1. Gordons Personal View of Personal Computing: before the PC Vintage Computer Society 27 September 1998 Gordon Bell gbell@microsoft.com http://www.research.microsoft.com/~gbell

3. Apple II

4. First personal computer

5. Micral

6. In the beginning: Manchester Baby ran the first program 22 June 1948

7. English Electric Deuce Console 1955

8. Whirlwind c1953 … 1st generation, 16-bit word; 4 KB memory; 8 K drum Whirlwind begot TX-O/TX-2 begot DEC PDP-1 Real time, first compiler, ECAD, text editor

9. Whirlwind console, drum, 1 Kw core

10. SAGE Control Room c 1962. Whirlwind used for first experiments.

11. SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) Operator Console

12. TX-0 Console c1959… one of the first transistorized personal computers Speech, handwriting recognition, neuro data analysis, etc. Interactive editors, debuggers, etc.

13. MIT Speech group with TX-0, c1959.

14. DEC Computer before PDP-11 1957 1961 1963

15. DEC PDP-1 c1961

16. Wes Clark & LINC c1962: Personal computers for bio-medical research

17. PDP-5 c1964: PDP-8 predecessor Process control, real time experiments. Fortran ran in 4 K, 12 bit words

18. Gbell with LINC and PDP-8 c1965

19. PDP-8: first mini First OEM computer. OS/8 (from timesharing) begot RT-11 begot CPM

20. PDP-8 Modules

21. PDP-8/E

22. PDP-8 and Linc Family Tree

23. PDP-8 12 bit word price (t)

24. PDP-8 prices (t)

25. Timesharing: given everyone their own, low cost, personal computer

26. PDP-6 c1965 : First commercial time shared computer. Gbell & Alan Kotok

27. PDP-6 Development team c1965

28. PDP-6/10/ DECsystem 10/20 family tree

29. There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Ken Olsen President, Chairman and founder of Digital, 1977

30. Equating yourself to the average user/buyer is risky... unless youre an average user.

31. Why didnt Digital lead personal computers? Thats another talk…

32. Minis and timesharing contributions 4 SpaceWar demonstrated the importance of interactive graphics 4 Editors, calculators, interactive debuggers, interpreters were in use 4 Mail and chat used timesharing 4 Minis established embedded computers