What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

[Rich Alderson]

From: Noel Chiappa
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 5:40 AM

>> From: Eric Smith

>> I have a computer of the type that Gates and Allen used for that early
>> development. :-)
>> I don't have it running, though.

> Really? Which model processor; KA, KI, KL?

Eric's got a KL.  If he had a KA, I would have tracked him down and beaten
him to a pulp to lay hands on it--and we're friends.

> PS: Apparently Gates and Allen at one point rented time on a commercial
> service in Boston to do development; anyone know who that was, and what
> machine/OS is was?

Nope.  They moved to Albuquerque as soon as the deal with MITS was done.
(Ed Roberts hired Paul as his VP of software development on the spot.)
They rented time from the Albuquerque school district, whose -10 had
unused capacity.  (Development of the BASIC interpreter was famously done
using the Harvard KA-10.)

They went from renting time on others' systems to owning their own when
they moved from Albuquerque back to Seattle.  Their first was a KS under
TOPS-20.

I have all this not merely from Paul's book, but from another friend who
was Microsoft employee #11 (who appears in the famous picture) and others
like David Bunnell at our grand opening.

                                                                Rich


Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Living Computers: Museum + Labs
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98134

mailto:RichA at LivingComputers.org

http://www.LivingComputers.org/