Return to "Visible Storage"

*** Please note, this page (and web site) are in early development.
Items are certainly not complete, and may be inaccurate.
Your information, comments, corrections, etc. are eagerly requested.
Click here to e-mail Ed. Please include the URL under discussion. Thank you ***

KENBAK-1

Manufacturer KENBAK
Identification,ID KENBAK-1
Date of first manufacture1971
Number produced about 40
Estimated price or cost$750
location in museum -
donor -

Contents of this page:

Photo
KENBAK-1

Placard
-

Architecture
Len Shustek is quoted as saying -
"So what was the first commercially available PC? Well, according to the results of a 1986 contest sponsored by The (Boston) Computer Museum, it wasS "none of the above". Instead, the winner was the Kenback-1, designed by John Blankenbaker in 1971. It predated microprocessors, had 3 programming registers, 5 addressing modes, and 256 bytes of memory. Price $750."

Special features
  • this site)say KENBAK-1 had 0.25 K Bytes.
  • this site says it had no provision for digital I/O
  • and Popular Mechanics says it has no microprocessor! It also has quite a discussion of "first" or "early" personal computers.

Historical Notes
Widely regarded as the first Commercially Available personal computer.

This detail appeared on e-bay on April 27, 2010

This Artifact
-

Interesting Web Sites

Other information
-

If you have comments or suggestions, Send e-mail to Ed Thelen

Go to Antique Computer home page
Go to Visual Storage page
Go to top

Updated April 27, 2010