The "FIRST PC" and personal timelines (Was: And what were

From: Huw Davies <H.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au>
Date: Tue Apr 27 06:34:05 1999

At 13:18 22/04/99 -0400, allisonp_at_world.std.com wrote:

>As one that is old enough and personally active doing that then
>makes Donald's minuteman-1 missle computer (surplus) my first contact with
>a personal computer (micro be dammed for the moment). That was right
>before the intel part hit the news. Video console, hell we were happy to
>see a flipflop do exactly that!

Well I've always argued that this argument is meaningless as no one can
agree on a definition. So when asked "what was the first PC" my usual reply
is EDSAC (or one of the other systems of similar age). One user at a time,
limited everything, somewhat expensive, but still a personal computer as
you could make it do exactly what you wanted (well, occasionally anyway :-).

Please note, I'm no where near old enough to ever have used EDSAC - the
first computer I saw was in either 1964 or 1965 when I was 9 or 10.
Unfortunately, I've never been able to establish exactly what computer this
was - the only details I can provide is that it was the only computer at
Keele University (UK). Any help on identifying this system appreciated!

 Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies_at_latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
 Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Received on Tue Apr 27 1999 - 06:34:05 BST