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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
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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 Artifact
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Interesting Web Sites

Other information
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Updated March 4, 2007