On Jun 5, 2012, at 12:44 AM, Josh Dersch wrote:
Sure, but the 4051 doesn't really sit in the "slightly modified terminal"
mold
...
It may possibly have started at Tek as a "hey, let's take a 401x terminal and
make a computer out of it"
Perhaps a common aspiration back then :)
According to Wirt Atmar (of AICS, and now passed away), HP came to him about when the
Apple 1
was introduced, asking him if the HP2640A could be converted into a personal computer.
(see:
http://www.aics-research.com/history6.html )
The analysis at the time was: yes, but it would be so expensive it wouldn't succeed.
(The HP 2640A was already a very expensive terminal!)
(Of course, later TinyBASIC was ported to the HP2645A)
Stan