(typing) (synthesized music)
- [LGR] The 1970s.
The decade where the home computer
first found a foothold.
Although for most of those years,
the very idea of a personal computer
wasn't yet fully defined,
with many machines appearing strange
simply because they were the first of their kind.
There were plenty of fascinating steps along the way
to the famous Apple II, TRS-80 and Commodore PET.
So let's take a look.
These are the '70s computers
that stand out for their weirdness
in regards to look, usability,
and specifications relative to their contemporaries.
The CTC Datapoint 2200.
Developed by the Computer Terminal Corporation in 1971,
the 2200 was designed to be a cost-efficient terminal
compatible with multiple mainframes.
Intel was originally contracted to design the processor for it,
but CTC ended up using their own
bit-serial processing solution
made up of transistor-transistor logic,
or TTL, components.
emulating mainframe terminal connections through software.
This also meant that users could actually use it
as a true personal computer, not just a terminal.
Oh, and that original processor CTC asked Intel for?
Well it turned into the legendary 8008 CPU,
the basis of x86 architecture used in PCs for decades.
The Triumph-Adler TA-1000.
Released in 1973
by German document management company Triumph Adler,
the TA-1000 is one of several computing systems
from the time that aren't simply desktops
but are also the desk itself.
The 1000 series was an all-in-one accounting computer solution
for small-to-midsize businesses
using 8-bit TTL logic,
but with a 16-bit address bus.
It had a whopping one kilobyte ROM,
two kilobytes of RAM,
a built-in assembly language interpreter,
a full-size dot matrix printer,
and support for CRT displays,
compact cassette tape storage,
and even hard drive and floppy disk support later on.
The MCM/70.
The Micro Computer Machines Model 70
hails from Kingston, Ontario, Canada,
and is often considered to be the first portable personal computer,
weighing in at 20 pounds.
Shipping in Fall of 1974,
the fully-loaded MCM/70 came spec'd
with a one-line plasma display,
and the brand-spanking-new Intel 8008 CPU,
running at 0.8 MHz,
making it one of the forerunners of personal computers
using a microprocessor.
It was meant to provide a convenient solution
for educators and businesses
to use the APL programming language
And so the fully-loaded Model 70
with 8K of RAM and dual cassette drives
was a bargain at just shy of $10,000 Canadian.
The SWTPC TV Typewriter.
Well here's a crazy concept.
How about instead of printing out results
on paper or buying an expensive CRT display,
you build the display hardware into the computer
and use a standard television?
Well that idea is exactly what makes
the Southwest Technical Products Corporation TV Typewriter
a milestone in personal computing,
even if it wasn't exactly a computer.
It was a kit of super low-cost terminal hardware
that let you display 16 lines of 32 uppercase characters on a TV.
But it wasn't long before hobbyists figured out
how to integrate this setup,
designed by Goodyear Aerospace engineer Don Lancaster,
into their home PCs as well,
a solution used in many home computers years afterward.
The Xerox Alto.
This machine was so far ahead of its time
that it's a wonder that Xerox didn't dominate
the personal computer marketplace in the latter part of the decade.
Released in 1973,
the Alto was the first computer
with an operating environment designed from the ground up
to use a graphical user interface,
inspiring a generation of GUIs introduced a decade later.
It also pioneered the what-you-see-is-what-you-get style
of document preparation,
which made full use of its portrait-orientation CRT display.
And of course,
driving much of this interaction was a revolutionary device
called a mouse,
something that wouldn't go mainstream
in other computers until many years later.
And all of this was available with 96K of RAM
starting at just $40,000.
The IASIS ia-7301.
Also known as the computer-in-a-book,
the ia-7301 is one of many training computers in 1976
based on the Intel 8080 CPU.
But this one was unique since it came packaged
in a three-ring binder
alongside a 250-page programming course.
It was a bit more expensive and fully-featured
than other CPU trainers, though,
costing $450 for a model with 1K of RAM and ROM,
and support for program storage through a tape recorder
and even S100 cards
through the use of an external expander board,
making it decidedly less portable.
The ISC Compucolor II.
Sometimes called the Renaissance Machine,
Intelligent Systems Corporation of Norcross, Georgia
first released this in 1976.
Not only does it have a colorific keyboard,
but it's the first home computer to house a color display.
While its predecessor, the Compucolor I,
was a professional computer with a color vector monitor,
the Two was a home micro
with a 13-inch General Electric TV
that displayed its 128x128 eight-color graphics.
It even featured CD storage,
but it's not what it sounds like.
The Compucolor Drive, or CD,
was a custom-built 5 1/4-inch floppy drive
the let its FCS operating system
save up to 51.2 kilobytes on each disk.
The APF Imagination Machine.
By 1979, game consoles were all the rage,
right alongside home computers,
and APF Electronics placed their bets
on a combination of the two with the Imagination Machine.
The first part was the APF-M1000 game console
featuring two controllers and a built-in game called Rocket Patrol.
But it could be dropped into the IM-1,
a home microcomputer with a 3.579 MHz Motorola 6800
a stereo cassette deck,
internal speaker and five-octave sound chip,
and APF OS with its own BASIC language interpreter.
It could even be augmented with RS-232 serial,
floppy drives, modems, and extra RAM,
making it one of the most expandable consoles ever made,
and setting the stage for later machines like the Coleco Adam.
And finally,
The Seattle Computer Products Gazelle.
Making its debut right at the tail end of 1979,
the SCP Gazelle is one of the very first computers
to sport the Intel 8086 CPU.
It was also physically massive,
with support for dual 8-inch 1.25 meg floppy drives,
an 8-inch Winchester drive,
and 18 S100 expansion boards inside.
And if Seattle Computer Products sounds familiar,
that might be because it was their own Tim Paterson
who programmed the quick-and-dirty operating system on the Gazelle.
This went on to become 86-DOS,
which was infamously purchased by Microsoft for $50,000,
and became the operating system for the IBM PC.
MS-DOS, Windows and Microsoft itself
owes its very existence to the Gazelle,
even if the machine itself
is just a footnote in the history of computing.
(synthesized music)
If you enjoyed this episode of LGR,
perhaps you'd like to see some of my others.
There's new videos every Monday and Friday,
as well as previous ones that I've made
on the '80s, '90s and 2000s,
so check 'em out if you'd like.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.