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I I. IF DIotA REQUIRED. IlREAK JUMPtR SHOWN. USt T4SU' AT POSITIONS II~ . 116 . 81. A: 0"yd8 "I" c- '80k"loo' ,"produc •• M. docum.n •• 0' O"Y ! 'kow" ,h.... on. nOr pH' 'kH.of. nor '0 make " • • 01 , reproduce .11 0 dr... _ o"y ,"form. """ ko r.'n conl.'"od U t 'ke r o of .••U~I for 10 . r 4 ""~' ..up. by"'''''''' 0- 8 by "oodo,. of Appl. .,u mO"' ... lIk. or lIeon .. by. In. "nd., .. ,It On licuu Appl. GOO'I'Ip""r Compony. t>mput... ~~ ."h, to 4 3 2 1 BOIlrd 01 Director. Carporate Donor. Contributing Members Dr. John William Poduska. Sr. SlJstaine, PC Magazine Patron- SSOO or more Chairman American Telephone & Telegraph' Peat. Marwick. Mitchell & Co. Anony:mou • . Ray Duncan, Tom Eggers. Stellar Computer. inc. Bank of America' Pell. Rudman. Inc. Alan E. Fri8bie. Tom and Rosemarie The Baston Globe" Pencept. Inc. Hall. Robert Kahn, Martin Kirkpatrick. Dt. Gwen Bell. ComputerLand' PoleN-Clancy. Inc. Andrew Lavien. Nicholas ond Noncy Founding President Control Data Corporation' Price WaterhOU88 Pellinella. Paul R. Pierce, Ann Roe-Huler. The Computer Museum Data General Corporation' Project Software & Development, Inc. Jonathan Rotenberg, Oliver and Kitty Digital Equipment Corporation' Shawmut Corporation SelfIidge. Bob Whelan. Leo R. Yochim uich Bloch Hewlett-Packard Standard Oil Corporation National Science Foundation Internationul BUBiness Machines, Inc." SYMEDCO Sponsor-$25/) Teradyne David Donoldson NEC Corporation- Isaac Auerbach. G. C. Beldon, Ir., Wang Laborutorie• . Ine.' Warner & Stackpole Ropes and Gray XRE Corporation Philip D. Brooke. Richard J. Clayton. Richard Corben. Howard E. Co., James John J. Evans Bene/uctor-SIO.GOO - Contributed to the Cupirul Campaign Manufacturers Hanover Trus\ B. Deaderick. Delta Management. Philip MIPS, Inc.' H. Dorn. Dan L. Eisner, Bob O . Evans. Dr. Sydney Fernbach American Express Foundation Branlro Gerovac. John and Arlene Computer Consultant Apollo Computer. [nc." Gilmore. Dr. Rnberto Guotelli. Robert Gardner Hendrie International Data Group' Care Members Holfman. M. Ernest Huber, Lawrence I. The MITRE Corporation" Kilgallen. Marian Kowalslri. Raymond Arthur Humphreys RaytheQn Company Horlan E. and Lois Ander ~ on Kunweil, Michuel Levitt, Carl ICL Sanders Aasoc.ates Charles and Con.tonce Bachman Machover. lulius Marcus. loe W .. The Travele.. Companies C. Gordon Bell Ma tthew •. Tron McConnell. R. W. Milchell Kapor Erich and Renee Bloch Xero~ Corporation Mei.ter. Richard G. Mills. 1000ph Lotus Development Corporation Howard E. and lodr Brewer Nestor. loseph M_ Newcomer, James N. August Klein Potron- S3,GOO Henry Burkhardt II O'Bayle. Jr .. Anthony Oett inger. James MASSCOMP Roger and Mary Cady V. Potton, James A. Pitta. Linda J. Addison.Wesley Howard Cannon Dr. Koji Kobayashi Bltstream Phillips. J. Eric Poilaclr. Linda & David R. Steve Cheheyl Rodgers, Thomas S. Roy II. William M. NEG Corporat1on Boris Color Labs. Inc.' Robert C. and Eleanor W. Chinn Burroughs Corporatinn Steul. Charles A. StOll. lohn V. Terrey. Dr. Robert Lucky PatClarlr Michael and Beverly Tomas ic. G. Computer Soeiety of the IEEE Robert G. Clau.sen AT&T Bell Laooratories Coopers & Lybrand Michael Uhler. Allan L. Walloclr. William Congleton Andrew Wil80n. James L. McKenney Data Translation Alex d'Arbelalf DECUS' Harvard Business School Arnaud de Vitry Donor_ SIOO Dentsu !New Yorlr). Ine. David Donaldson Dr. Carver Mead Draper Laboratories' Douglas Drane Kenneth R. Adcoclr. Lawrence Adrian. California institute 01 Technology Gaston Snow & Ely Bartlett" Robert Everett Timoth:r Ander80n, Rolland Arndt. Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe General Computer Company Kenneth G. Fisher Richa r G . Bahr. MariO Borbacci. Ph.D., 3Com Corporation Gourmet Caterers, Inc. Jay W. Forrester SIeve F. Barneby. John C. Bartsow. Honeywell Information Systems William Foster James Bell. Alfred M. Bertocchl. Lois J. Dr. Arthur P. Molella Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Gardner Hendlie Bizak. Dr. John R. Blanken.hip. Richard The National Museum of Lotu. Development Corporation Winston R. Hindle. Jr. C. Bloom. Bontronlcs. Daniel S. Bricklin. Americon History. Major Computer. Ine. Peter Hir.hberg Fred and Nancy Brooks. D. F. Brown, Smithsonian Institution MASSCOMP Theodore G. and Ruth T. lohnson Gordon S. Brown. lohn and Ann Brown. McGraw-Hill. Inc. John Allen Jones Roger M. Buoy. James Burnett. W. Russell Noltsker The MITRE Corporation Mitcheil Kapor Corlson. Maria L. Carr, Charles and Symbollcs NEC Systems Laboratory. Inc. Allan Kent Virginia Ca.ale. George Chamberlain. Nicholas Pettinella Nolan. Norton &: Company, Inc.' Jack S. Kilby George Chompine. lames F. Cody. Intermetrtcs, Inc. Phoenix Software Associates Ltd. August Klein Michael Cronin. Daniel Crowley. Prime Computer Corporation Andrew C . Knowles III Curriculum Aasociates. David N. Cutler. Jonathan Rotenberg The Prudentlallnsurance Company David I. A. Koogler Niclr De Woll. Peter De Wall. Harvey The Boston Computer Society Regis McKenna. Inc.' Edward and Debbie Kramer Deile). Lucien and Catherine Dimino, Jean E. Sammet Ropes & Gray lohn W. and Edna W_ Lacey Ditargiani Family. Theodora Draj>OS. international Business Machines Software Re Bult. Corporation' Ralph and Linda Lln80lata J088ph J. Eachu•. Fred Ebeling, Dr. Stratus Computer. Inc.' John Norris Muguire Richard J. Ec-khouse and Dr . Ruth Edward A, Schwartz Sun Microsl.tems Richard D. Mallery Maulucci. William Ellintt. LUCian Digital Equipment Corporation Symbolics. nc. Thomas and Marian Marill Endicott. Geoffrey Feldman and Sharon Irwin J, Sitkin 3Com Corporation' Daniel D. McCracken Llpp. Larry Forte. Clark Frazier. Edward luis/If group James L. McKenney A. Feuatal, J. Thomas Franklin, Kevin Aetna Thoma. and Elizabeth McWilliam. and Judith Galvin. David Goodman, Dr. W.J. Spencer ConlriblJtor- SI.GOO Carver MeQd William Graustein, Stephen Gross. Xerox Corporation Access Technology Robert M. Metrolfe lerrier 11._ Haddad, Michael P. Halter. I. Adage. Inc. Ailen Michels Scott Hamilton, Franlr E. Heart. Daniel Dr. An Wang Robert M. Morrill and Nancy- Heff. Morgaret Herriclr. Wang Laboratories, Inc. Analog Devices. Inc. American Management Systems' David and Pat Nel ROn Thomas L. Hohmann. Nancy S. Horie. Arthur Andersen. Inc. RuaseU Noft slrer Charles A. Jortberg, Richard M. Koroff. Arthur D. Li ll ie. Inc. Robert Noyce Bryan S. Kocher, Josh and Mabel Kopp. Autographix Kenneth Olsen Neal KOJIs. Alan and ludlth Kotolr , Tru.tee. Automatix lohn L. Payne Stanley Kugell. Robert Laman. Curt Bank of Boston Edward G. Perlrin8 Laroclr. r.v; Lav;. Grace Leahy. Craig Charles Bachman. C. Gordan Bell. Bank o[ New England Ruaseil Planitzer Lee. John R. Levine. John V. Lery. Reed Harvey D. Crogan, Robert Everett. Baybanks John William Podu.ku Little, George Logemann. Carl D. C. Lester Hogan. Theodore G. Johnson. Bolt Beranelr & Newman Robert M. Price Lowenstein. John Lowry. Lube. Inc .. Andrew Knowles III. John Lacey. Boatan Safe Dep08it & Tru $t Company Fontaine K. Richardson Arthur Luehrmann, Andrew H. Mason. Patrick McGovern. George Mlchael. BU.inessLand Benjamin Robelen Robert O. Mason. Robert Mayer. Jr.. William Millard. Robert Noyce, Dougla. ROJIs Richard McCluskey, F. Warren Kenneth Olsen, Brian Randell. Citiearp (USA). Inc. Cullinane Foundotion Jean E. Sommet McFarlon. lim Mcintosh. William ond Kitty SelJridge. Michael Spock. Paul and Katherine Severino Vesta Mclean. Todd Medlock. Charles Erwin Tomash. Paul Tsongas Dane. Falb. Stone & Co. Deloitte Haslrins & Sel1. Hal Shear Minter. Allen Mou lton, Dr. J. Craig Maurice Wilkes Foley Haag & Eliot Alan F. Shugart Mudge. Carol E. Muratore. Dr. and Mrs. Ford Motor Company' Richard L. Sites 180ac R. Naasi. Lee Neal. Cynthia and Executive Committee General SY"tems Group. Inc: Ronald G. Smort Richard Nelson. Tim K. Nguyen. GenRad CharieR E. Sporck Bernard J. Nordmonn. H. Edward Nyce. David Donaldson. Chairmun. Dr . Gwen Goldman. Sachs Co. Ivan and Maria Suther lund Lawrence and Pauline Oliva. Dr. Robert Bell. Theodore Johnson. August Klein. Gould. Inc. Del Thorndike and Steve Teicher K. Otnes, John E. Parker, Kenneth D. Ralph Lin scdata. Prof. James McKenney Greyloclr Erwin Toma.h Potterson. Jame. and Beverly Philip. Nicholas Pettinella, John William GTE Data Services. Inc. lean De Val pine Juan Pinedu. Andrew Ple.cia, Jume. N. Poduska. Sr.Jonathan Rotenberg. Paul GTE Laborotories, Inc. Charles P. Waite Porler. David Potter. Robert C. Severino, Hal Shear, Ronald Smart, Houghton Mifllin Company" Stephen I. WatROn PrOba8CO. Audrey Reith. C. Mike Riggle. Oliver Strimpel Hyams Trust Harvey W. Wiggins. Jr_ David C. Roh. Michael Rooney. Daniel Index Technology Corporation William Wolf80n Rose. David Rose, Eugene Rudolphe. INNOVA Howord Salwen. Michael J. Somek. F. Intel Corporation Grant Saviers. Andrew Scott. Sebeil International Computer Ltd." Soltwale Systems. Aoron and Ruth Investment Oronge Nassau, Inc. Seidman. W. Lee Sheve!. John J. Shield. LTIC Corporation III, Dione J. Slrlba. Ph.D .• Allen G. Manufacturers Hanover Tmst Sneider. Robert and Diane Stewart. J. Meditech' Michael Storie. David Tarabor. William Mentor Graphic. R. Thompson. Warren G. Tisdale. Noah M1CQM·lnterian. Inc. E. VanDenburgh, Thomas Vaughn, Th. 300 Col19ress Street Micro Control Sy. tem. Christian Walker. loseph B. Wolter., Ir .. Computer Boo,"" MicrO&Oft" Thomas E. Welmers. John D. Wick. Museum Massachusells New York Air' Hugh Willrinson III. Kevin Willoughby. 02210 Pathway Design. Inc. Richard Witelr. Paul Wittman. T. I. Wojcik. Ir.. D. L. Wyse. lellrey N. Zeck. The Early Model Personal Computer Contest Oliver Strimpei C_I_t. E very year the Fall issue of The world. The heading ran- "Wanted: The Early Model Personal Computer Museum Report features the Old Thinker-toys". Phil Lemmons. Computer Contest Museum's collections. This i ssue con editor-in-chief of Byte magazine also OHver SlrimpeJ stitutes a complete catalog of the put out the call in Byte's tenth an 3 The Making 01 (In Engineer and Museum's collection of personal com niversary issue. a Computet puter hardware as of July 1986. Col Offers flooded in-320 in all from Steven Wozniak 13 countries. The early US commercial • The Perlonal Computer lected artifacts not relating to personal machines, topped by the Altair 8800's Collection computers will be listed next year. It (13 offers) were well represented. follows a somewhat unusual collecl There were also many offers of one-of ing evenl- the Early Model Personal a-kind homebrew machines and Computer Contest. single-board computers. mostly still in Schematic 01 the processor sec In the Spring of 1985, William Mil full working order. Perhaps the most tion 01 the Apple I computer. See article on page 3 and photo lard. then chairman of Computer Land, bizarre offer came from Argentina- a graph 01 the Apple I board on toured the Museum with Pat manuscript dating from around 1800 page I . McGovern. chairman of CW Commu containing a card punched with holes. Reproduced from Apple I Opera nications. the world's largest pub Said to be from Marie Antoinette im tion Manual. Courtesy of Apple Computer. lisher of computer trade magazines, prisoned in the Bastille. it contained a and Gwen Bell, Museum President. coded message to her supporters out Gift 01 DyS(l n Corporation Millard noticed gaps in our collection side the prison. Overall the response of personal computers and asked how from abroad was disappointing; the the Museum could remedy the situa collection still needs foreign enrich tion before the early machines dis ment. appeared. Bell, half in jest. suggested A total of 137 items were a ccepted. a contest to find the earliest personal The remainder were declined to avoid computers. Millard took up the idea excessive duplication. or because they enthusiastically and offered Com did not really fall into the categories The Computer MUleum puterLand's support for the collection. collected by the Museum. The donors Tho. Cornpulo>t M_m .. ., lQI·prolol SOHel:) McGovern offered to publicize the shipped their items to us for the final Ioundcrtoon thol ch,w"d.. 1M evoIUllOn 0/ inlorrncrtion Pf<:<*&'ng through t-xh>bluomr. event and the contest was born. judging by Stephen Wozniak. designer ,m;hIprog-n,,,,...."",. publicollOna. .--orch. ond From October 1985 to March 1986 of the Apple II and co-founder of Apple advertisements appeared in CW Com Computer. David Bunnell. an early MUMum Houro: n.. M"",,m houri or. to AM ·6PM. TueodCly-Thuroday. Soturcioy. ond munications' magazines all over the MITS employee and current publisher Sundoy, ond 10 AM·9PM f,iday. II I. Cloeed MondoYI. Ch""lma.o, New y..,,., ond 'Thonkoglvm(l. Stephen Wozniak inspecting the Micral. Memb.roblp: All _mile.. ~,,,. a _mboorohlp "",d. f_ '''~pllQn 10 n... Owing to a hitch at US Customs. this prize Compu,,"r M.... um Report a to% dlK'OUnl "" winner arrived just in the nick of time for merd!crnd_ from n... Compu,,", M_rn Storoo. fr_ odm....,., and ,nYlIO'IOIIO 10 the judging. M.... um pwv...... o. f'Qt more ,nionnotoon. con1 Staff Do. 0 ..... llell. FOWIdI..g PrtooItkn, Do. 011_, SlrllllpeL _ DI_,ebdCu, The Compute. MU.II(Ium Repo.tiFcdl 1986 of PC World, and myself. It was on this occasion that Wozniak announced his intention to donate his personal collec tion of hardware and notebooks to the Museum. He also gave a public lecture to a packed house after the judging. We include his talk in this issue as the story behind the machine that epito mized the spectacular growth of per sonal computing-the Apple II. In defining the personal compu ter, we excluded plastic or cardboard educational and toy kit 'computers' (such as CARDIAC, BRANIAC and GENIAC), as well as programmable calculators. We were impressed by machines in several categories. First. there were the highly original designs that had significant impact on the de velopment of the technology. Don Lan caster's TV Typewriter and Lee Felsen stein's Visual Display Module paved the way to the keyboard and screen interface now universal on personal computers. They were each awarded a prize. Next there were the early com mercial products, bold design and packaging efforts. We awarded the first prize to the 1971 Kenbak-l, sub mitted by its creator John Blankenbak er. This small machine contained an eight-bit processor built up from medium-scale and small-scale inte grated circuits, and qualified as the earliest personal computer known to the judges. Thi Truong's 1973 Micral was awarded a prize as the first com gained honorable mention for com The winners were flown to the Museum merCially available microprocessor pleteness. There were machines that for "Personal Computer Pioneers Day" based computer. The Scelbi-8B, the must have taken solid weeks of wire and presented. with engraved silicon EPA Micro 68 and Cromemco Dazzler wrapping and soldering to assemble. wafer medals. From left to right: John V. were given honorable mention in this We received many offers of maga Blankenbaker (Kenbak-lJ. Robert Pond (Altair 8800 hobbyist), Lee Felsenstein category. zines, personal computer club news (prototype VDM-I) and Thi T. Truong Some of these machines bore testi letters and advertising literature. (Micral). Don Lancaster (prototype TVT-I) mony to the extraordinary zeal of the David Ahl. founder of Creative Com was unable to attend the prize-giving. early hobbyists. We gave a prize to putingmagazine, sent us his large col Robert Pond's Altair 8800 and honor lection of personal computer per able mentions to a Southwest Techni iodicals. Volunteers from the Boston cal Products 6800 and a TRS-80 Modell Computer Society are piecing together which came complete with every con the offers to create complete periodical ceivable add-on board or peripheral runs. The collections of literature and and with extensive, well documented software will be listed in a later issue. software collections. One Altair had The contest was a success- the even been time-shared! Museum now has a very fine collection Lastly there were the homebrew of personal computers, including machines, some indicating that build some little known, but significant ma ers had gone to enormous lengths to chines. This provides a unique histori make useful machines at low cost. The cal record and a val uable resource for computer based on an RGS-008 kit future exhibits. I The COmpul&r Mu aeum Report/Fall 1986 Stephen Wozniak NOVA. I started to design my own ver The Making of an Engineer sions of it. Sometimes it would take 20 pages to design a floating point add. Then I tried to make the design smaller and a Computer and smaller. Every time a company, like Fairchild, would come out with a I was lucky as a kid because my new chip, I'd go back and re-design the NOVA using that chip. I'd make the design better and better using fewer Mom and Dad got me to do science fair chips. If I could have afforded building any at these machines, I would have projects, tell jokes, and have fun. I stopped designing and learning. The knew I'd get an electronics project for teacher said "we now have a computer reward was in improving a design. Christmas. I'd sneak down the night and you can use it." I said, "Great In 1968, I headed off to the Univer before and open up the packages (then ... what an opportunity." It was a lit sity of Colorado where I signed up for a close them up again). It was sort of like tle board that could be wired to create computer class. This gave me the exploring a computer system without a relay. The teachers thought this was opportunity to sign up for computer getting caught. In sixth grade my hero a computer! time by using my student number. I was Tom Swift who used his Then, I had a teacher who recog didn't understand that computer time resourcefulness with technology to do nized that I needed something beyond was charged for. As a kid I really didn't good. The kids on my block wired what the school could provide. He had know about accounting principles house-ta-house intercoms, helped by a couple of friends at Sylvania and ar and I was still a kid. I was put on pro the local electronics store where we ranged for me to go down once a week bation for computer abuse. I ran some hung out. We got someone to give us a to program computers. They gave me a programs that just printed scrap paper Ion of telephone wire and we just FORTRAN manual and I thought it was as fast as they could; others that ran walked down the block hammering it the neatest thing in the world. Then every mathematical table that I could to the fences and jumping into people's one day, I saw The Small Computer find-powers of two, inverse powers yards and burying it in the ground. Handbook on someone's desk. It de of two, and so on. Eventually my facto When you're kids you don't understand scribed DEC's PDP-8. I read it from rials would take more than a page and that things are owned by others. it would run 60 pages worth; that was Mom gave me 3S cents a day for what the CDC machine could do in lunch . I didn't eat; I saved the money under the minute that I was allowed as for a walky-talky. But I got nailed. The a student. It would punch out cards school had a lottery and I spent all the which I could submit again to make it money on tickets. And I lost. start up exactly where it had stopped. I My father, an engineer, taught me used 60 pages for each of six sets of how transistors work and got me inter tabulations three times a day for about ested in computers by giving me IEEE a month. There were reams and reams reports to read. This way I learned the stacked up in my dorm. I never thought basics of Boolean logic and built some that my professor would think that I adders/subtracters for science fair was trying to get him because I was projects. By eighth grade I talked a spending money that was un company into giving me a few hundred budgeted. transistors and diodes. I built some That year I built my first video gates and figured out why they weren't project. a device out of one transistor working. It was a good head start. and some old radio parts that jammed By the time I got to high school, I TVs. I didn't try it out in my dorm be was real fast on the slide rule and that cause they knew me. I went to another helped me become the top math stu dorm, sat in the TV room and started to dent. But when you're in math you jam the picture. A friend, in on the gag, don't take electronics, because you're cover to cover learning about binary went up to the TV, hit it, and I un in the college curriculum. Electronics arithmetic, how ands and ors work jammed the picture. Each time I'd jam was a shop course. Somehow a few about registers, instruction sets, it, my friend would have to hit it harder people covered both. Neither the stu sequencing, and everything you and harder. Everyone understands dents nor the teachers in high school needed to know to build a minicompu that when an inanimate object doesn't knew what a computer was and ter. Later, when the growth of mini work you just hit it. I discovered in that vacuum tube technology was still be computers started exploding, my favo age of peace-loving anti-war college ing taught. When I was a junior, a rite machine was Data General's students that you could turn any group The Compuler Museum ReportIFall 1986 3 into animals just by jamming the TV Blue Box, 1972 set. One time I jammed it and someone Inspired by the "phone phreak" hero said the TV repairman had been in and Captain Crunch, Sieve Jobs and had said it was the antenna. So he Stephen Wozniak built their own held the antenna up in the air, and the tone generators to make free calls. set was perfect, but only fora couple of Known as blue boxes, they were sold minutes, then it went bod again. The in the dormitories of the University guy held it up higher. Same scenario. of California at Berkeley where When it went bad, he stood up on a Wozniak was an undergraduate. The chair, and it worked, fora while. Up on particular box shown here was his tiptoes it worked; down on his demonstrated to a packed roomful of heels it didn't work. On another occa students performing the legendary sion they discovered if you touched the experiment of calling around the set in a weird position - hand on set world to a phone' in the next room. and leg on the chair-it worked. He The signals had to travel over such a said, "It's a grounding effect." And great distance that there was they watched the last half hour of Mis sufficient delay for a person to walk sion Impossible with a hand on the over to the receiving phone to hear middle of the TV . his own voice. Following this The computer class was very demonstration, Richard Prelinger large. The professor would lecture to a bought the box for $120, quarter of the students and Ihe rest would walch on TV monitors in an The box used a crystal oscillator and other room. I built the TV jammer into a was switched on or off simply by magic marker pen and took it to class. inserting or removing the plug The class started and I jammed the TV. leading to the earpiece. The early Three teaching assistants stood up, boxes were equipped. with a safety looked us over and I was scared. Then, feature-a reed switch inside the / before I paniced, someone picked up housing operated by a magnet taped. , his books and started to leave early. onto the outside of the box. Should He was near the worst jammed TV. As the phone phreak be apprehended, he got up the TV started to go in and the magnet could be removed out, until as he walked out the door it quickly, whereupon the blue box was perfect. I learned. that whatever would generate distorted prank you do, make someone else get off-frequency tones rendering it the credit. inoperable. "You lell them it's just a My second year of college was in music box", said Wozniak. The Cupertino. They had an IBM 360. I took taped-on magnet is visible on the some computer courses thai gave me bottom right side of the box. no credit at all, but they were what I Gift of Richard Prelinger wanted to take. I met a computer oper ator and I found that as an insider he had keys and passwords. We would go in late at night and run programs. By to us by another company. The friend lion" about these weird phone phreaks sliding a piece of paper over the offi that helped me build it. introduced me who drove around the country in vans cial record on the console printer, we to another friend, Steve Jobs. We were with racks of equipment in their buses, prevented our jobs from being re introduced because we both liked plugging into communications net corded. One night the manager of the pranks and electronics. works. The author, Captain Crunch, center came in at about 2 AM and In 1971 , after a little stint on unem philosophized that exploring the found mealone in the computer room. I ployment insurance, I went to Ber phone system would improve it for Ma was scared because he didn't even keley, one of a handful of colleges Bell. I fell in love with this philosophy. know me. I said, "Larry went out for the offering computer science, for my third I wanted to explore a system and a pizza." year of college. I took a course on writ computer and I didn't care about free To pay for my third year of college, ing assemblers and wanted to learn calls. Half way through the article, I I went to work for a mini-computer computing, read every manual. try ev called Steve Jobs up and started to company. It had a great machine with ery code, and learn every language. read it to him. Suddenly I realized 64 terminals that could run FORTRAN Getting grades or going to classes was there were too many details in the and other programs. But the company of secondary importance. One time I article-frequencies of 700 hertz and was hit by the recession and went signed up for ten courses and only 900 hertz. They gave too much informa under. It was surprising for me to learn went to five. Steve Jobs, a freer spirit, tion. It's too real. These are not things that people could invest two million went off to Reed College in Oregon, that a fiction writer can make up. My dollars in a company and it couldn't where he only attended the courses source for material at the time was the make it. that he wanted to, not the ones that he Stanford Linear Accelerator; I knew I In my spare time a friend and I was registered for. Reed was also hee could always get in there on the built "The Cream Soda Computer", be and let him hang around for two years. weekend. With those high end re cause we drank cream soda while we One day at my parents house, I search types, the door was never lock put it together from spare parts given read an article characterized as "fic- ed. Steve and I went to the library and 4 The Compute. Mu ..um Repo.t/Foll 1986 tors, an incredibly good product that gone. I met a lot of interesting people bypassed slide rules. My career kept there who were all talking about the going up. While it's widely reported new Altair Computer. Somehow every that I'm a college dropout, that's not body knew that some day they were true. It just took ten yeors until I had going to own there own computer. I enough money to finish. had decided back in high school in the I started to get away from com sixties that I was going to own a per puters. The blue boxes had been fun. sonal computer-a 4K NOVA was Then I heard about "Dial-a-Joke" and I what I really wanted. At the time, it started the first one in the San Francis was the cost of two Pintos and almost co area. In those days you could not the cost of a home. This was a big thing own your own answering machine, to think: to have a computer instead of you had to rent it from the phone com a home or a car. Now I discovered that pany. Two thousand calls a day came there were people around who knew into my machine to hear a Polish joke. how to build affordable computers. Then the Polishl American Congress And, I got back into the field by study I ncorporated in Chicago twice ing a microprocessor instruction set, threatened me with law suits. I said, the inner workings of the chip. I dis "How about Italian jokes?" They said, covered a microprocessor was just like "Fine with us." Twelve years later the a minicomputer. organization gave me their national Over the next year, the club grew heritage award. to five hundred members who met One night after work, I walked twice a week. We all worked for com into a bowling alley and I saw the first panies with mainframes- and sub Pong game. It blew me away. I wanted mitted our decks of cards through the one and since I knew TV sets and dig window and the computer priests ital logic, I designed my own. Around would run the program. We'd try to that time, Steve Jobs got a temporary crash the system because it wasn't job at AtarL He introduced me to some ours. We were a group that had a pur of those people, but I wouldn't leave pose: the revolution of home com such a good company as HP for Atari. puters. Byte Magazine started. In the HP really cared about its employees beginning most home computers were and I just didn't feelhke leaving, for sold as kits and you had to be a hob any reason. On the side, Steve and I byist who knew how to use a soldering got a job to design the game Breakout iron and not be afraid to put one for Nolan Bushnell at AtarL together. The members of our club Then, one day, I went toseemyold were not high level managers; we ran friend Captain Crunch who was in his around with holes in our jeans, and basement on a teletype. He said. 'Tm were a technical community who playing chess with someone at MIT." wanted their own computers. The club Then said, "Look I can log into all these was based on sharing. Lee Felsenstein computers." He was on the ARPANET. I conducted our meetings. The first seg said, "Wow, I've got to do this." The ment was called the mapping period. started to research the phone system. only way that I could afford it was to People offered information, material We discovered that the frequencies build a terminal. I designed a video or discussed problems. For example, mentioned in the article were correct. terminal because the cheapest input one of the members would ask, "Is Now we knew that we could build a output device was your own tv set. La there anyone here from AMI?" If no box and make free phone calls all over ter Captain Crunch was to go to prison hands went up, he'd say, ''I've got the world. We even managed to meet for phone phreaking. The second time some chips to raffle off for the club." He the author of the article, Captain he got caught the judge said that if he gave the first Pong chip for your home Crunch. 1 was so pure about the ever did this again he would go to pris Pong game to members of the club be philosophy of the phone company as a on. He got the same judge the third fore Atari got it. Then, in the random system, that I paid for my phone calls time. access groups, people matched offers home. Then, late at night. I'd call every I had been out of the computer and problems. country in the world. I showed it off. I area for a while and I wasn't aware I still could not afford a computer told phone jokes. I sold blue boxes on that the microprocessor had been in so I started to think about building one the campus. I just wondered how for I troduced. A friend of mine, who had for myself. A new company called could get. But I was still pure, I paid for gone to MIT, called me up and said MOS Technology introduced a new everything I should pay for-I was just there was club starting up for people microprocessor, the S-bit 6502 costing using unused wires. It wasdisappoint who had built terminals and things. $400. It was the finest microprocessor ing when I found out that the phone Since I had just built a terminal and yet and they sold it over-the-counter at phreaks were not pure. since I like to show off. I said, "Great. a show in San Francisco for $20-a After that year at Berkeley I had to I've got to go to this meeting and show very unique marketing step. A lot of take another yeor off to work and earn off my terminal." He didn't tell me it folks from the club bought one and that enough money to go back to college. I was a microcomputer club because if night at the Homebrew Computer Club got a job as an engineer at Hewlett he had. I would have said. "I don't meeting it was a big topic. Packard designing scientific calcula- know anything." And I wouldn't have A company called Sphere stopped The Computer MUllElu m Repo.j/Folll986 J Apple I . 1975 In designing the Apple L Wozniak squeezed as many functions as he could onto a single PC board. The upper two rows of integrated circuits constitute the video terminal he designed in 1974 to access mainframes remotely; it contains its own memory consisting of 7 IK dynamic shift registers and displays characters in a 5 by 7 matrix, with 40 characters per line, 24 lines per page and automatic scrolling. It interfaces to an ASCII encoded keyboard which is plugged into the empty socket at location B4. The video output and low voltage AC power sockets are al the top left corner. The lower two rows are the computer, shown in schematic form on the cover. The 6502 microprocessor is in the white package on the bottom row towards the left; the IS chips on the right (A, Bll-18) are 4K dynamic RAM's; 2 PROM's, containing the 256 byte resident system monitor program, are at the bottom left corner. The memory could be expanded to 65K via the edge connector on the right. Gift of Dysan Corporation by our club meeting with a IS-bit worked hard and late to get it done board for $20 each and sell them al the minicomputer hooked up to a color before January when I was getting club for $40." We figured we'd have to monitor that spun a color clock around. married. In late November 1975, I sell 50 to get our money back and we To see a computer doing color on a demonstrated the Apple 1 computer didn't think we could sell that many. video screen was beyond our im running BASIC. All it could do was a Steve said, "We might not sell 50, but aginations. It was shocking. This was tab and a print. at least we'll have a company." Steve's at the time that Microsoft BASIC was I went to Hewlett Packard with the motivation was to be like Nolan Bush only available on paper tape for input design and the costs and suggested nell. I was telling Steve about every via Teletype terminals. The first two that they manufacture and sell it for thing that microprocessors would do attempts at color for personal comput $800. My manager was intrigued with one day, which was everything that ing came from the club: the Dazzler, a machine that could run BASIC and minis did. I bought a microprocessor built by Cromemco. and the Apple II have 4K of RAM that would sell for for $20, a keyboard for $60, a few trans computer. about the same price os HP's top-end formers for about $10 each, and picked Although I had a FORTRAN and calculators. He was especially inter up the integrated circuits from the lab ALGOL background, I saw that BASIC ested since HP's desk-top machine slack at HP. The company has a writ was going to be the language for per sold for $5-8,000. He said no to the ten rule that any engineer can take sonal computers. Within two months I project in the end. But this took weeks. chips from lab stock without cost for a wrote a BASIC that would run on the One time when I was showing off project of their own design if their su S5Q2. I wrote a simulator in ALGOL to the computer at the club, Steve Jobs pervisor approves. The company feels see that it would work. I had to came along ond soid, "Why don't we that one learns by dOing, and that the assemble the code by hand, because I sell it?" I was passing out a lot of lowest level of management can de didn't have a computer to work on. schematics and literature because a cide, Once it was done, I put together what lot of people wanted to build one. One day Steve called me up at HP became known as the Apple 1. I Steve said, "Let's just make the PC and said, "Guess what." "What?" "{ , The Computer Museum Report/fall 1986 . dynamicliAMS came out I could do in 4 chips what I used to do in 32. In 1915 several styles of 4K dynamic RAMS came out; the fi rst set were from AMI and the second from InteL The Apple I had the right RAM, a 16 pin Intel chip that led to a 16K RAM. After I had my legal release for the machine and was selling Apple Is. HP had a project called Capricorn-doing everything that I had just done. I went to the new lab manager and I said I'd do anything to work on the personal computer and he turned me down. Steve and I went to Atari and asked if they would like it. They said, "No, the home video market is going to be very large." They were so friendly to us, that they let us buy chips for the Apple I right out of their warehouse. We went down to Commodore and talked to Chuck Peddle who was about to do the Pet Computer. Steve thought we might get a few hundred thousand dollars but they only oHered us em ployment. All in all about 200 Apple l's were sold out of the garage. A few months later. I started to think about color. I made sure that the Apple I worked at the right speed so that color could be added. Things be gan to coalesce. I realized that I could combine video screen memory and processor memory and save chips. The Apple II design started to emerge. It would be twice as fast, do twice as many things. and have tons of mem ory. In the first days, I designed the Apple II to work with both 4 and 16K RAMS (because the 16K chips were still very expensive). There was an issue of slots for extra cards. How much do they matter? The only argument over the got an order for $50,000." That was the chips and then put on the wave solder Apple II design was that Steve lobs biggest shock of the Apple experience. ing machine. In two days 25 boards wanted two slots and 1 wanted eight Steve had gone down to the Byte Shop were complete and we drove over and because I was a little leery about lock where they bought Altairs as kits, took them to Steve's garage. We'd plug ing into too little. So I sat down with wired them in the backroom, and sold in the keyboard and the TV and some Steve and said, "OK. I don't want the them as personal computers. Steve transformers and test the boards with company." And we hod eight slots. discovered that it would only cost $13 the oscilloscopes to see if they would That was the end of it. to insert all the chips on our board. The work. On the weekends we would sit I decided to write the Atari game Byte Shop placed an order for 100 com down with the ones that didn't work, Breakout on a microprocessor. in puters at $500 each and we had to pur and usually found the problem in bent BASIC not in hardware. So I wrote chase the parts. To come up with the pins. Then we would deliver them to some commands in BASIC to put color money, I sold my HP-65 calculator for the local store and get paid. It was a dots on the screen and to make sounds SSOO. However I knew we were coming ten day cycle. It's amazing what you come over a little speaker. It was out with the HP-67 the next month and can do when you have one level of shocking to me how much you could do my employee price would be $37, so I management. in software and still run so much faster didn't take much risk. I still had my HP The Apple I design had few chips than hardware. job as welL Steve went to the com and was optimized for one board. The Originally Apple had three part ponent suppliers and by showing the biggest decision was memory; the first ners: Steve and I each had 45% and order asked for 30 days net credit. The 4K dynamic RAMS were about to come Ron Wayne, who helped with the man chips were stocked in a closet at the out. One principle that I had was "the ual. had 100"'. Ron sold his 100"' to us for company making the board. When the fewer chips the better". After a discus $800. The Apple II looked like an out chips came out of the closet the 30 days sion about chip size and number of standing product that could selll,QOD a started. When the pc boards came off pins, I decided that I would go for op month. We thought we had hit the big the line, they would be stuffed with the timizing board size. When the 4K one. The problem was that we didn't The Computer MUHum ReporlJFgll 1986 7 know how to build a thousand of some computers had a different flavor: now QUCSnONS thing that cost $250 each. Where would you could walk into a store and buy a There are some things that are we get $250,000 worth of credit? We computer with a solution. Our dreams inevitable in history and other things had to look for money. People would of people controlling garage doors and that depend on a unique individual. come by the garage and ask, "What's keeping recipes were of much less im How do you feel about your role? the market?" I'd say, "A million." portance. Almost everything would have They'd say, "What makes you say A lot of things happened at Apple happened about the same time. It that?" And I'd have too rational on an because one of the top managers had a turns out that my whole life was swer: "There's a million ham radio op pet project. One of Mike Markkula's directed to one kind of computer erators and more people are getting pet ideas was that recipes and keep design and when the window into computers." There's no way that ing track of the check-book were going occurred, I was there. It was great answer could be wrong but they we to be principle uses. So he had Randy luck for me. ren't the right words. We got directed Wigginton (who was to write MacWrite to Mike Markkula, who had wanted to in the future) write a check-book pro What is it like to have to use an build computers in the home for quite a gram in BASIC. Two things came out of assumed name to go to college and while. He had left Intel with a lot of that: a floating point BASIC to make it to be a hero? stock options and he was still young. easier to write money handling pro I used an assumed name and went He started developing a business plan grams, and the addition of a floppy back to Berkeley in 1981-2 for a full and joined us as a third and equal disc to make the machine fast. The cur year. And I got away with it. partner. For a while I didn't want to rent practice had been to use cassette because I wasn't known quite that leave Hewlett Packard. Then a friend tapes that took three minutes to load a well then. It was strange to read said to me, "Steve, you can start this program after which you could add the about myself. I couldn't understand company, manage it and get rich. Or, data for two checks, and then down why people would want to come up Steve, you can start this company, stay load, which took another several min and shake my hand. Then I met Ted an engineer aU your life and get rich." I utes. We started to work on both proj Turner who was my hero for realized that I could still sit down and ects. The floppy disc controllers at the challenging the networks and I write code and build things, and that time used about 50 chips. I had figured asked him for his autograph. I now the company was just a way to make out a design with five chips and understand that we all want to have money. We hired a President who thought that I must be leaving impor heros. could get things done. Steve had a tant things out. But after a lot of anal friend at Atari who c ould design ysis of other designs, I found that mine How do you feel about the switching power supplies which re did even more. So I knew that I was Macintosh? quired less cooling than the regular onto a good winner: real fast, real I love my Macintosh. I brought it on type. Our phony reason for needing small (based on the new 5 and a half the trip. I dropped it in the San this was our belief that no computer inch disc from Shugart), and real Francisco airport but it lived. should have a fan. cheap. From that time, Apple took off. What's your relationship with Apple? We started producing Apple Irs. We were backlogged for four months of Since the computer keeps track of This was the first computer that you orders and the path had been set. the employee benefits, I make sure could take out of the box, plug in, read We premiered the floppy disc at that I get the minimal salary. I travel only a little bit and start typing, "play the first National Computer Con on their behalf, consult with them, ing" BASIC. It was the first computer to ference in Dallas that allowed micro and think its a great company. be in a plastic case; it was the first computers to be shown. This com computer to come with video as stan pleted the initial development of the What is your new company doing? dard; it was the first to build BASIC in Apple II. I don't remember much about CL 9 is working on remote control ROM; it was the first low cost computer the show, but the hotel was the first devices for the home. It's not going to come fully assembled; it was the one that I stayed in that had movies to be a huge company but it's fun. first to have paddles and sound. Fortu you could dial in your room. I had de Right now two engineers are nately it had a lot of memory slots. signed one of these systems while I working together in an environment While the world only wanted 4K bytes was at Hewlett Packard and I knew where we can do great things. that year for anything, they thought that it has to send your room number maybe 8 sometime, but 48K bytes down to a computer. Travelling with would never be needed. In the begin our tools, we opened up the box and ning, The Commodore, Radio Shack saw a bunch of switches. I just toggled and Apple machines all sold in about in a different code on the switches and equal numbers. Then, 8K programs didn't get billed for the movies. Randy started to come out and, in 1978, the Wigginton and I looked at the touch first spreadsheet and floppy discs tone phone with different numbers for came out. Both needed more than 8K of room service and so on. We took it RAM. The Apple was the one of the apart and rewired the keypad to go three that had expandable memory vertically instead of horizontally. and could support spreadsheet or flop py control software. With' Visicalc • The Computer Museum Report/Foll 1986 The Personal Computer -Collection Complete Ha rdware Li$ting as of Acorn Computers. Ltd .. APF Electronics, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., July 1986. Acorn Atom. PeCos I, fX71O .86J Apple Maci ntosh, Gift of Acorn Comput9fS. Ltd. Gill of Carl D. Hess (X499.84. 550. 55!) x-numbered artifacts constitute the (X687.86) Apple Computer Company, Gift 01 Apple Computer, Inc. pennanent collection. Gift oJ Nigel H. Searl9 (526) Apple 1. {X2IO.83J AT&T Information 5ystems, s-numbered artifocts ore dupli Acorn Computers. Ltd .. Glft 01 Dyson Corporoflon AT&T Personal Computer 630). cates. retained for exh ibits and Acorn Electron. (X666.86J Apple Computer, Inc., (X639.SS, 552, 553, 554) Gift of Acorn Computers. Ltd. Gill 01 AT&T loans. Apple D Plus. (X539.84J Acorn Computers. Ltd .. Gift oJ Katherine Schwartz BBC Model B Microcom2.uter. with Apple Computer. Inc., 6502 Second Processor. Z80 Apple II, (X583.86 ) Second Processor, Acorn Dato Gilt 01 Dr. and Mrs. Fred 0. Smith Recorder, Music 500 Synthesiser and Teletext Adapter, (X665.86) and family GIft of Acorn Computers, Ltd. Apple Computer. Inc .. Apple m. (X684.86J Gl/t 01 Kenneth Dc:x:kser Apple Computer, Inc .. Apple Usa. (X496.84 , 548. 549) Gift of Apple Computer, Tn c. The Computer M"H "m ReportlF'oll 1986 • Bu ll Micra! of Amorica Commodore Business Machines. Compaq Computer Corporation. Digital EqUIpment CorporatIOn. (formerly R2E of Amodea), MicraL Inc .. Compaq Portable, (X484.84, 558. Digital Professional 350. model XPI2. (X747.86) Commodore PET 2oo!. S59) (X435.84) Gifr of Bull Corporauon of America Gift of Commodore Business Gift of Compaq Computer Gih of Digllai EqUIpment Machines, Inc. (X364.84) Corporation Corporation Commodore Busmoss Machln(!S. Gdr of Microsoft Corporc1tlon (555) Inc .. Cromemco, Inc., Digital EqUIpment Corporation, Amigo. (X675.86) Commodore Business Machines. Cromemco Dazzler boards (2), Rambow, (X476.84. S6!. S621 G,fr of Commodore Busmess Inc., (X687.86) Gift of DiglfaJ EqUipment Machmes, Inc. VIC lOOI WIth Japanese keyboard. Gill 01 Michael K. Lomax Corporation (X723.86) Dala General Corporauon. Commodore Business Machines. Glh of Kenneth C. Barroll Digital Group, The,Digltal Group Inc .. Dala General Desktop Model 10. System 2. (X555.85) Commodore 64. (X366.84 AE) Commodore Busmess Machines. (X479.B4. S6(J) Glh of 51. George's Schoo/, GIft of Commociore Busmess Inc., GUt 01 Data General Corporcl'llon Newport. RI Machines, Inc. Commodore VIC-ZO. Glfl of Commodore Business Machines. Inc. ()(367.84) Gift 01 Kenneth C. Barroll ($44) Compaq Computer Corporollon. Compaq DeskPro. (X48!.84. 556. SS7) Gift of Compaq Computer Corporation Micra!. by R2E. 1973 The Micra l is the earliest commercial non-kit computer based on a microprocessor. The founder and president of R2E (Realisations Etudes Electroniques), Thi T. Truong, created the Micral as a replacement for minicomputers in applications where high performance was not required. He perceived a big gap between minicomputers, such as the DEC PDP·8, on the one hand, and a wired logic system on the other. As Micral adverhsing for the National soon as the Intel 8008 microprocessor Computer Conference Exhibition, was introduced, he decided to build Chicago May 1974. a computer to fill this gap. By May 1973. barely six months after Thi T. Truong. speaking at the the Intel 8008 became available, Museum after receiving his prize. Truong together with engineers Francois Gernelle and Ben Chelrite, had the Micral designed and built. It 27.5 microseconds. The Micral hod had some remarkable similarities to an assembler and an operating later personal computers such as a system which supported a teletype bus system and slots for expansion. and cassette recorder connected to The basic original model had 256 the Pluribus. The machine evolved bytes of RAM. and could be rapidly, with later models offering expanded to 2K with ROMS and more RAM, floppy discs, hard discs PROMS. It was capable of directly and a range of standard software. addressing 16K, and boards to expand the memory beyond 2K soon The Micral's low cost of $1950 and became available. The Micral had a bus architecture attracted great real-time clock, eight levels of interest. By 1974, only six months interrupt priority and automatic after the Micral's debut. 500 had enabling and disabling. The CPU, been sold; 2000 were sold over the memory, input/output interfaces and next two years. However, following fast peripheral controllers all an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate plugged into the Pluribus - a SO-bit the US market. Truong could no single data bus. There were 52 longer finance the growth of his instructions, oriented towards business. In 1979 he sold Micral to process-control and dato the major French computer maker transmission applications. Bull who currently produce IBM Instruction times ranged from 7.5 to PC-compatible Bull-Micrals. 10 The Compute. M1,IM um Repo, tlFa ll 1986 micral I ~ • The first Micrals were sold to • industry for process controJ and to the French government to help collect demographic inlormation in France's African colonies. It was therefore supplied with a strong protective metal cabinet. Gift of Thi T. Truong The Micral's CPU board. The use of a microprocessor earned the Micra} the name 'microcomputer', used for the first time in print in the June 21 1973 issue of Electronics magazine. The Computer MUS(lum Repo.vro;1l1 1986 11 Homebrew 16·bit computer. by Loren Jacobson. 1974·5 This one-af-a-kind machine contains a 1S-bit processor based on small-scale and medium-scale TTL integrated circuits. All input and output was via the front panel switches and lights. Jacobson had mOfe lime than money. so he used every possible means to keep costs down. For example. very lew connectors or sockets were used; all w iring was point-la-point, even between boards. Gift of Loren Jacobson Micro·68. by Electronic Product Associates Inc.. 1975 The Micro-S8 was a microcomputer trainer based. on the Motorola 6800 microprocessor. Priced at S430, i I came with integral numeric keypad input and LED output in a slim hardwood cabinet that could fit inside a briefcase. It had an on-board maximum of IK words of ROM a nd 7SB words of RAM and could be expanded to S4K via edge connectors. The system was controlled by the lohn Bug monitor program, contained in a 512-word PROM. This allowed users to load, inspect and edit programs, insert break points for debugging purposes, and execute. Victor Wintriss, president of EPA Associates, developed the Micro-SB as a low-cost tool for training engineers in the use of microprocessors. It could also be used to prototype applications for the Motorola SBOO. 1500 Micro-SB's were sold between 1975 and 197B when EPA went out of business, due, in part, to competition from the identical Heath ET3400, introduced in 1976. Gjft of G. Victor Wintriss 12 The Computer Ml,I'''lIm Repo.tlFcdl HISS Eckert. Scott B.. Franklin Computer Corporation. Home assembled as per • Jacobson. Loren, Homebrew system Ix1sed on the Franklin Ace 100, (X.340.84J July 1974 RadiO Electronics Homebrew 16-bit Computer. MOS Technology 6502 CPU, Gift of Franklin Computer magazine design, (X698.86) CX699.B6) Corporation Mark-S, (X704.86) Gift of Loren Jacobson Gilt 01 &ott B. Eckert Godoout, Thlnkertoys, SD Sales. Gift of Myron A. Cahoun Jade Computer Proouclll. Electronic Product Associates. Inc .. e!. aI., IBM. Z80 based $ · 100 Computer System. Micro.-68. Various boards lor personal IBM 5100, (X616.85J Gih of G. Vic/or Wlntriss (X694.B6) computer kits. (536) Gih of Silenus Wines, Inc. Gift of Joel Golds/I'd Gift of Sanford Shapiro, MD (531) Gift Robert Pond of (X629.85) Kaypro Corporation. Felsensteln, Lee, Heath Company, Gift 01 United Fruit Company (517) Kaypro 10, {X 487.84J VDM-J Video Display Module Heathkit H-B. (X696.86) Glh of Neil Karl (SI8) Gift of Koypro Corporation prototype. (X71L86) Gilt 01 Terry Brandon Gift of Arthur D. Little, Inc. (522) Gift 01 Lee Fe/sens/ain H_ Com",,"y, IBM. Heathki t H- I l. (X695.86J iBM PC XT, (X430.St 565) Gift of Errol Brick Loan from IBM Hewlett-Packard Company, IMSAI Manufacturing Corporation, HP ISO Personal Computer, lMSAJ 8OBO MIcrocomputer System, (X432.84. 863, 564) Loan from Mike Miller lXS89.85) Gilt 01 Hewlert-Packard Company Gih of Robert W. Beatrice (S'32) Gih of R. Donald Carter (S33) Home assembled as per Aug. and Sept. 1976 Popular Electronics Intersil. Inc" magazine design, Intercept Jr .. (X700.86) Cosmac ElF, (X692.86) Gift of Stephen S. Mangione Gift of Klaus Ernst \ .. .. . Lee Felsenstein and the VDM-l . The unit in the collection is adapted for stand-alone operation. The chassis was salvaged from a Singer-Friden 4321 key-to-tape Visual Display Module This unit is the first implementation converter bought at a junkyard. The of a memory-mapped alphanumeric keyboard was bought at a hobby Prototype. video display for personal shop. The unit was used for several by Lee Felsenstein. 1975 computers. The key design months as a terminal in the innovation was making the RAM development of software for The Community Memory Project. Gift 0/ Lee Felsenstein directly accessible from the computer's data and address busses, The VOM-l prototype was rather than in a character sequential demonstrated at the World Altair fashion through an I/O port. As Lee Convention in Albuquerque in March Felsenstein put it. he made it 1976. Variants of the VOM board possible to view the video display as were immediately incorporated into a "window on memory rather than a many personal computers; the glass teletype [such a s in the TV design had a great influence on the Typewriter]". This made it possible development of personal computer for the first time to use personal video displays. Felsenstein himself computers for highly interactive uses used the design in the Sol terminal such as real-time games. computer and the Osborne-I. The Computer Museum ReporllFall 1986 1:1 DIGITAL COMPUTER Kenbak-l. marketed through advertisements by Kenbak Corp• • 1971 and direct mail. From the start, the machine was billed more as an The Kenbak-l was awarded first educational tool rather than as a prize in the Museum's Early Model full-blown machine for executing Personal Computer Contest as the applications programs. The earliest personal computer. It was KENBAK-l marketing was accordingly focused presented to the Museum by its FUN . EDUCATIONAL on schools as a low cost way of introducing hands-on computing to designer and builder, lohn V. Modern electronic technology Blankenbaker. created the Kenbak· l with a price students. Blankenbaker became interested in that even private individuals and Although small computers computing while at college. In 1951. small schools can afford. The easy· eventually found their way into the during his junior year, he got a job to·understand manuals assume the classroom in large numbers. the reader is approaching a computer Kenbak never caught on. The at the National Bureau of Standards for the first time. Step·by·step, you where he came into contact with the can learn to use the computer wi th alternatives at the time, timeshared SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic its three programming registers, minicomputers and programmable Computer) project. The following five addre ssing modes, and 256 calculators. were beyond the reach year Hughes Aircraft charged him bytes of memory. Very quickly of school budgets. Teachers were not with the considerable task 01 you, or, your family or students, yet attuned to the idea that an building. from scratch, an arithmetic can write programs of fun and electronic computer might be unit based on binary-coded decimal interest. affordable, and those that wanted numbers. At thai time, flip-flops cost PRICE 5750.00 one often took a long time to secure $500 each. He struggled to design KENBAK CORP. the funds. Only 40 machines were the machine with the absolute P. O. Box 49324 sold to schools and a dozen to minimum number of flip-flops and Los Angeles, CA 90049 individuals over two years. In 1973, even came up with a design that the Kenbak Corporation closed its would use only one. Though such a doors. Blankenbaker moved on to machine would take a long time to Kenbak's most successful use his creative engineering talents get through ~ven one clock cycle, it advertisement, Scientific American, to build the first production LISP could emulate any other computer. September 1971 workstation for the newly formed Blankenbaker was so taken by this Symbolics Inc. single flip-flop design that in 1955 he tried to patent it. Though he was loading would take too long with unsuccessful. the idea of a S500 any more memory than that. Two computer had been firmly planted in lK-bit MOS shift registers were used. his mind. Since microprocessors had not been introduced yet. Blankenbaker built In 1970 Blankenbaker actually set out his processor from standard to build a small computer. His medium-scale and small-scale fixation upon a selling price of $500 integrated circuits. It operated on meant that he had to keep the cost of a-bit words, one bit at a time. The 1 parts down to about $150. He MHz clock coupled with a serial decided. that speed. was not memory organization gave the important and that the only Kenbak an effective speed of 1000 input/output within the price instructions per second. Altogether constraint were lights and switches. the machine used 130 integrated However he did cut a slot in the front circuits, all mounted on a single panel in the hope that one day board. punched card input could be added. In Spring 1971. a working prototype He could only afford the tooling costs was shown to a convention of for the printed circuit board. mathema1ics teachers. Blankenbaker Everything else. including the even managed to demonstrate a cabinet, lights, switches and logic three-d imensional tic-tac-toe circuits had to be made from program that just squeezed into the standard parts. He decided that the 256 bytes. Complete documentation, machine would be byte-oriented, programming manual and exercises and that 256 bytes would be a good suitable for school laboratories were choice of memory size. This allowed published. a single byte to store a complete The Kenbak Corporation was address. In any case, manual formed, and the computer was lohn V. Blankenbaker 14 The C(lmpuler Muaeum ReportIFoll L9B6 Kenbak Corporation, Lancaster. Donald. Microcomputer Associates, Inc.• Kenbak-I, (X703.86) TVT·IlV Typewriter prototype, JOLT microcomputer. (X701.86) Gift of John V. Blankonbaker (X689.B6J Gift of Brjan Vee GIll of Don Lancaster Lancaster. Donald, MITS. Inc .. ASCII Keyboard and Encoder Lancaster. Donald, Altair 680b, (X679.86) prototrpe, (X691.86) TVT-3 TV Typewnter prototype. Gift ol/amos Post Gifr 0 Don Lancaster (X690.86) lancaster. Donald, GIft of Don Lancaster Cheap Video prototype board. Martin Research. (X688.86) MIke 2. {X7C6.86J Gifl 01 Don Lancaster Gill 01 Robert F. Casey Gift 01 John V. Blankenbaker .-~ .", ." " .-- .. , .,.-.-.--:~.... " ~=.. ·...... --,. - .., , .. ,,' Programming sheet. showing the ,...... -.-.,' .. Kenba k's instruction set. ''','' -. -f-"r:o-,,"'.t--,,-,----,-.,,-----,,_ot ·:: . :;= ,0< .., . _to ''"'''... _ .., ..... ,,- -.. _--,--. -----,---,--. ·• .-- -."... --.. - .... ---.-. -. --. ..-. --.-- . ..• •, ...... •, ...... -''"''''''- ..'"v •• .- _., "'--I -I , .""" -.-,- • "" -0- , ..0 • • ...- , ...n • , ·,. -" ...... The Computer Museum ReportIFall 1986 IS MIT'S, inc., MITS, Inc., NEC 9,?rporation. Altair 8800. Al tair 8800b, (X682.86) NEC APe ill, (X494.84, S19, S2O) Anonymous Gilt (XSB.82)Gilt 01 Gilt of Jerry S TV Typewriter Prototype. extremely low cost proved that home on-board memory consisted of 512-bit video terminals and video displays serial registers. The memory boards by Don Lancaster. 1973 for personal computers were had character generators which The TV Typewriter made it possible practical. High resolution bit displayed each character as an for the first time to display mapped displays followed within a array of 5 by 7 dots. The original personally generated a lphanumeric few years, enormously enhancing design had two memory boards and information on an ordinary the utility of personal computers. Lee could generate and store 512 unmodified television set. The Felsenstein (featured on page 13 ) characters arranged as 16 lines of 32 design was published in the called the TV Typewriter "the characters. The device could also September 1973 issue of Radio opening shot of the computer use a cassette recorder to provide Electronics magazine as a home revolution". additional storage; a 90 minute assembly project using only $120 It consisted of a keyboard together cassette could hold about 100 pages. worth of components, Don with circuit boards to provide the Lancaster's design attracted memory, cursor, timing and Gift of Don Lancaster considerable attention as its television transmission signals. The II The Comp uter Museum Repo.tlFoll 1986 Altair 8800 machine that had the greatest impact on him was the Hewlett by MITS 1975 Packard 9100, introduced in 196B. It The Altair is widely thought of as had a CRT, keyboard, magnetic the first personal computer. Indeed, storage for programs and da.ta, and the Altair's creator, Ed Roberts. a printer. It could even drive a founder and president 01 MITS (Micro plotter. But it was not a personal Instrumentation and Telemetry computer by Roberts' definition- it Systems), coined the term. was expensive ($6000), did not have Distinguishing PC's from hobby a real programming language and machines. demonstration machines, only had a small memory. industrial machines and In 1971. MITS introduced the B16, a development systems, his view was kind of programmable calculator, that PC's had to be used for Several thousand were sold, mainly applications typically run on a for accounting applications and as minicomputer or larger computer. controllers. In the same period, a The PC also had to be affordable. company called Prolog built Ed Roberts, easily interfaced with other devices industrial processors based on the and feature a conventional console Intel 4004, 4040 and BOOB. Intel built powerful enough to do the sort of with a keyboard. CRT or something the Intellect series of machines things you normally expect a s imilar. It should have an operating between 1971 and 1973. The TV minicomputer to do", Roberts said. system and mass storage; paper Typewriter was also noticed by "When we found out about the Intel lope was acceptable. A PC should MITS, as were several logic 8080 in late 1973, we started design have a reasonably large memory. demonstration devices and an on the Altair, which was finished in MITS used 64K because that was 8008-based machine, the Mark·S, the summer of 1974," what the S080 could directly address. introduced in Radio Electronics in Ed Roberts and Bill Yates designed Lastly, he stipulated that a good 1974. number of people had actually used the Altair with an open 100·line bus the machine as a computer that was In 1972 MITS made a terminal structure. Though originally known personal! system that could be interfaced to as the Altair bus, it was adopted for time·shared computers. "In 1973 and so many other machines that it later In thinking about what sort of device 1974 we started design work at MITS came to be called the 5-100 bus (5 to build, Roberts considered the DEC with 4004, 4040 and 8008 processors for Standard). The first machines PDP·S as a prototype. However, the and didn't feel that they were were shipped with only two of the 18 Gift of Robert Pond The Compute r Museum ReportIFall 19S5 11 available slols filled with the CPU Quest. Inc .. Scelbi Computer Consulting. Inc .. board and the 256 byte memory Super ELF. (X717.B6) SCELBl-SH, (X574.B5) Gilt of Willits High SchoollROP board. Programs had to be entered Gift of Carlton B. Hensley in machine code via the switches on RC A, Sinclair Research Ltd .. Cosmac VIP, (X6B6.B6) Sinclair ZX80. the front panel. During the next few Gilt of Robert F. Cosey Gift 01 Sine/air Research Lrd. months. MITS as well as many third R2E. (X513.B4) parties, came out with expansion Micral. (X705.86) Gift 01 Lea Vanderboom (537) boards to provide more memory (up Gift of Til! T. Truong Sinclair Research Ltd., RGS Electronics, Sinclair ZXBI. to a maximum of 64K) and interfaces RGS-008. Intel BOOB based Gift of Sine/air Research Ltd. for input-output devices and storage microcomputer built from kil. (X51 4.84) media. One of the first boards was a (X712.86) Gift of A rnold J. Savitt (S38) 4K memory board, big enough to Gift of Brian Yee Solid State Music. Calilornia Computer Systems. Heathkit. et. hold a 4K BASIC interpreter specially R=kwell International. AIM 65. at, Va rious boards for personal written for the Altair by Bill Gates Gill of DaVid Martz (X67B.86) computer kits. (X65B.B6) and Paul Allen. Gift of Neil Doughty (S27) Gifl of Alan Frisbie Saga Systems. Southwest Technical Products The original Altair sold without the Saga. model PPS-800S. (X713.B6) Company.SwTPC 6800, case for $297, $395 with the case- an Gift of Computer Maintenance Gilt of Steven B. Leeland Corporation (X7I S.a6) order of magnitude less than the cost Gift 01 Fred Laskowski of the PDp·B. Though initially offered Scelbi Computer Consulting. Inc .. (54 /) SCELBI-BB. (X71 4. B6) Gilt of Dr. Gordon Wolfe as a kit, the first units were sold as Gifr of Michael Rossman (542) assembly units since the kit manuals Southwest Technical Products were not completed. Company,TVT_2 TV Typewriter. (X719.86) The demand for the machine Gilt of Rober! Pond exceeded even MITS's wildest Sphere Corporation. expectations. More machines were Sphere System 330. sold in the first day than the Gifl of Dr. Roger]. Spoil (X295.B3) company expected to sell during the Gift of John RibJe (SI4) entire lifetime of the product. Sphere Corporation, Roberts likes to point out how MITS Sphere System 320, (X297.83) increased the installed base of Gift of Dr. Rogar ]. Spoil SSM Microcomputer Products general computers by 1% each (formerly: Solid State Music), month for a period between 1975 and SSM CBI B080 CPU Ekxlrd, 1976. There was a huge pent-up (X7l 6.86) Gilt of Dona Smith demand for a computer with the kind of power offered by the Altair. Most of the machines were purchased by electronics hobbyists who simply wanted to have a machine of their own. They tinkered with and modified their computers. However ""OW' TO -HAD- FM TUHER SPlClflCATJOMS the machine was not really powerful enough or equipped with enough Pooular Electronics software to enable it do useful work -.,...... "m--=o_ ...... _ conveniently. It was used to control PROJECT BREAKTHROUGH I various processes- some industrial. some recreational. One of the first \\IlrId's First Minicomputer Kit customers used his Altair to control to Rhal Commcn:1aI Models .•• - his model railway. "ALTAIR 8800" SAVE OVER $1000 The company was sold to Pertec in 1977 for 6 million dollars. Faced with stiff emerging competition from -n",,","·, _· . companies such as Processor , .. \, .... \ ... "-'r-'~v.. , ::. Technology. IMSAI, Commodore and i t l'Jil: ~ ;' Apple, Pertec was unable to retain ALSO 1M rHIS ISSUE • market share, and the Altair went out of production in 1978. • An Unde'-$~"~"~"~.~"!'~k.~~~;~~5i:=:: MITS and the Altair played a central rEST REPORTS. role in the development of the US _200~Syo"'"_1IT·1OlJ0\>00I· __ personal computer market. They lhm~ · tO('-·"- £dmuncISeIMtifI< 'I' r ,t'.n;:: pioneered a whole marketing _,.t'oclo 18 The Computer Museum RepoltIFoll 1986 6800 Computer System. than its competitor, the Intel 8080. Southw~st also offered a video The computer was sold as a kit. terminal, the $275 CT-I024. based on by Southwest Technical costing $395 for the basic system Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter. Products Corp.. 1975 which included 2K bytes of RAM and shown on the left in the picture. a serial teletype interface. It could Above the computer on the right. are The SWTPe 6800 w as one of the first be expanded to 16K. It had a the $79.50 AC-30 cassette interface computers to be based on the mini-operating sys tem in ROM and the $250 PR-40 matrix printer kit. Motorola 6800 microprocessor. The enabling it to boot up automatically In front of the keyboard is a 6800 w as thought by some engineers without throwing switches on a front home-made switch box, a useful to be more powerful o nd versatile panel. input device, especially for games. With its complete set of peripherals, the SWTPC 6800 was one of the first low-cost systems on which software could be developed and run in a reasonably convenient fashion. .- . Gift of Steven B. Leelond o08A Microcomputer Kit. by RGS Electronics. 1974 The 008A was sold for $375 as a kit based on the Intel 8008. The system had lK of static RAM, expandable to 16K, and an He (not crystal) clock. It featured an input/output bus which could handle up to 256 perihperal devices instead of the arrangement of input/output ports more usual with the 8008. The programs were entered into memory using toggle switches. The version received was built on a SO-socket wire-wrap board. The printed circuit board version of the RGS-008 was described in September 1975 in the first issue of Byte magazine. Gift of Brian Yes The Compute. Muaeum Repo. lIFoli 1986 II Sutherland. James. Gift of Melvin 0. Duke ECHO IV Home Computer, (X509.84) Gift of James Sutherland Tandy Corporation. TRS-SO, Medel I, Gilt of Me/vin O. Duke (X722.86) Gift of Nigel H. &aria (543) Gi!r of Samuel M. Gerber ($67) TeTak Corporation, Temll: Model 8510, (){351.84, S68, S69) Glir 01 Douglas Ross Terak Corporation, TeTall: Model 8512. {X354.84) Gih of Douglas Ross Texas Instruments. Inc .. 11·9914 prototype (Dimension 4), (X720.86) Glfl of Robert Childrtilss Timex ·Sinclair. Inc. , TImex-Sinclair TS-JOC(), Gill of Dennis Kn ollenoof9 (X721.86) Gift 01 Ruth Leyden (547) but over 10,000 were sold within a Van Cleve, Robert, TRs·ao. Model I month of the TRS-80's introduction. Homebrew system based on the by Radio Shack. 1977 Motorola 6808 'IV Bug CPU. To the left of the TRS-80 is an (X697.86) Exatron Stringy Floppy, a miniature Gift of Robert Van Cleve The TRS-80 was Radio Shack'S first tape-drive which holds a small, Wang Laooratones. Wang PIC (Professional Image entry into the computer market. continuous, removable tape. Called Computer). (X566.85) Their wide network of retail outlets a wafer, the tapes could be up to 75 Gilt of Wang Lebomtaries greatly increased the accessibility of feet long and stored 4K bytes on five Wave Male, Inc., microcomputers. The TRS-80 was feet of tape in 6 seconds. It was Jupiter Computer system, (X702.86) based on a Z80 microprocessor and significantly faster and more reliable Glh of Dennis Painter came with a video display, 4K of than the standard casselle tape Xerox Corporation. memory. BASIC and casselle drive originally supplied with the Notetaker I. {X748.86J storage. at a price of $.599.95. It was TRS·BO. Gilt 01 Xerox CorporatIon aimed at the novice- the manuals To the right of the TRS-80 is the assumed no prior computer Comprint Model 912 thermal printer. knowledge. The original machine This could print 225 12 by 9 dot was slow as Radio Shack had kept matrix characters per second. It used the price down to an absolute special silvery-looking minimum. New software and aluminum-coated paper. Characters extended memory were released to were printed by styli which improve performance. a nd in 1979 vaporized the metal surface at the the more powerful Model II was points of contact to expose a black introduced. under-layer. The Com print operated Illus trations from the friendly The TRS-80 was extremely more quietly than impact printers. It manual '"Getting Started with TRS-SO successful; the company had was one of the fi rst matrix printers to BASIC"'. Courtesy of Radio Shack projected annual sales of 3000 units, print lellers with true decenders. 20 The Compuler Museum ReportIF<:1l1 1986 20 Available From The Computer Museum. New Color New Computer Slide Series! Museum T-Shirts! The Personal Computer Slide Set These four-color quality shirts 50% Cotton-5O% Polyester. Adult includes the classic machines from communicate the spirit of The (small. medium. large. x-large) or this catalog. The 20 slides. arranged Computer Museum-antique Children (small, medium, large) in groups of four. may be purchased computers fancifully displayed sizes; Be sure to specify adult or as a unit for $20.00 ($18 for alongside modern. hands-on child. and size. members), Each group of four slides computers. These make great Children sizes. $6.50 each (5.85 is $4 ,50 (members $4 .05 ). Stocking Stuffers. members): Adult sizes, sa.OO each (7.20 members). Postage Separate. Volume II. The Persona l Computer Slide Set Set 13: The First Personal Computers 13. 1 Kenbak-111971 1 13.2 Micral (1973) 13.3 Scelb' 119741 13.4 Altair (1975) Set 14: The Hobbyist Milestones 14.1 Apple I Board 14.2 Visual Display Module. Lee Felsenstein's VDM-l 14 .3 Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter 14.4 Cromemco Dazzler boards Set 15: Homebrew and Single Board Computers 15.1 Homebrew IS-bit computer by Loren Jacobson 15. 2 RGS Electronics OOSA Microcomputer Kit 15.3 Kim 1 15.4 Super Elf Set 16: Early Commercial Machines 16.1 EPA Micro 68 16 .2 IMSAI 8080 16. 3 SWTPC 6800 (Southwest The Computer Museum Technical Products) 16.4 Sol Terminal Computer Boston Set 17: Classic Commercial Machines 17.1 Apple II 17.2 TRS 80 Modell 17.3 Commodore Pet 17.4 Sinclair ZXOO Mo:Il row ...... to: Thec-.pu.. rM _mSlOle DlC:>ngre..S1r_ a-o... MA 0'Z211 Volume l. 48 slides in 12 sets of Minimum charge Older. $]5.00 Card Number four. covers early calculating a Check Or money order e nclOHd (no COO'.) devices. early computers. super a Vi.,. 0 Am Ex a Ma.'erC(lId computers. logic and me mory w.erhank No. I I I I I (Martera nd onfr) &po dare: technologies. and classic integrated circuits. This set of 48 is available QUAN D£SCRlPTIOH UNIT cosr TOTAL for $45.00 (members $40.50). P].aM add $2.50 10 COVer po..age &: handlLnIJ chargee for SUBTOTAL Ibe lir• • i'e m ordered.; add So.: for each odd i.ional i.em. MASS. ~" TAX o PIeo.. chodt beN II M" ...... _. SHIPPING n.a..lI "",. 'tow- puK~ NIp 10 npl>O T(IIMIHAL D ... JUIIIPEII ,.o~ _ NOO'U I_ NOl[ Il ~ U1S1/14s2S7" 14151/745251 - - ,=, 0~ C r:T~I' ~,,- , ~ -i '- '''' i¥ I ',~' ~ 1---- L" , ~III ,· ,I " I' :g~ r.;; h6 I:,, :g'. I , I,. I , I:', :g~ Ii , " I ~ 4 J j ~ " ISEE Ncanl 1§ ~ g~ ~~ g~ B , , , , " •, NOT£" II .. , , , , " 6820 '" PIA I PROM , f--J: I", " Non-Profit NOTE" II Organization U.S. Postage " PAID Permit No. liD ~ ~ fitchburg . MA 11NOT(12) UNRE6UL,I,TEO 01 420 A