23 Jun
2007
23 Jun
'07
4:47 p.m.
> The
First Off-the-Shelf Microcomputer
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007, Lance Lyon wrote:
Errrr.... wasn't that the PET 20001 ?
Possibly. 
23 Jun
23 Jun
5:12 p.m.
On 23 Jun 2007 at 19:47, B. Degnan wrote:
The appliance computer is defined as a computer ready
to be used,
out-of-the-box directly from the manufacturer. No component assembly
required.
...which reminds me of the Eagle demonstrations. Essentially a
competition where a bunch of folks were given Eagles in factory
packaging and a contest was held to see who could get a system
unpacked and running.
Wasn't the record something like 30 seconds?
Eagle was one of those companies heavily reliant upon the instincts
of a CEO who liked to engage in risky behavior. They lost the bet on
that one. It was too bad--the Eagle was a nice system and the
company never recovered after Barnhart's death.
Cheers,
Chuck
5:16 p.m.
New subject: The late, great TRS-80
I can't add much of anything to the conversation
except for some opinions.
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?
My vote goes to the unit that was the first
*commercially* available one, regardless if it could
be store bought or ordered. For entirely practical (?)
purposes, this would mean the first that was mass
produced. We could always allude to some weirded out
prototype or whatever, and in fact such would earn the
honor of being the very first -?.
Announcements are irrelevant. The SX-64 was announced
a year before it was released, yet later that same
year ('83) the TI Portable Professional was released
(available) and was *arguably* the first color
portable computer. For such a position, prototypes and
other criteria would be irrelevant. Not a *very first
-*, but a *first -*, uh, if you get my drift. First
mass produced, first available.
Like I said, more or less opinions. But fine ones
you'd have to agree ;)
Availablity is paramount in this discussion though,
regardless of the source.
The TRS-80 Model 2000 was the late-st great TRS-80 if
any of you hosers weren't aware.
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6 p.m.
New subject: The late, great TRS-80
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007, Chris M wrote:
My vote goes to the unit that was the first
*commercially* available one, regardless if it could
be store bought or ordered. For entirely practical (?)
purposes, this would mean the first that was mass
produced. We could always allude to some weirded out
prototype or whatever, and in fact such would earn the
honor of being the very first -?.
Assuming that we are talking about "home appliance microcomputer" (which
is also not completely defined):
Neither Apple, nor Commodore, had adequate initial production.
Although they were shipping to advance orders before Radio Shack was
ready, the TRS80 was the first one that you could walk into a store and
carry one out. Radio Shack, although not the first to ship their first,
was shipping a few thousand while the others were shipping hundreds, and
only to back-orders.
Announcements are irrelevant.
Yep. Commodore announced at CES (1/1977), with a wooden prototype.
All three had real machines by the First West Coast Computer Faire (mid
April? 1977)
Because of the overlaps over which part of the definition came first for
which, it was a three way TIE.
And, it fails to consider MANY smaller companies that preceded all three
of them. There WERE a few small manufacturers building and selling
complete machines.
Similarly, the Berkeley Microcomputer Portable (Elcompco machine
built into a Halliburton Attache case) preceded the Osborne I by a
full day. Adam drank a glass of our champagne before he made his press
announcement. But, after comparing a booth of flush doors on file
cabinaets with >$10K of chrome and black plexiglass, production halted.
The remaining machines were reconfigured by Elcompco into dedicated
elevator statistical monitoring machines.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
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