Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
by Zbigniew Stachniak
In May 1973, Micro Computer Machines, a Toronto-based electronics company, gave a public demonstration of a small computer called the MCM/70. Powered by a microprocessor and operated with APL, a sophisticated programming language, the MCM/70 was positioned to be a practical, affordable, and easy-to-use personal computer – the very first of its kind.
Inventing the PC details the invention and design of the MCM/70 computer and the prolonged struggle to bring it to market. Zbigniew Stachniak offers an insider’s view of events on the front lines of pioneering work on personal computers. He shows what information and options PC pioneers had, how well engineers and entrepreneurs understood the revolutionary effect personal computers would have on society, and how that understanding – or lack thereof – shaped both their engineering ingenuity and the indecisiveness and over-reaching ambition that would ultimately turn a very promising venture into a missed opportunity.
Providing comprehensive historical background and rich photographic documentation, Inventing the PC tells the story of a Canadian company on the cutting-edge of the information age.
Click the links below, or scroll down, to view additional information |
Zbigniew Stachniak is an associate professor of computer science, York University, and the curator of York University’s Computer Museum.
Download pictures from inside the book
Download the high resolution cover
“And now we are ready to begin. The year is 1971, the place, Toronto, Canada. There are no personal computers on the consumer market yet – but one will soon be in the making.”
“The message was clear and the media liked it: ‘The MCM/70 … brings to the world of computing what the $100 hand-held calculator brought to the world of calculators,’ wrote Machine Design in November 1973.”
“A few simple programming examples included in the MCM/70’s manuals were to convince a user of the simplicity of APL’s programming. ‘You have now programmed a computer! Simple, wasn’t it?'”
“The MCM/70 promotional brochures presented the computer as a cost-effective alternative to computer time-sharing services. In 1974, large time-sharing companies, such as I.P. Sharp Associates Ltd of Toronto, charged their clients, among other fees, $8 per connect hour, 35 cents for each second of CPU time, and $1 per 3,000 characters entered. Depending on an application, a user could pay $25, $100, or more per connect hour. There was not much a client connected to such a system via dumb terminal could do in less than an hour. Therefore, assuming an average rate of $100 per connect hour, it would take only about four months at an hour a day to accumulate $9,500 in computing charges – the price of a new and fully loaded MCM/700.”
“Looking back, most former key MCM employees agreed that ignoring BASIC was a major mistake. ‘APL was a good idea,’ explained Genner, ‘but had we decided to go with BASIC right from the start we would be world leaders now, our name would still be up there.’ Laraya agreed: ‘We would have been like Apple … we would be where Apple is right now.'”
For review copy requests or questions:
Jacqui Davis
Publicist
McGill-Queen’s University Press
1010 Sherbrooke, Suite 1720
Montreal, QC H3A 2R7
Tel: (514) 398-2555
Fax: (514) 398-4333
jacqueline.davis@mcgill.ca
No comments yet.