Gregory's ServerWhat would you say is the first microcomputer? The Apple I from 1976? The Altair 8800 from 1974? Perhaps Micral N (1973) or the Q1 (1972)? How about the Arma Micro Computer from way back in 1962. This compact 20-pound transistorized computer was built for space applications. 1/13
Ken Shirriff
7 comments
Ken Shirriff
For storage, the computer used transfluxors—the 1960s had the best names for things. Transfluxors were like core memory except the cores had two holes so reading data didn't erase it like regular core memory. Photo is a 512-word module. 3/13
Aunty Bee
@kenshirriff Exqueeze me? Wow. How did readout maintain state in the beads? One loop held state while the other was read with subcritical power pulse?
Ken Shirriff
@KF7RHB Yes, that's basically how transfluxors worked. Readout flipped the small loop, but the large loop didn't flip, so the small loop could be restored from the saved state.
Aunty Bee
@kenshirriff What about bitrot over time nonetheless? How many reads can it afford this way? 
William D. Jones
@kenshirriff I would say the first personal computer has the Kenbak-1, but that's not quite what you asked :P.
Mike Loukides
@kenshirriff I would have said something in the PDP-8 family. Looks like the 8S had a desktop model (1966). But this beats the PDP-8 by a few years, and it's much smaller. |
Of course the Arma Micro Computer is not a microcomputer by the modern definition, since it was built from transistors. But it was small enough to get the name "Micro Computer". It also shows that 1960s computers weren't all room-filling mainframes. 2/13