At the Beginning, There Were Two - Inventing the PC - page 13

operated mainframe computers of a similar configuration to
that installed at York. 5 What Kutt wanted from Ramer was not
only a new, highly memory-efficient APL language but also a
memory management system that could overcome the twenty-
eight-kilobyte memory deficit.
Ramer recognized that almost everything in Kutt's proposal
was uncharted territory, from defining and building to actually
marketing the personal computer of the future. In Ramer's own
field of expertise, no one had ever developed and implemented
a high-level programming language, such as APL , to run on a
microprocessor. He had to admit, however, that Kutt's ideas, if
successfully realized, could open up a new and potentially vast
market of small personal computers. And, of course, they could
both become very rich, very fast. This was probably why Ramer
agreed to team up with Kutt.
On 28 December 1971 Mers Kutt incorporated Kutt Systems
Incorporated ( KSI ) in Toronto, with the purpose of designing,
building, and marketing a small APL computer. Kutt became
the president of KSI , and Ramer, who offered the rights to York
APL in exchange for 30,000 common shares of KSI , assumed
the sole responsibility for equipping the computer with APL
software. Their computer would be known as the MCM /70. It
was unveiled in 1973 to thunderous applause from the technical
and popular press in North America and Europe. The era of
personal computing was about to begin.
But before any of the MCM /70s would be shipped out to its
users, KSI (renamed as Micro Computer Machines) would have
to weather prolonged corporate turmoil - from a devastating
power struggle and employee revolt to personal resignations
and financial collapse.