25 Jan
2005
25 Jan
'05
9:19 a.m.
The Tektronix 4051 was more advanced than any other
microcomputer on the
market circa 1976 by a longshot. It had excellent graphics generating
capability, built-in screen, a fast, high capacity tape drive, and a very
advanced built-in BASIC interpreter. Compare this against what was
contemporary for the time: The Altair/IMSAI, Apple-1, etc.
Not to belittle Tektronix, but HP were making some good stuff at that
time too. I am not sure if you'd call the 9830 (1973 vintage) a
microcomputer -- IMHO it wasn't, since the CPU is not a single chip --
but it was a desktop machine that ran a very nice BASIC. Although it
didn't have graphics as stnadrd (the display was a 1-line alphanumeric
thing), you could add an external 'graphics translator' via an HPIB
interface.
About the stame time as the Tke 4051 was the HP9825. That was certainly a
micro. Again, graphics was external, using the same units as for the 9830...
Of course both HP and Tektronix were not trying to sell to hobbyists, and
their machines were far to expensive for most homes...
-tony