Pioneers of computing

[Bill Degnan]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 4:50 AM Brent Hilpert via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On 2019-Mar-10, at 5:16 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
> > 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!
>
>
> 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...

>
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

>