24k #24 — Datapoint 1150

In episode #23, from earlier today, we talked about the Micral C, descendent of what is claimed to be the first commercial, non-kit, microprocessor-based personal computer. The original Micral was mostly Just Another Box of Intel 8008, the C model was Just Another Box of Intel 8080 plus half a desk.

Building the first microprocessor really was something. Building the first microprocessor-based system is almost the opposite. It means the builder was the first to work less hard than everybody else. First clean commercial fusion power? A thing. First commercial, non-kit ice cream made with clean commercial fusion power? Not a thing. It’s an especially sore point when the microprocessor involved was the Intel 8008. Back in those olden days and, weirdly, in these new days, Intel was a company that designed and made stuff that customers asked them to make. Picture the scene in 1969:

Busicom: Hey, Intel, make us an integrated version of our desktop calculator architecture.

Intel: Sure… two years pass … but here’s a general-purpose computer actually. We’re calling it the microprocessor. This, then, would be the first microprocessor.

Busicom: Cool, cool. We put it in the calculator and it works.

Picture also this scene in 1969:

Computer Terminal Corporation: Hey, Intel, make us an integrated version of our processor architecture for this programmable terminal.

Intel: Sure… two years pass … here’s the 1201 but nevermind actually. It doesn’t work.

CTC: Please show your work.

Intel: OK, here are some drawings and stuff

CTC: We’re going to give this to TI to make instead.

TI: Hello, fellow Texas computer company. We’ll make it. Oh, wait actually never mind. It doesn’t work.

CTC: We’re actually a terminal company but fine. We’ll go build the same architecture out of discrete parts and it’s faster anyway. Here’s our programmable terminal with peripherals. I guess you could call it a computer but all of our customers are buying these to connect to Computers with a capital C so why rock the boat? 1971 is going to be a good year with our programmable Datapoint 2200 terminal.

Intel: Hey, we fixed the 1201. We, um, it, um, we added two pins.

CTC: Don’t call here no more. You can keep your copy of our design. We’re not paying.

Meanwhile …

Seiko: Hey, Intel. We love that 4004 you made for our rival Busicom but that you won’t sell to us. Let’s up the ante.

Intel: You wanted to up the ante on the 4004? Try our 1201^H^H^H^H 8008!

Seiko: Cool, cool, we put it in this calculator and it works.

Time passes … it is now 1973

Micral: BEHOLD THE FIRST COMMERCIAL NON-KIT MICROPROCESSOR-BASED PERSONAL COMPUTER!

Seiko: FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN’T READ JAPANESE, right? We already have a line of peripherals for our S-500 personal programmable desk computer based on the same microprocessor and you barely have a front panel.

CTC: Whatever, losers. We’re moving upmarket into terminals built into furniture.

Time passes … it is now 1976

CTC: Here’s the Datapoint 1150. It’s an Enhanced Intelligent Terminal that takes up a whole desk, has networking, double precision arithmetic, up to four floppies, and 24k of user memory.

Everybody: Wait what? What does it even mean for a terminal to have networking and user memory. That’s practically a minicomputer.

CTC: We’re the Computer Terminal Company. It’s a Terminal. We make terminals and sell them to people with computers. We’re executing our core business.

Everybody: Yeah, but that’s a computer.

CTC: Nonsense. Only one person at a time can use our terminals. Are you suggesting that there are personal computers?

The Datapoint 1150 terminal (image Datapoint)

Time passes… The year is 1977

Micral: BEHOLD! WE TOO HAVE A FURNITURE-BASED MACHINE EXPANDABLE TO 24K! HOWEVER OURS IS A PERSONAL COMPUTER AND TOTALLY NOT A SERIAL TERMINAL SITTING ON HALF A TABLE SITTING ON A BOX. DID WE MENTION THAT OURS IS MICROPROCESSOR-BASED? DO NOT BE CONCERNED THAT OUR TOTALLY INTEGRATED VIDEO CONSOLE HAS KEYS FOR BREAK, DUPLEX, AND BAUD.

And then really quite a lot of time passed. The year is now 2024. Datapoint and Micral are both long gone. You can get into the blow-by-blow of the final moments of each but what’s the point? The microprocessors, made by Intel and others, may not have been performant at first but they were cheap. They were disruptive. How can you tell if something is disruptive? If it’s a toddler or a dinner guest, it’s kind of a vibes thing. If it’s a product, it means that an industry gets disrupted — so closer to the Romulan sense of that word. The microprocessor helped create an industry of companies that could easily design whatever computer they wanted as long as the heart was something supplied by the great microprocessor houses. Intel pivoted from a firm that did work for others to a firm that told the industry how it was. If Intel said “Centrino”, Dell and Gateway said “how high?”. Now, I’m writing this post on an iPad powered by a microprocessor designed by Apple. Is it a terminal or a computer or a calculator or a video phone? I don’t know. It’s faster than all my old Intel-based Apple computers, though. Meanwhile, Intel has an exciting new business in making chips for other people. What’s old is new again.

The Datapoint 1150 is our final entry in the 24 x 24k for 2024 series. If there is a point to the series, maybe it’s that 24k is 24k — quite a lot whether you call the machine a home computer, a portable computer, a calculator, a video game, a chess computer, a synthesizer, a pocket computer, a programmable logic controller, a microcontroller, an engine control unit, a flight computer, a terminal, a mainframe, a digital signal processor. We covered all of them this year. I mean, I wrote the articles but all of you had to read them. Thanks, readers, for a great 2024.