Sinclair Model That Influenced Apple?
Skylamar Jones
and Steve Wozniak before they built their first Apple. The computer
didn't use a screen, it only had lights and switches and came as a kit.
I remember seeing it in a documentary but I don't remember which movie.
I thought the computer was a Sinclair computer but I couldn't find a
computer like it in the Sinclair entry in Wikipedia so I may be wrong.
Any idea which computer it is? Thanks.
Howard Brazee
Does this help?
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Steve:Wozniak.htm
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Skylamar Jones
Ira Lieberman <iml.rem...@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> You're probably thinking of the Altair, not the Sinclair
You are right! It's the Altair. Thanks!
David Empson
> On Sat, 22 May 2010 19:42:03 -0700, Skylamar Jones
> <skyl...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> You're probably thinking of the Altair, not the Sinclair. The Altair
> is generally acknowledged to be the world's first personal computer,
> and it had no keyboard or monitor, just lights for output and switches
> for input. The Altair dates back to 1976, IIRC.
It was the MITS Altair 8800.
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800
--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz
Warren Oates
Fred Bambrough <fred@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
> That was the ZX80. Before that was the Sinclair MK14 which used LEDs.
I have one of those in my basement somewhere. I remember I opened it up
to adapt the channel 3 thing to pick up the composite video so I could
use a computer monitor with it, so it has a little wire with an RCA plug
dangling out of it. It didn't look any better. I got pretty good at Z80
assembly language. You had to gaffer-tape the memory pack to the damned
thing though.
--
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Jon
It was the other way around, Sinclair got his inspiration from an advert
for the Apple II+ in an 1979 edition of the now sadly defunct 'Personal
Computer World'.
He looked at the price and thought "How f*cking much!", and set to work
on his volkscomputer, the ZX80.
mick
The Apple 1 was released in 1976. Woz would have been playing with an
Altair.
--
Mick
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William
Woz actually started playing with minicomputer designs, which led to
the eventual design of the cream soda computer, a small mini computer
he built with high school friends. Seeing the altair 8800, he felt he
had already passed over from lights and switches. He didn't buy an
altair, but decided to integrate a cpu into his previously designed
video terminal. Steve Jobs didn't help design any of the early apple
computers.
OwenBot
he figured it was too expensive for most people to be able to afford
and set about doing something cheaper. In 1984 I wanted a Mac, but I
got a ZX Spectrum. However, the ZX Spectrum can now emulate the Apple
I. Well, it's a start. :)
Eric Rucker
There's also Micro Men, a BBC documentary on Sinclair's computing
history (and Acorn's history during the same time period.)
The only mention of Apple in there is that Apple's computers cost too
much.
Geoff Wearmouth
> The only mention of Apple in there is that Apple's computers cost too
> much.
switches and a keyboard. The ZX80 followed in 1980.
"One of the features of the ZX80 was that it could be programmed using
a version of the Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - the
BASIC computer language, involving the use of instructions that are
very similar to their English-language equivalents. Its popularity
among US hobbyists in the late 1970s made it a natural choice for
Sinclair and the development of microcomputers in the US was a major
influence on the creation of the Sinclair line. Norman Hewett, the
Sinclair Radionics MD, confirms that Sir Clive had his eye on the
American computer markets as early as 1977:
[Clive] and I were both in Las Vegas in 1977 at the Electronics Fair.
Apple was there, I think for the first or second time, and of course
he spent most of his time going round looking at Apple and the other
computer firms, with a view to doing the same thing himself.
(Interview, 16 October 1985.)"
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zx81/zx81_sst.htm
--
I shall have to get the black out.
http://www.wearmouth.demon.co.uk/jav/onerr.htm
Darrell Stec
I think Radio Electronics magazine (or whatever it was known back then) had
something called The Dazzler. This links says Byte but I only remember
something like RE or Computer Electronics carrying the article on how to
roll your own.
http://www.altair32.com/pdf/Cromemco_Dazzler_Instruction_Manual.pdf
AH and while I hate to use a Wiki as any kind of legitimate source, this
link sounds about right:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Dazzler
--
Later,
Darrell
Brian Gaff
Brian
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"mick" <not....@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:hu8s8o$2fn9$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
Bill Garber
"Brian Gaff" <Bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:huaalh$3fj$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> Brian
Do you mean this thing?
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=961
Bill
Stan Barr
<will...@garberstreet.com> wrote:
>
> "Brian Gaff" <Bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:huaalh$3fj$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>> What was that mk14 or whatever it was called then?
>> Brian
>
> Do you mean this thing?
>
> http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=961
Replacement keyboard, of course, (mine has too!) the original was a
ghastly rubber mambrane.
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The future was never like this!
William
> "Brian Gaff" <Bria...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
>
> news:huaalh$3fj$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> > What was that mk14 or whatever it was called then?
> > Brian
>
> Do you mean this thing?
>
> http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=961
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> > Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
> > in the display name may be lost.
> > Blind user, so no pictures please!
> >news:hu8s8o$2fn9$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> >> On Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:08:06 +0100, Jon wrote:
>
> >>> On 23/05/2010 3:42am, Skylamar Jones wrote:
> >>>> Hi. I'm trying to find the name of a computer that influenced Steve
> >>>> Jobs and Steve Wozniak before they built their first Apple. The
> >>>> computer didn't use a screen, it only had lights and switches and came
> >>>> as a kit. I remember seeing it in a documentary but I don't remember
> >>>> which movie. I thought the computer was a Sinclair computer but I
> >>>> couldn't find a computer like it in the Sinclair entry in Wikipedia so
> >>>> I may be wrong. Any idea which computer it is? Thanks.
>
> >>> It was the other way around, Sinclair got his inspiration from an advert
> >>> for the Apple II+ in an 1979 edition of the now sadly defunct 'Personal
> >>> Computer World'.
>
> >>> He looked at the price and thought "How f*cking much!", and set to work
> >>> on his volkscomputer, the ZX80.
>
> >> The Apple 1 was released in 1976. Woz would have been playing with an
> >> Altair.
>
> >> --
> >> Mick
>
Wow 1978 that came along after the apple one and the apple ][
Bill Garber
"William" <wmmul...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:beaee99b-c390-4622...@t10g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...
It does not say that, it says this:
" Chris Curry, who believed much more than Clive Sinclair in the future of
such computers, left the company in 1978, founded Acorn Computers with
Herman Hauser and built its fist computer kit, the System 1. A few months
later, Clive Sinclair decided that computers were a good way to raise money
and started a new project: a complete computer for less than �100. "
Broken down: Chris Curry left the company in 1978 and founded Acorn Computers
with Herman Hauser and built the SYSTEM 1. That led Clive Sinclair to decide
that computers could make money, and caused him to start his own project.
Am I wrong? From other sources, the MK14 was actually created in 1976, at
the same time as the Apple One. Still no big deal by comparison, though.
Bill
Geoffrey S. Mendelson
>
> Broken down: Chris Curry left the company in 1978 and founded Acorn Computers
> with Herman Hauser and built the SYSTEM 1. That led Clive Sinclair to decide
> that computers could make money, and caused him to start his own project.
>
> Am I wrong? From other sources, the MK14 was actually created in 1976, at
> the same time as the Apple One. Still no big deal by comparison, though.
Not necessiarly. I expect that Sir Clive had wanted to build a home computer
a lot sooner, but was unable to get the parts cheap enough to make the price
point he wanted to.
Chris Curry may have left because he wanted to do it at a higher price or
lower profit margin.
Geoff.
--
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New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.
Eric Rucker
wrote:
> Not necessiarly. I expect that Sir Clive had wanted to build a home computer
> a lot sooner, but was unable to get the parts cheap enough to make the price
> point he wanted to.
>
> Chris Curry may have left because he wanted to do it at a higher price or
> lower profit margin.
If you Micro Men is accurate (it is a dramatization,) Bill actually
got it basically right - Sinclair felt that there wasn't any interest
in personal computers, and wanted to keep all funding towards what
became the Sinclair C5.
Hauser convinced Curry to leave Sinclair and start Acorn.
After that, Sinclair saw the opportunity to make cheap computers, and
the rest was history.
Duncan Snowden
> If you Micro Men is accurate (it is a dramatization,)
And a loose one at that. You may well be right, but I wouldn't set much
store by Micro Men.
--
Duncan Snowden.
Chris Ridd
But it was on TV, it must be true! ;-)
--
Chris
Michael J. Mahon
To address the original topic, I think it's safe to conclude
that no Sinclair model influenced Apple in any way.
-michael
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Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
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Walter Banks
mick wrote:
> The Apple 1 was released in 1976. Woz would have been playing with an
> Altair.
The Homebrew computer club at SLAC (part of Stanford University) had a
big influence on many of the early computer developers. Woz was regular
there. These folks displayed prototypes regularly and got a lot of feedback.
There was a critical mass of very bright guys there.
w..