, the only major PC design that came after that  
was IBM’s PC in 1981.

And then, of course, the deluge, as every electronics manufacturer  
entered the market, originally with “better” and incompatible  
designs.  It took several years before it became clear you could only  
be “better” if you first were compatible to the IBM PC HW and OS  
design – until IBM decided to go its own way and the market failed to  
follow.

I would agree that the Datapoint 2200 is the first COMMERCIAL  PC I  
ever saw.  Everything before that was either experimental (and not  
available commercially) or designed for the hobbyist market and not a  
complete package.

Amy Wohl

Amy D. Wohl
Editor, Amy Wohl's Opinions
40 Old Lancaster Road, #608
Merion, Station, PA 19066
610-667-4842
amy () wohl com
www.wohl.com



Archives        



--
--------------------------

reply to me at markoff () nyt com




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com