Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
what degree, any of these criteria. There is little but anecdotal
evidence for its impact on desktop computer development at
IBM
in the mid-1970s. One can only conjecture that the 1973
exhibits and demonstrations of the
MCM
/70 and the favour-
able, sometimes enthusiastic, media reports on the revolution-
of universal and affordable access to computing in the not-so-
distant future. Indeed, a compact, all-in-one
MCM
/70 displayed
next to a refrigerator-sized minicomputer during a computer
show provided the first glimpse of a new computing paradigm
based on individual use and ownership.
MCM
was possibly the earliest company to fully recognize,
articulate, and act upon the immense potential of microproces-
sor technology for the development of a new generation of
cost-effective, individual user-oriented computing systems. The
annals of
MCM
and the corporate histories of companies such
as
R
2
E
, together with an account of the microcomputer hobby-
ists' movement that was to erupt at the end of 1974, paint a
more complete picture of a budding personal computer indus-
try. We see it grew from its humble beginnings, when it tried
to define its purpose and open up new markets in terms of slow
8-bit machines, to its more mature state at the end of the 1970s,
when the microcomputing landscape was shared by a myriad
of microcomputer hardware and software manufacturers. The
picture that emerges exhibits two paths originating from the
same point, which was defined by the early systems activities
was marked out by the commercial activities of companies such
as
MCM
and the French
R
2
E
, while the second was charted by
the computer hobbyists. Both paths, mostly independent of each
other, began to merge in the late 1970s when the hobby com-
puter industry started to decline under pressure from the com-
mercial manufacturers of desktop microcomputers and from
the consumer electronics industry, which came up with a new
gadget - the home computer.
