The late, great TRS-80

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007, Lance Lyon wrote: Possibly. Here we go again. What does "First Off-the-shelf Microcomputer" mean? First to go into design? First announced? First demo'd? First prototyped? First to enter production? First "released"? (what does THAT mean?) First that could be ordered? First delivered? First that could be purchased for cash in a store? Commodore Pet, Radio Shack TRS80, and Apple ][ were pretty much a tie! Any of those could claim "First", depending on which exact definition of "First" you select. The Pet was announced in January 1977 (CES), but wasn't "released" until about November 1977. Before any of those three, there were two computer stores in the East Bay that sold computers. Does the Kim-1 count? (yes, I know that you would have to program it to get it to count) Howzbout S100 crates? For a machine programmable in a high level language, I would have been looking at a little over $2000. MY personal definition would be the first one that I could buy for less than $500. That is a completely arbitrary definition. It turned out to be the TRS80 without the cassette recorder, and without the monitor (why should I pay Tandy $200 more, when I already HAVE composite (CCTV) monitors and tape recorders?) The FIRST microcoputer was the Antikytherian (sp?) device. Stonehenge was a mainframe, NOT a microcomputer. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com