1 Aug
2005
1 Aug
'05
10:21 p.m.
--- steve <gkicomputers at yahoo.com> wrote:
I don't think you can ever claim any computer as
the
first one without some qualifications(computer using
relays, tubes, TTL, microprocessor etc), I think in
the 1950's a relay computer kit called Simon was
available from Radio Electronics.
Simon was a construction project, but I am fairly
sure that it was never offered in kit form.
I certainly mean to exclude anything that is not an
electronic stored-program digital computer, including
the Geniac and various "electronic slide rule" analog
computers that were sold as kits as early as the
1950's.
For microprocessor based computers the original
manufacturer always made the first computers based
on
their processor (so if you assume the 4004 was the
first microprocessor then Intel Intellec or its
single
board cousin Sim-4 could be considered the first
microprocessor based computers).
Definitely. The question at issue is what was the
first computer sold in *kit* form. Neither the
Kenback nor the NRI 832 used a microprocessor,
however, though I wouldn't be surprised to find that
the Intellec or another Intel development system
predated them, as they were all roughly
contemporaneous around 1971 or so.
--Bill