27 Apr
1999
27 Apr
'99
6:34 a.m.
At 13:18 22/04/99 -0400, allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote:
As one that is old enough and personally active doing
that then
makes Donald's minuteman-1 missle computer (surplus) my first contact with
a personal computer (micro be dammed for the moment). That was right
before the intel part hit the news. Video console, hell we were happy to
see a flipflop do exactly that!
Well I've always argued that this argument is meaningless as no one can
agree on a definition. So when asked "what was the first PC" my usual reply
is EDSAC (or one of the other systems of similar age). One user at a time,
limited everything, somewhat expensive, but still a personal computer as
you could make it do exactly what you wanted (well, occasionally anyway :-).
Please note, I'm no where near old enough to ever have used EDSAC - the
first computer I saw was in either 1964 or 1965 when I was 9 or 10.
Unfortunately, I've never been able to establish exactly what computer this
was - the only details I can provide is that it was the only computer at
Keele University (UK). Any help on identifying this system appreciated!
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"