5 ms·

This is from 1974. It's worth noting that by 1974, the TCP/IP spec was already written, what many consider the first PC (the Altair 8800) was out, and ARPANet h

This is from 1974. It's worth noting that by 1974, the TCP/IP spec was already written, what many consider the first PC (the Altair 8800) was out, and ARPANet had been around for years, with transatlantic nodes already in existence.

cbd1984 12y ago
> what many consider the first PC (the Altair 8800) was out There's a good case to be made that the first personal computer was introduced in 1971, and had actually ceased production in 1973: http://www.kenbak-1.net/ http://www.kenbak-1.net/ The Altair 8800 is more important as a predecessor on the main line of microcomputer development, but the basic idea of a computer a single individual human being who wasn't massively wealthy could own was actually, to some small extent, achieved a few years before anything that would evolve into the rest of the microcomputer line was in existence. (To be technical, the Kenbak-1 can't be in the microcomputer line because it wasn't a microcomputer, because its CPU was built out of discrete components as opposed to having been a microprocessor.)
- digi_owl 12y ago
  Seems to me that the computers that come and then fade again have one thing in common, limited expandability. The Altair 8800 brought with it the S-100 bus. And you find a similar bus (ISA) on the early IBM PC. both of these meant that a single "core structure" could be made to do multiple things.
- KC8ZKF 12y ago
  The Altair took advantage of the recent microprocessor, which was the real innovation AFIC.
vidarh 12y ago
And Alay Kays Dynabook proposal [1] was written in 1972, based on work dating back to the late 60's. There's the interesting question of what developments Clarke were aware of at the time, but yes, multiple people were envisioning these things back then. Many of them were also extrapolating from Vannevar Bush's Memex, as described in As We May Think, in the Atlantic in 1945 [2] taking account the intervening advances in technology. [1] http://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay72.html http://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay72.html [2] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-ma...

cbd1984 12y ago

> what many consider the first PC (the Altair 8800) was out There's a good case to be made that the first personal computer was introduced in 1971, and had actually ceased production in 1973: http://www.kenbak-1.net/ http://www.kenbak-1.net/ The Altair 8800 is more important as a predecessor on the main line of microcomputer development, but the basic idea of a computer a single individual human being who wasn't massively wealthy could own was actually, to some small extent, achieved a few years before anything that would evolve into the rest of the microcomputer line was in existence. (To be technical, the Kenbak-1 can't be in the microcomputer line because it wasn't a microcomputer, because its CPU was built out of discrete components as opposed to having been a microprocessor.)

digi_owl 12y ago
Seems to me that the computers that come and then fade again have one thing in common, limited expandability. The Altair 8800 brought with it the S-100 bus. And you find a similar bus (ISA) on the early IBM PC. both of these meant that a single "core structure" could be made to do multiple things.
KC8ZKF 12y ago
The Altair took advantage of the recent microprocessor, which was the real innovation AFIC.

vidarh 12y ago

And Alay Kays Dynabook proposal [1] was written in 1972, based on work dating back to the late 60's. There's the interesting question of what developments Clarke were aware of at the time, but yes, multiple people were envisioning these things back then. Many of them were also extrapolating from Vannevar Bush's Memex, as described in As We May Think, in the Atlantic in 1945 [2] taking account the intervening advances in technology. [1] http://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay72.html http://www.mprove.de/diplom/gui/kay72.html [2] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-ma...