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posted by cmn32480 on Monday November 09 2015, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the back-in-the-day dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

When the definitive history of the personal computer is written, familiar and historic names such as Olivetti, Apple, IBM, will all be given recognition for their innovations of the 1960s and 1970s.

But will future generations remember visionary John Blankenbaker, and his ground-breaking invention, the Kenbak-1 Digital Computer?

It was a machine which first went on sale in 1971 and is considered to have been the world's first "commercially available personal computer", coming on to the market some five years before Apple 1.

In fact it was a panel of experts, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, meeting at the Boston Computer Museum in 1987, which gave the Kenbak-1 its pre-eminent status.

Back in 1970 Mr Blankenbaker, then a computer engineer and consultant, put together his machine at his home in Brentwood, California.

"I came into a little money and decided it was time to build a small computer that could be afforded by everyone," he tells me.

"It did not use any microprocessors, and I did the work in my garage."

In the early days of the office computer even a small device cost thousands of dollars, whereas Mr Blankenbaker's aim was a simple computer that would cost no more than $500 (then roughly £200).

Unlike most hobby computers of the time, it was sold as an assembled and functioning machine rather than as a kit.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @11:10PM (#260973)

    "If she can only cook as well as Honeywell can compute."

    Unfortunately, the only unit they sold was to Bill Gates' mom.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @12:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @12:19AM (#260990)

    "Chips again, mom?"