11 Mar
2019
11 Mar
'19
3:42 a.m.
On Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 4:50 AM Brent Hilpert via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Not sure why this suddenly became a thing to
debate, but I will add that
the multifunction function 1960s calculators were called "desktop
computers" by publishers then
https://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread_record.cfm?id=536
Also, I did an talk at HOPE on the subject of the how the early handheld
calculator class fit into the development of micro computers a few years
later. The talk was my take on the subject anyway.
Bottom line, one should avoid putting the modern 2019 definition a
microcomputer/personal computer into what people were talking about in the
mid 60s into the 70s "small/personal/microcomputer".
Also, the significance of the single chip vs multi chip or single board
CPU...is independent of the intended use or capacity/capabilities of the
computer they went into. Over time the significance of a "single chip" CPU
will fade. Modern computers no longer rely on this approach anyway, it was
only a blip in time that "single chip cou" mattered as much.
My opinion of course
Bill
Bill
On 2019-Mar-10, at 5:16 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk
wrote:
It's not an out-to-lunch suggestion.
The digital pocket calculator was the first mass-market digital electronic
device to be put in the hands of the consumer.
Yes, all of us here know there were digital computers and other digital
electronic devices around many years before,
but the digital pocket calculator has a significant place at the
beginnings of the transition to the ubiquity of such technology in everyday
life,
as opposed to being behind-the-scenes in business, labs, and industry.
One can argue the transition would have happened without the
pocket-calculator market -
just how influential it was in driving the innovation can be debated - but
the historical fact is it was there,
and a large market in the context.
Reading this thread...
On 3/10/19 2:18 PM, Murray McCullough via cctalk
wrote:
> Historians, though not all, credit this development as the
> beginning of the electronic-computing revolution that was truly
underway by
the
mid-70s.
Scotty, more power to the Reality Distortion Field!