university of utah 1 quest for a “personal” computer!
TRANSCRIPT
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Quest for a“Personal” Computer!
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of Utah
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Two forces at work
• Top-down- Time-sharing and interactivity
• Bottom-up- Personal calculators- Improvements in microchips
• When shall the twain meet?
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of Utah
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Reflect a bit...
• Intel 4004 and 8008- What applications were they originally
designed for?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Datapoint2200img.jpg
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of Utah
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Reflect a bit...
• Intel's mentality- General-purpose microprocessors- Special-purpose software burned into ROM- Sell more chips! $$$
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of Utah
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Development Systems
• “Cross compiler”- A compiler that generates code for a
machine OTHER than the one it's running on!
- Write on a minicomputer, compile for a 8008!
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of Utah
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Development Systems
• Intellec-4 (1974)• Intellec-8 (1974)
- No need for cross compiling anymore!
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of Utah
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The Bitter Irony
• Intellec-4 and Intellec-8 were general purpose microcomputers!- Intel did not realize it- Not sold to the public
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of Utah
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The Bitter Irony
• Intellec-4 and Intellec-8 were general purpose microcomputers!- Intel did not realize it- Not sold to the public
WHY?
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of Utah
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About the same time...
• MICRAL (1973)• Intel 8008 processor
- $2,000- Not seen as “personal”
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More on MICRAL
• Invented by Thi T. Truong• Programmed by Philippe Kahn
- Founder of Borland!!
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of Utah
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Hobbyists
• Electronics Magazines- QST- Popular Electronics- Radio Electronics
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of Utah
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Hobbyists
• Electronics Magazines- Advertised “do it yourself” kits to build small
computers Kenbak-1 (1971) Scelbi-8H (1974) Mark-8 (1974)
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of Utah
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Altair 8800
• Popular Electronics (Jan 1975)
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of Utah
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Altair 8800
• Made by MITS- “Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry
Systems”• Forrest Mims and Ed Roberts
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of Utah
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Altair 8800
• Why was it “successful?”- Intel 8080 processor- Bus- Expansion slots
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of Utah
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Define “success”?
• MITS expected to sell hundreds• Received >1000 orders first month
- Backlog- Quality suffers
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of Utah
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Define “success”?
• Peripherals- Memory- Teletype- Keyboard/TV- Paper tape readers- Cassette tape I/O- Disk drives
• Most were not sold by MITS!
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of Utah
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Define “success”?
• Users groups• Magazines• Retail stores
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of Utah
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Altair's Legacy
• Not much by itself, but...• It was the “spark” that set off the home
computer revolution.- NOT the Intellec's- NOT the other hobbyist kits
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of Utah
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Gallery
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of Utah
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Gallery
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Gallery
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Gallery
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Demo
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“Test Question”
• On a scrap of paper, write a question that encapsulates one of the points from today's class, and turn it in.
• (Put your name on it!)