Chronology
of
Personal Computers
1975
- January
- Harry Garland and Roger Melen receive Altair number 0002. They
had
proposed in December to attach their Cyclops camera to the Altair, for
use as a security camera. [266.38]
- t Harvard, Monte Davidoff helps Bill Gates and Paul Allen write
the
floating-point routines for their 8080 BASIC. [1149.78]
- (month unknown)
- Ed Roberts coins the term "personal computer" as part of
an advertising campaign for the Altair. [1149.72]
- February
- The Xerox PARC-developed Gypsy word-processing system is first
field-tested
by end-users. Gypsy is one of the first word processors termed
"WYSIWYG",
meaning what you see is what you get. Gypsy runs on the PARC-developed
Alto personal computer. [716.111]
- Paul Allen flies from Harvard to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to
meet with
Ed Roberts at MITS, to demonstrate the newly written BASIC interpreter
for the Altair. Paul writes a paper tape reader on the plane trip, for
the Altair to load the BASIC software. At MITS, Paul enters the loader,
the Altair reads the paper tape, and is ready to execute BASIC
instructions.
Despite never having touched an Altair before, the BASIC works
flawlessly.
Paul types "PRINT 2 + 2", and the Altair responds "4".
Paul then types in the BASIC source code for a Lunar Lander game from a
book. This becomes the first sofware program ever run on what would
later
become MS BASIC. [346.24] [346.257] [606.17] [1149.80]
- Bill Gates and Paul Allen license their newly written BASIC to
MITS,
their first customer. This is the first computer language program
written
for a personal computer. [123] [176.122] [389.28]
- (month unknown)
- At MITS, David Bunnell starts the Computer Notes newsletter.
[1149.92]
- March
- Fred Moore and Gordon French hold the first meeting of a new
microcomputer
hobbyist's club in French's garage, in Menlo Park, California. 32
people
meet, including Bob Albrect, Steve Dompier, Lee Felsenstein, Bob Marsh,
Tom Pittman, Marty Spergel, Alan Baum, and Steven Wozniak. Bob Albrect
shows off an Altair, and Steve Dompier reports on MITS, and how they
had
4000 orders for the Altair. (After a few meetings, the club is given
the nickname "Homebrew Computer Club".) [185.110] [266.104]
[301.55] [346.18] [353.200] [346.257] [930.31] [1149.98] (April
[208.67]
266.39)
- Ed Roberts hires Paul Allen as director of software at MITS.
[266.40]
[1149.83] (May [346.25])
- (month unknown)
- The second meeting of Fred Moore/Gordon French's computer
hobbyists
group is held at the Stanford AI lab. 40 attend. The name for the group
is chosen: Bay Area Amateur Computer Users Group - Homebrew Computer
Club.
[353.203]
- April
- The third meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club is held.
[353.208]
- The fourth meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club is held at the
Peninsula
School in Menlo Park. Steve Dompier plays the music "Fool on the Hill"
and "Daisy" using the Altair and a radio. [353.203] [346.20]
- Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Micro-Soft (the hyphen is later
dropped).
[41] [1149.90] (July [346.26]) (August [346.257])
- MITS delivers the first generally-available Altair 8800, sold
for US$375
with 1 KB memory. [208.67] (256 bytes [266.38])
- Bob Marsh and Gary Ingram found Processor Technology. [266.45]
[353.208]
- May
- The Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey is formed. [208.67]
[266.xv]
- June
- MOS Technology announces the MC6501 processor for US$20 and the
MC6502
for US$25. [9] [261.304] (Fall [824])
- Bob Marsh delivers the first Processor Technology 4 KB memory
boards
for the Altair. [266.110] [353.210]
- The Southern California Computer Society is formed. [266.184]
- At Xerox, John Ellenby proposes they build the Alto II personal
computer,
a modified Alto, making it easier to produce, more reliable, and more
easily
maintained. His request is approved. [716.205]
- Paul Terrell signs a deal with MITS in which Terrell would
receive
a 5% commission on every Altair sold in Northern California, for
promoting
and selling the Altair. [266.188]
- (month unknown)
- Motorola sues MOS Technology over the similarity of the 6501
and 6502
processors to the 6800. (In an out-of-court settlement, MOS
Technology
withdraws the 6501 from the market.) [824]
- IMS begins working on an 8080-based computer. [266.63]
- Hard drive maker Tandon is formed. [971.F9]
- Gordon Moore revises his 1965 prediction about transistor
density,
from doubling every 12 months to doubling every 18 months. This becomes
known as Moore's Law. [1000.20]
- Intel develops the Multibus 8-bit memory bus structure.
[999.77]
- Wavemate releases the Jupiter II computer kit. [218]
- Southwest Technical Products releases the M6800 computer kit.
[218]
[208.67]
- Microcomputer Associates releases the JOLT computer kit. [218]
- In the USSR, the Elektronika S5-01 is introduced. The
microprocessor
is the K586 NMOS chip series. [949.356]
- MITS begins work on a Motorola 6800-based Altair. [266.47]
- MITS sales of Altair computers hits US$1 million. [346.31]
- Sphere Corporation introduces its Sphere I computer kit,
featuring
a Motorola 6800 CPU, 4 KB RAM, ROM monitor, keyboard, and video
interface,
for US$650. [9.200] [16.371]
- Harry Garland and Roger Melen found Cromemco. The company is
named
after the Crowthers Memorial dorm at Stanford. [266.xv] [353.207]
- Digital Equipment introduces the LSI-11 microcomputer (board
with microprocessor),
with 8 KB RAM. It is the first American microcomputer using a 16-bit
architecture.
[949.358]
- IBM's John Cocke begins work on project "801", to develop
a scaleable chip design that could be used in small computers as well
as
large. [205.103]
- Wayne Green founds BYTE Magazine. [713.219]
- July
- Bill Gates and Paul Allen ship 4K and 8K versions of BASIC v2.0
to
MITS. [123] [1149.92]
- Dick Heiser opens Arrow Head Computer Company, subtitled "The
Computer Store", in Los Angeles, selling assembled Altair computers,
boards, peripherals, and magazines. This is the first retail computer
store
in the USA. [266.185] [684.41]
- July 22
- Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a licensing agreement with MITS,
for
their implementation of the BASIC language. Gates and Allen receive
US$3,000
immediately, with royalties of $30 per copy of 4K BASIC, and $35 for 8K
BASIC. [299.8] [1149.92]
- (month unknown)
- IMSAI announces the IMSAI 8080 microcomputer. [346.32] [647.95]
- September
- IBM's Entry Level Systems unit unveils the IBM 5100 Portable
Computer.
It is a briefcase-size minicomputer with BASIC, 16 KB RAM expandable to
64 KB, tape storage drive holding 204 KB per tape, keyboard, and
built-in
5-inch screen. Price: US$8975-19975. Weight: 55 pounds. Code name
during
development was Project Mercury. [9] [197.xi] [606.22] [902.137]
[1112.144]
(Price over US$10,000 [203.10])
- The first issue of BYTE magazine is published. [9] [266.159]
- October
- MITS releases a version of MicroSoft BASIC 2.0 for its Altair
8800,
in 4K and 8K editions. Microsoft BASIC software [9] [123] [208.67]
[346.257]
- (month unknown)
- MITS decides to release a floppy disk storage system for the
Altair
computer. [1149.98]
- December
- Paul Terrell opens the Byte Shop, in Mountain View, California,
one
of the first computer stores in the United States. [34] [266.189]
- Bill Gates writes an open letter to microcomputer hobbyists,
complaining
about software piracy, to be published in an Altair newsletter.
[346.30]
- IMSAI hires Ed Faber as Director of Sales. [266.193] (1976
January
[266.64])
- Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh begin work on a complete
computer, 8080-based
with a keyboard and color video display capabilities built-in.
[353.240]
- December 31
- To date, MITS has sold 2,000 Altair 8800 systems. [176.54]
