Intel didn't build the first PC because...

YESTERDAY, we told you all about the Exhibitions, Film Festival, Marketplace, and T-shirts at this weekend’s tenth annual Vintage Computer Festival (VCF 10)

Vintage Computer Festival founder Sellam Ismail is an inquisitive geek. So VCF 10 had lots of Speakers explaining some of the early history of computing.

In 1971, Intel introduced two new devices: an EPROM (electronically programmable read only memory) and a microprocessor. Dr. Zbigniew Stachniak (from Department of Computer Science, York University, North York, Canada) traced the reasons why Intel didn't build the first PC. Stachniak said the first reason was simple; Intel didn't see the PC revolution coming. The second reason: after they figured out there was a market, they didn't want to. That last one made no sense to me. So I'll let you in on what Dr. Stachniak found out.

Intel at that time was strictly a semiconductor manufacturer and its management was reluctant to promote new technology. Intel also had to deal with the fact Busicom owned the rights to the MSC-4 chip set. Busicom was the Japanese calculator company which had Intel, the semiconductor manufacturer, build them a functional microprocessor - Intel's original goal was to make that calculator chip set more cost effective to manufacturer. In May 1971, they got the rights to MSC-4 they needed.

Come November 1971, Intel showed their prototype SIM 4 board at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in Las Vegas. On the first day, they had 25 visitors and by day three there was standing room only. The PC revolution was launched!

During the summer of 1972 Intel got a new VP of marketing – Ed Galbach – who immediately set out to sell memory chips by promoting microprocessor sales. In fall 1972, Intel's sales staff realized they had to educate customers on what to do with this new fangled silicon-based microprocessor. This meant their engineering folks had to build hardware and software with top notch documentation.

Intel's documentation was a key factor in the first microprocessor PC being developed by obscure electronics firms as well as the computer hobbyist involvement of the early 1970's. In summer 1973, Intel management figured out their SIM 8 (8008 simulator board) was selling in the $1 million dollar range. Customers building one-of-a-kind systems were buying lower cost SIM 8 boards rather than purchasing individual parts and hand-assembling chip sets.

Dr. Stachniak played “Trivial Pursuit” by reminding the audience of seemingly insignificant early 8008-based commercial systems, including Micral (1973) R2E from Paris, France; MCM/70 (1973) Micro Computer Machines from Toronto, Canada; and Intel's training tool, The Intellec 8 (1973). Then he talked about some of the early hobbyist systems such as May 1974 Sceblbi Computer Consulting's Sceblbi 8-4 or Jonathan Titus' September 1974 Mark-8 to name just a few. Fast forward to 1983 and Intel was training 20,000 customers a year about microprocessor design through 25 courses and making over $12 million a year. Excuse the scribbler cliché, but 'the rest is history' ...

Albert Hoagland talked about the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center. Al is Executive Director of the Center and explained their restoration of a RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) disk drive the Center got through a loan from IBM. In 1956, IBM's 350 with the RAMAC was the first computer system to use magnetic disk storage. Hoagland was on the design team that developed the RAMAC. It was the size of a refrigerator and had a whopping 5 megabytes. He pointed out that three or four of today’s average digital pictures take up all that space – let alone the tens of megabytes for one photo in RAW f ormat. Dr. Hoagland created the first academic department for the study of magnetic media and was instrumental in designating the original RAMAC building a national historical building.

Then Dr. Shrikant Desai, formerly with Shugart Associates and a patent holder of bright ideas about disk drive stuff, showed us the evolution of Disk Drives from 14 inch size down to the 3.5 inch hard drive. Shrikant brought along various sizes of media, as well as early prototype disk drive read/write heads. He was on the team which used NASA Labs wind tunnel to get the proper design for a “flying read/write head” resting less than 8 millions of an inch above the magentic media – your average human hair is .003 inches in diameter. Next time your hard drive dies, take it apart and find out what goes on inside that black case. (Looks a lot like an old phonograph player.)

Sir William Gates III (lately with Vole software) once said the “Home Computing Revolution” was started by Radio Shack's TRS-80. Radio Shack released the TRS-80 in August of 1977, and in honor of the 30th birthday, David and Theresa Welsh decided to stop collecting material and get their book into print. Their VCF 10 talk was based on Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution and their experiences as developers of LAZY WRITER, a TRS-80 word smithing tool.

Tandy Corporation (the TRS-80's parent) got into the computer business because Dan French, a computer hobbyist who worked for them, suggested that they capitalize on the latest craze, home-built computers. Dur ing a buying trip to Silicon Valley, Tandy folks were shown the latest microprocessor. The engineer who showed them the microprocessors also worked evenings at one the first computer stores. Eventually Tandy hired young Steve Leininger away from Silicon Valley and told him to build a machine they could sell cheap. Leininger working alone in an old saddle factory, built the first TRS-80 for a total investment of less than $150,000. With a retail price to customers of $599.95

David & Theresa had the audience laughing with their anecdotes about the attitudes of Tandy management through their reign as number-one-in-volume computer manufacturer in the world. The public wanted Personal Computers. The pent up volume of orders after the first TRS-80 was shown at a Boston Computer Faire was amazing. On the Monday morning following the show weekend, Tandy's corporate phone system had blown up. 15,000 calls had stacked up. The product line had been built around selling, maybe, 10,000 or so. Unfortunately for the product department, but a boon for their bottom line, they had over 250,000 orders in the first year.

TRS-80 clones were marching along to their own drummer.

The Welsh's explained the history of the TRSDOS replacements – five of them.

Up popped a magazine publishing industry, user group clubs, and of course, a rumor mill using BBS and eventually FIDOnet - all dedicated to the TRS-80. If you ever played with one in a Radio Shack store or better yet owned a TRS-80, then read David & Theresa Welsh’s book.

Lee Felsenstein is a computer engineer who played a central role in the deve lopment of the personal computer. He was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club, and the designer of the Osborne 1, the first mass-produced portable computer. Lee gave a historical summary of some of the things he thinks were important to the development of the personal computer.

Felsenstein defined the 1975 computer world as mostly mainframes with a few minis. Department heads almost always found comfort in the adage 'You won't get fired for buying IBM'. Individual employees were not significant – corporate decision makers ruled with an iron fist.

Lee believes the characteristics of a “Revolution” are

Overturns the existing order

Involves participation by large numbers of people

Opens unexpected possibilities beyond original vision

But the participants are often disappointed with the results.

Felsenstein had a lot of ideas on the historical roots of “PC Revolution”. The Zeitgeist (originally a German expression that means "the spirit of the age” ) of curious kids who wanted to do their own programming and not stand in line before the alter of a college owned mainframe. Lee shared his personal experiences as an early Homebrew hardware guy. He talked about what it was like to share ideas and see someone bring in a revision in a week that worked differently – better – faster ...

Lee has some strong opinions on what he sees wrong today. High on his list is 1) the dominance of Microsoft software and its determent of individual inventi veness 2) Hardware and software is increasingly inaccessible for the average users. 3) The commidization of the computer and his disdain for the continuing acceptance of unreliability.

Felsenstein had pluses and minuses for the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) concept. Plus is the ground breaking hardware and software designs. A big Minus is it’s marketed as if the PC revolution hadn't happened: Sold to Government by political networking – Not allowed to set up pilot projects - No input from users (kids, teachers, or parents) – Sold as a totem. As a result, the marketing model is a failure. Now the designers are recognizing that pilot projects are required so people have the opportunity to evaluate, influence, rework, and redefine OLPC hardware and software.

Pretty powerful stuff from the designer of the first mass-produced portable computer. Lee Felsenstein summed it all up with these two slides.

And this scribbler left out eleven other speaker sessions. Next year come on out yourself; meet Sellam Ismail and his ole geek buddies at the Vintage Computer Festival. µ