Kenbak-1
A Kenbak-1 at the Computer History Museum | |
Developer | John Blankenbaker |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Kenbak Corporation |
Type | personal computer |
Release date | 1971 |
Introductory price | US$750 |
Discontinued | 1973 |
Units sold | 40 |
Units shipped | 40 |
Memory | 256 bytes of memory |
The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum and the American Computer Museum[1] to be the world's first "personal computer",[2] invented by John V. Blankenbaker (1930-) of Kenbak Corporation in 1970, and first sold in early 1971.[3] Only 50 machines were ever built. The system first sold for US$750.[4] Today only 14 machines are believed to exist worldwide,[5] in the hands of various collectors. Production of the Kenbak-1 stopped in 1973[6] as Kenbak failed, and was taken over by CTI Education Products, Inc. CTI rebranded the inventory and renamed it the H5050, though sales remained elusive.[7]
Since the Kenbak-1 was invented before the first microprocessor, the machine didn't have a one-chip CPU but instead was based purely on small-scale integration TTL chips.[8] The 8-bit machine offered 256 bytes of memory,[9] implemented on Intel's type 1404 silicon gate MOS shift registers.[10] The instruction cycle time was 1 microsecond (equivalent to an instruction clock speed of 1 MHz), but actual execution speed averaged below 1000 instructions per second due to architectural constraints such as slow access to serial memory.[8]
The machine was programmed in pure machine code using an array of buttons and switches. Output consisted of a row of lights.
See also
- Datapoint 2200, a contemporary machine with alphanumeric screen and keyboard, suitable to run non-trivial application programs.
- Altair 8800, very popular 1975 micro.
References
- ↑ "The George R. Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award". Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2008.
- ↑ "Timeline of Computer History". Computer History Museum. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
- ↑ BBC News, November 6, 2015
- ↑ "Kenbak-1 The Training Computer". Computerworld. November 17, 1971. p. 43. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
- ↑ "Kenbak-1". Computer Museum of Nova Scotia. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ↑ p. 52, "The First Personal Computer", Popular Mechanics, January 2000.
- ↑ Robert R Nielsen, Snr (2005). "Inside the Kenbak-1". Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- 1 2 Erik Klein. "Kenbak Computer Company Kenbak-1". Old-computers.com. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
- ↑ Bill Wilson (6 November 2015). "The man who made 'the world's first personal computer'". BBC News.
- ↑ "Technical".
External links
- KENBAK-1 Computer Article
- KENBAK-1 Computer – Official Kenbak-1 website at www.kenbak-1.net
- KENBAK-1 Series 2 – Official Kenbak-1 reproduction kit at www.kenbakkit.com
- Kenbak-1 Emulator – Online Kenbak-1 Emulator
- Kenbak-1 Emulator – Kenbak-1 Emulator download
- The Kenbak 1 - The first Personal Computer – At the Computer Museum of Nova Scotia
- Kenbak 1 – Images and information at www.vintage-computer.com
- Kenbak documentation at bitsavers.org
- KENBAK-uino Hardware-based Kenbak-1 Emulator
- Recreating the First PC article about KENBAK-uino at hackaday.com
- KENBAK-1 Emulator/Trainer, RetroWiki.es (Invalid, 2015-02-10)