11 Jan
1999
11 Jan
'99
11:52 a.m.
On Mon, 11 Jan 1999, cswiger wrote:
Berkeley Ent. didn't really market it as a
personal *home*
computer, looks like the target audience they hope to sell into
is advertising gimmicks, 'show stoppers'.
That's somewhat of a logical leap. This particular report was aimed at
marketing types, but the machines were featured in SciAm, Radio
Electronics, etc., and their machines (such as the Geniac) were advertised
in those same mags.
Also, it might help to know Berkeley's background. Among other things, he
worked on the Mark II, was a primary mover in getting the Univac built,
and he founded the ACM. He was on a mission to get computers out of the
hands of scientists and engineers and into the hands of businesses and
normal people. Unlike Ed Roberts, who just kind of stumbled into the biz.
Again, without any further defining guidelines, other
than the
default Intel ('PC') lineage, and a tip of the hat to the
unsuccessful Mark-8, I posit that the 'first PC's' are the abacus,
knots on string, pushing stones around on tables, Napiers bones,
slide rules - or does it have to include an 'active' element
(relay, tube, transistor, IC)? I'm lost as far as what your
qualifying criteria is. Of course, one can always custom tailor
their list of criteria so that the machine you've already chosen
as 'first' comes out as such, post facto, hehe.
In anticipation of such strawman arguments, I focused on Simon because it
shares almost all of the same traits as the Altair:
* digital
* electronic (or electromechanical, in the case of Simon)
* small
* affordable to build
* well publicized
Hell, Simon even came with a paper tape reader.
-- Doug