| Posted by Steve L. | March 09, 2018 - 02:35 pm |
| Hi Jacob, As you can see above, our bountiful table of first-minicomputer candidates runs from 1960 to 1965, so with the Elbit coming in 1969, it would be tough to call it one the first. In 1968, DEC had introduced the PDP-8/i as a successor to the iconic, original PDP-8 and there were scores of competitors. Nevertheless, the Elbit was an interesting machine. For one thing, it offered users access to the microcode control storage (programmed with resistors!), so they could create new instructions. Also, it was touted as selling for as low as $4900, which seems aggressive for the time. However, DEC would introduce the chart-busting PDP-8/e in 1970 for the introductory price of $6500. By 1974, it was going for just $4490, including installation. So it was an exciting time for small computers and the companies who made them. Reminds me of the apocryphal "Chinese curse," "May you live in interesting times" :) Thank you for the stimulating post! |
| Posted by Jacob Baal-Schem | March 09, 2018 - 01:14 pm |
| Can the Elbit 100 produced by Elbit Computers Ltd and exhibited on May 2, 1969 be seen as one of the first minicomputers? |
| Posted by Steve L. | January 24, 2014 - 04:01 pm |
| Hi Edfair, Yes indeed, the IBM 1401 was available in a configuration with just the left-half of the cabinet pictured in Part-II of this article. As you note, it had 1.4Kbytes of memory. And as you say, it still would not have qualified. However, that's an excellent suggestion, to include mention of this smaller configuration in the honorable mention. I will do so. Thank you for mentioning the credit card billing operation. That's an excellent illustration of how much they were able to do with such modest computers! |
| Posted by edfair | January 24, 2014 - 11:54 am |
| You could have noted the baby 1401, half the size of the one pictured. Only saw one, Hess Oil, Atlanta, running credit card billing. 1.4 K IIRC, with 1402 Reader/Punch and 1403 printer. Still wouldn't have qualified. |
| Posted by Steve L. | October 22, 2014 - 08:21 am |
| Dear Computermuseum Stuttgart, We appreciate the permission previously received to publish the photo and have added the copyright notice to the photo from there. Please note that copyrights, attribution and links are also provided for in the Acknowledgements section of this article. (The source of the LGP-30 scope screen is covered there.) Please contact me directly if there is anything else that I can help with. Warm Regards, Steve [PS: You might need to refresh your browser pages to see the changes.] |
| Posted by Computermuseum Stuttgart | January 24, 2014 - 04:48 am |
| Please add copyright notices to our LGP-30 photos! These photos are our property. |