Kenbak-1
| 300px
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] Only 40 machines were ever built and sold. It was designed and invented by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation in 1970, and was first sold in early 1971. The system first sold for US$750.[3] Only 14 machines are believed to exist worldwide,[4] in the hands of various collectors. Production of the Kenbak-1 stopped in 1973[5] 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.[6]
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.[7] The 8-bit machine offered 256 bytes of memory.[8] 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.[7]
To use the machine, one had to program it with a series of buttons and switches, using pure machine code. Output consisted of a series of lights.
See also
- Datapoint 2200, a contemporary machine with alphanumeric screen and keyboard, suitable to run non-trivial application programs.
References
- ↑ http://www.compustory.com/Pioneers.html[dead link]
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ p. 52, "The First Personal Computer", Popular Mechanics, January 2000.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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)
