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Thread ID: 29362 2003-01-17 23:07:00 Q - What was the first personal computer? Babe Ruth (416) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
114791 2003-01-18 04:42:00 > For those too young to have heard of the Commodore 64
> (and its predecessor the VIC-20 which I had clean
> forgotten) take a look at

LOL, that takes me back Billy......... to the days when both Brian Snell and Eclipse Radio in Dunedin stocked those computers. I was heavily into stereo systems in those days, and used laugh at the nutters who huddled round those computers talking some strange gobbledegook language
Baldy (26)
114792 2003-01-18 08:59:00 > OK we're almost there:
>
> From the Web site I was sent...
> "...The question is obviously highly ambiguous.
> What does first mean? How about personal? Even
> computer is an ambiguous term! ... Let's define
> personal computer as a computer having the following
> attributes:
> * It must be a digital computer.[/i]
> * It must be largely automatic.
> * It must be programmable by the end-user.
> * It must be accessible, either as a commercially
> manufactured product,
> as a commercially available kit, or as widely
> y published kit plans.
> * It must be small enough to be transportable by an
> average person.
> * It must be inexpensive enough to be affordable by
> the average professional.
> * It must be simple enough to use that it requires no
> special training beyond
> an instruction manual.
> Cheers, Babe.
>
> P.S. The answer(s) shortly...

ummm so going by those requirements you need the software and the hardware.
-=JM=- (16)
114793 2003-01-19 01:45:00 I think I've still got all the issues of EA with that series. :D

If you want to see some of these, or test your knowledge of the old machines (www.pbs.org). There's another one about the Internet (www.pbs.org).
Graham L (2)
114794 2003-01-20 06:11:00 Out of interest, the first Portable Personal Computer (legtop) was by IBM. it was the size of a large sewing machine case and had an attached keyboard, Plasma-Monochrome (Orangey) CRT screen and 2x 5 1/4" Floppy drives andsomething like a 10MB MFM HDD. Amazingly enough the computer when I got it also had a locally made EMS RAM ISA Card (up to 1MB RAM).

Apart from weighing a ton and being completely self-contained, it was the start to a wave in portability. In my now regrets I converted it to a 386 with IDE HDD by butchering an ISA slot down to 8-bit instead of 16-bit with a hacksaw & pliers. It did work fr a while. If it was kept it would be a real museum piece now.
kiwistag (2875)
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