I'm sorry but I beg to differ with you here. The DEC PDP line of single
user interactive computers (as opposed to batch processing only systems)
started in the late 1950's and early 1960's and spawned many generations
as well as copies and other companies (Data General being the most well
known of these).Yes multi user time sharing operating systems we added
later on but initially they were single user interactive, (DEC 10 & 20
excepted).Does a computer lose its "Personal" identification if it can
handle multiple users as an option. There were multiple user time
sharing Operating Systems for many early personal computers (Unix,
Xenix, MP/M, Uniflex, OS/9, etc.). Even the aforementioned PDP computers
ran multi-user time sharing systems. Does that, then, invalidate them
for consideration as a personal computer? Does that make any Linux
machine not a personal computer, by definition, because it can handle
more than one user or task? As I have said earlier in this thead and its
fore bearers, the term Personal Computer is so non-specific that we can
argue from here to Alpha Centauri and back without coming up with an
agreed upon definition. So, until a concrete definition can be made, the
discussion of the answer is completely moot. I stick by my original
challenge, find a calculating device that predates the Antikythera
Mechanism (36 BCE). Simple measuring devices like the sun dial and
sextant don't count as they don't calculate, they measure.
On 5/25/2024 4:26 PM, CAREY SCHUG via cctalk wrote:
(Rick--IIRC, some later Curta (knockoffs?) could do square roots too, is that
true, do you have one?)
OK, I'll loosen up, or make exceptions.
Maybe some devices before the altair used the exact or inexact words "personal
computer".
but they did not "create a market" or lead directly to a series of similar, competing
products, and do not come anywhere close to what we think of as a "personal computer"
now. The Altair is very different from a modern personal computer, but still has more similarities
and a continuous chain of intermediate stages. Part of what makes a personal computer to us is
that we can easily switch from one to another. That would not have been possible between the
LGP-30, LINC, etc.
I still ask the question, what fraction of the G-15, LINC, IBM 610, Programma 101, etc,
were purchased as "personal" devices by an individual, for personal use, and
from household funds rather than via a corporate (including educational) purchase-order?
Other terminology:
IIRC the first computers that were sold as "supercomputers" were scalar, maybe with a few
more processors than the generation before, but programmed in the same manner. Then shortly came
the massively parallel "supercomputers" created from commodity microcomputer chips, and
the term supercomputer has transitioned to mean them.
<pre>--Carey</pre>
On 05/25/2024 3:33 PM CDT Rick Bensene via cctalk<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
While the LGP-30(vacuum tube/drum), G-15(vacuum tube/drum), and PB-250(transistor/delay lines) predated it, the ground-breaking Olivetti Programma 101(transistor/delay line) programmable desktop calculator was officially called a "personal computer" in some of its advertising and sales literature. It was introduced in October of 1965.
Late in the game as far as single-user, standard AC-line-powered computing devices
compared to those machines and probably others, but those machines, AFAIK, were not
advertised nor specified as "personal computers".
That said, I am much more aware of electronic calculator history than computer history, so I could be entirely biased here. Also, the Programma 101, as I've stated here before, only scratches the definition of a true computer in that it is not capable of handling any data type but floating point binary-coded decimal numbers, has very limited data storage capability, and had no peripheral interfacing capability.
There were quite a number of single-user computing devices made and sold that ran on
standard AC power, and were vastly more capable than the Programma 101, and predated it,
but, AFAIK, were not advertised or particularly marketed as "personal
computers".
One that comes to mind is the Monroe Monrobot III(vacuum tube/drum), introduced
in February, 1955.
Another is the IBM 610 "Auto Point"(vacuum tube/drum) computer, introduced in
1957.
It was originally named the "Personal Automatic Computer" (PAC) by its designer.
I'm sure that there are quite a few other machines developed in the mid-to-late
1950's that would qualify as personal computing devices, but these two are the
ones that I'm aware of that seem to fit the bill. Some of these may actually
have been capable of manipulating data types other than decimal numbers.
In 1962, Casio introduced its AL-1 programmable (up to 360 steps) relay-based
electric calculator. It was definitely intended as a personal computing
device, and calculations could be performed manually from a keyboard much like
a regular calculator, but also automatically via plastic toothed gears that
would have teeth broken off of them to encode program steps. The gears would
be electrically read by the machine and directed the machine to perform
computer-like operations.
I'm not arguing that any of these, including the Programma 101, are the first
"personal computers" by any means. I'm just adding some thoughts to the
discussion.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Museum
https://oldcalculatormuseum.com
