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2022-08-26
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In February, 1980, Sinclair Research
announced the ZX80 computer in the
North American market -- billed as
the VW of Home Computers. It used a
3.25 Mhz NEC Technologies 780-1 8-bit
microprocessor, and came with 1 KB
RAM and 4 KB ROM.
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The Sinclair ZX80 <Press Key>
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Apple Computer introduced the
Apple III in May at the National
Computer Conference, in Anaheim,
California. The Apple III used a 2 MHz
6502A microprocessor, and included a
5.25-inch floppy drive and 128 KB RAM.
Prices ranged from $4500 to $8000.
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In October, 1980, Microsoft's Paul
Allen contacted Seattle Computer
Products' Tim Patterson, asking for
the rights to sell SCP's DOS to an
unnamed client (IBM). Microsoft paid
less than $100,000 for the right.
This was obviously a trick learned
from Jack Tramiel of CBM, who
reportedly paid struggling Microsoft
$7,000 to put BASIC 2.0 on the PET
computers.
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"Computers for the Masses,
not the Classes."
Jack Tramiel
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Now things really start to roll.
At the January, 1981, Consumer
Electronics Show, Commodore Business
Machines announced the VIC-20, with
full-size 61-key plus four function
key keyboard, 5 KB RAM expandable to
32 KB, 6502A CPU, 22 character by 23
line text display, and color graphics,
for $299.
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Commodore took out aggressive ads
featuring William Shatner asking, "Why
buy just a video game?" The strategy
worked and the VIC-20 became the first
computer to ship more than one million
units. A total of 2.5 million units
were sold over the machine's lifetime.
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William Shatner & VIC <Press Key>
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Adam Osborne, of Osborne Computer,
introduced the Osborne 1 Personal
Business Computer at the West Coast
Computer Faire in April. A CP/M
machine, it featured a Z80A CPU,
5-inch display, 64 KB RAM, keyboard,
keypad, modem, and two 5.25-inch 100
KB disk drives all in one portable
("luggable") 24 pound case, for
$1795. It came loaded with some
$1500 worth of software, including
CP/M, BASIC, WordStar, and SuperCalc.
Osborne anticipated selling 10,000 in
total, but sales quickly reached
10,000 in a single month.
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The Osborne 1 <Press Key>
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In May, Xerox unveiled the Star
8010, at the National Computer
Conference. Many features that were
developed at PARC (Palo Alto Research
Center) were incorporated, including a
bitmapped screen, WYSIWYG word
processor, mouse, laser printer,
Smalltalk language, Ethernet, and
software for combining text and
graphics in the same document. At a
starting price of $16-17,000, the
computer was not a commercial success.
During its lifetime, 100,000 units
were produced.
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Xerox Star 8010 <Press Key>
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