[inforoots] GRiD and the IEEE 488 GPIB

['Computer Collector Newsletter']

>>>> Was Micro Computer Machinery of Kingston & Toronto, Ontario the first
"PC" with their little APL machine of the mid 70's??.  It was small enough
to be called a laptop

I happened to ask the same question of Zbigniew Stachniak last summer.
Zbigniew is an MCM expert; he wrote an article for the September 2003 issue
of CORE.  http://www.computerhistory.org/archive/CORE4.1.pdf  (It begins on
page six.)
 
My email to him said, "Do you consider the MCM a desktop or a portable?"
 
He replied, "The MCM/70 was intended to be both -- mostly to sit on a desk
but also to be transportable from one place to another (there was a special
case to carry it). A number of early users used the MCM/70 as a portable
device dragging it from home to an office and back to home (I think, I'm
quoting one such person who did just that in my paper "The MCM/70
Microcomputer", Annals of the History of Computing, 2003. I was told by one
of the MCM employees that an early model of the MCM/70 was taken by someone
on a three month sailing cruse. The MCM/70 box was returned covered in salt
but it was still working -- clearly 'portable'.)"

  _____  

From: inforoots-bounces at computerhistory.org
[mailto:inforoots-bounces at computerhistory.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Robinson
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 5:14 PM
To: Open Discussion about the history of the Information Age;
inforoots at computerhistory.org
Subject: Re: [inforoots] GRiD and the IEEE 488 GPIB


This is just a shot into the darkness of computing history.  Was Micro
Computer Machinery of Kingston & Toronto, Ontario the first "PC" with their
little APL machine of the mid 70's??.  It was small enough to be called a
laptop

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