Core Memory by John Alderman

Author:John Alderman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC

NAME KENBAK-1

YEAR CREATED 1971

CREATOR KENBAK CORPORATION

COST $750

MEMORY 256 BYTES SEMICONDUCTOR

PROCESSOR TTL (TRANSISTOR-TRANSISTOR LOGIC)

The first personal computer was sold as a kit, but unfortunately, not many sold. John V. Blankenbaker advertised his creation, the Kenbak-1, in the September 1971 issue of Scientific American, offering it at a rather high price, considering its limitations once assem-bled. The machine did not have a microprocessor, input and output were limited to a set of switches and lights, and with 256 bytes, there wasn’t a whole lot a user could do.

Nonetheless, education was the main point, and according to the advertisement, “the easy-to-understand manuals assume the reader is approaching a computer for the first time.” It’s not surprising that not too many institutions bought Blankenbaker’s kit, but it was a good try. Only forty or so of the squashed blue hexagonal computers were made, and the company closed in 1973.

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