Yesterday. What Was the First Personal Computer?

Many computer historians say the first PC was born in 1975, when the electronic hobby kit Altair 8800 was offered for sale. Others date the first PC to 1977, when the first Apple II computer was built. That was the same year Radio Shack introduced its TRS-80 Model I, and Commodore introduced the PET. In truth, both the Apple II and the TRS-80 can be considered the first popular PCs, but neither was the very first. Let's take a look at a few selected "firsts."

The kitchen computer. One contender dates back to 1969, when Nieman-Marcus, an elegant Texas department store, offered the Honeywell H316 "Kitchen Computer" in its mail order catalog. It cost $10,600 and could be programmed for menu planning, tracking golf scores, monitoring stock market investments—even managing a charity ball membership list.

The kit computer. Another PC kit similar to the now-famous Altair 8800 was introduced in 1973, two years before the Altair 8800. Called the Mark-8, it was the creation of Jonathan Titus of Blacksburg, Virginia. It had no keyboard, but could be programmed by flipping eight toggle switches. One magazine called it a minicomputer; perhaps the term microcomputer hadn't yet been invented.

The first IBM PC? IBM created what might be termed a PC in 1973. It was called the SCAMP, for Special Computer APL Machine Portable. It had a keyboard, a cassette tape drive for storage, and a tiny screen. While amusing, it was never sold to the public.

The Sol-1. Les Solomon, an editor at Popular Electronics magazine, suggested the design for an early PC and ended up having it named after him. The Processor Technology Sol-1 was designed by Lee Felsenstein, who went on to design the Osborne-1. The Sol-1 debuted in 976 in a typewriter-style enclosure with wooden sides. Only one program worked on it, Electric Pencil, a word processor.

The Commercial PC. By 1976, several California companies had decided there was a market for a personal computer. Among them were Altos, Vector Graphic, North Star, and Alpha Micro. Small businesses that couldn't afford a minicomputer were their target market. These "high-end" micros, as they were called, were expensive—some in the $10,000-plus range.