It's a Minivac 601, from 1961. Brand new, it cost $85. Click to embiggen. The advertising was very Space Age:
The advertising leaflet stated "The Minivac 601 is a unique digital computer - the small brother of huge electronic brains that are the new tools of science and industry".Unfortunately, the world would have to wait another decade for the software that would actually make a personal computer the Must-Have accessory for every geeky kid. I should know.
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ReplyDeleteBrigid, my first computer class was on a mainframe. Room full of computers with processing power you will soon have in an iPhone.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was COBOL on Hollerith cards.
I got better. I think.
;-)
According to a friend who was the first personal computer owners I knew in the 70's, the first real killer-app computer software was VisiCalc. It turned weekend finance warriors into Wall Street playboy geniuses.
ReplyDeleteTrue that on VisiCalc.
ReplyDeleteI need some of these old machines to tinker with. Nice techpr0n Ted.
Dirtcrashr, good call. Visicalc made the Apple II viable for businesses in the late 1970s, right before IBM swept up the market with the PC and Lotus 1-2-3.
ReplyDeleteWhat's cool about this one is that it was from ten years before that.
Chris, great name for a post tag!
I really wanted an XT even though I suck at teh Maths and am relegated to a life of pixel pushing - it took a while before GRASP 3.0 was stable even when we were on the phone with Bridges all the time, it was a big step up from 2.0 and 4.0 was total awesomeness...
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