On 25 Apr 99 at 11:25, Allison J Parent wrote:
> <I think what they don't realise is that computers at this point had
> <names, not numbers. 20 is probably quite close. I know there's a site
> <that catalogues them. I think at this point, the firts generation IBM 600'
> <hadn't been been built yet, although they have been in planning.
>
> I'd have to hunt on that too.
>
> I believe that the 1952(ish) was the year of the first production computer
> (univac, vacuum tubes). It was '58ish maybe later for the first production
> transistor machines. I'd extend that with some error the 60s would be
> the advent of the first volume production machines. (IE: hundreds of a
> kind).
>
> The watershed event was the forcasting of an election with a computer on
> TV. That would bring the idea of a computer from the labratory to something
> people could relate to.
>
> Radios went through the same curve though the peried of time was longer.
>
> Allison
>
That sent me to possibly my most treasured mag.,the 50th anniversary Special
issue of "Electronics" of April,80. It's 650 pages are devoted to the history
of electronic development as chronicled during 50 years of publication. It has
a pic of the John Atanasoff proto digital tube computer from 1941 which was
instrumental in influencing John Mauchly of Mauchly and Eckert who later held
the patent on the electronic computer concept and designed and built the Eniac
which debuted Feb 46 .
I don't think most of the younger generation realizes the immensity of
ever-accellerating technological change during the 1900s, and, spurred by the
2nd WW, since the 30s. The mag has a picture of the FIRST IC which
was developed by TI in >> 1958 <<.
Our modern computers are inconceivable without ICs not to mention the
much later LSI. The first commercially available IC, a flip-flop from
Fairchild wasn't available till 61, the same year TCTL was presented by Pacific
Semiconductors ! ROM didn't appear until 1967 from Fairchild.
While there were considerable computer companies that produced computers
in the late 50s, they were really only available to large corporations,
governments and military, or large educational institutes. DECs PDP-1 which
was considered a price breakthru in 59 cost ONLY $120,000.
In the mid-sixties "Electronics" reported that " the US computer industry had
had installed 100 large computer systems that year, bringing the total to 600;
200 medium-scale machines for a total of 800; and 400 small-scale units for a
total of 3,000" Compared to the present, 4400 is not a lot of computers.
Considering that DECs PDP-8 credited as being the first mini(1965) was also
the first production computer to sell for under $20,000, suppositions of 50s
and 60s "hobby" computers seems somewhat ludicrous. Any such device would
be limited to extremely minimal functions.
In an April 61 issue Doug C Engelbart whose vision wasn't limited to pointing
devices wrote "Researchers postulate a possible future in which computational
power will be available in a wall socket, like electrical power, or where every
man who wants one can buy a small computer." A decade later this began to be
realized thru the devellopment of what I would call the first microprocessor
the 4004 in 1971.
The "1st personal computer" would have to be defined by processes, otherwise
an Abacus would qualify. "Electronic PC" would point to John Atanasoffs
analogue machine. Commercial availability would also have to be a criteria. I
think we are talking about micros. The starting point would have to be the 70s.
ciao larry
lwalker_at_interlog.com
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Received on Sun Apr 25 1999 - 17:28:43 BST