11 Jan
1998
11 Jan
'98
4:32 a.m.
If you mean PC (as in the IBM PC) then the answer is
IBM. However if you
man pc as in personally owned computer, then you go back by maybe 10-20
years to things like old surplus missle computers, homebrewed systems and
PDP-8s and the like. Prior to the IBM abortion pc meant personally owned
and was not based on what it was but who owned it. Personally owned
computers was a new thing starting in the late 60s to early 70s. Around
72-73 it was possible to buy a used PDP-8 or CM2000 for a few thousand
dollars. I know in December of 72 I almost bought a Cincinati Millicron
CM2000 for the offered price of $2000(big bucks then) with 8k of core,
serial line card and 6port muxed serial card.
The PDP-8/s (a weird, low-cost, serial version of the PDP-8) was the first
machine that really could be owned by anyone with the cash ($10,000,
according to the announcement ad in Scientific American). DEC had one at
each sales office for cash and carry sales. I would not be suprised if at
least a few engineers that made it big in 1960s military contracting
purchased some on a whim.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net