Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Computers, Technology, Websites => Topic started by: AlligatorDicax on April 16, 2017, 10:56:28 PM
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For any parents trying to reconcile the joy of watching their children run around--properly catechized, of course--for Easter eggs, while trying to tune out feelings of "getting old"--unsettlingly reminiscent of what many of us thought of our own parents--here's another thought for you:
The Apple ][ personal computer [†] was introduced 40 years ago today, in 1977, at the first of the West-Coast Computer Faires (in San Francisco). That computer was by no means the first electronic product to qualify as a "personal computer" as the term is understood today, but it was the first runaway-successful one. It boasted an installable memory limit 48 kilobytes, but only for those enthusiasts affluent enough to be able to afford the new envelope-pushing 16 kilobit memory chips.
Like the single-circuit-board kit-only Apple I, its CPU was MOS Technology's[‡] 6502 microprocessor.
The company had been founded 1 year earlier, on the U.S. April Fools' Day, but its incorporation was delayed for 3/4 year, to the Monday (January 3) after 1977 New Year's Day, which was only 3½ months before the WCCF introduction.
Back in 1977, the subject day in April was Easter Saturday. For political perspective, Jimmy Carter had been President of the U.S.A. for 4 days less than 3 months.
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Note †: E.g.: "[Part] 3-The Apple II": <http://apple2history.org/history/ah03/ (http://apple2history.org/history/ah03/)>, after a page-visitor tunes out the waaay overboard size of its initial image, presents waaay more than enough technical-history detail to establish its credibility. Yes, that PC's logo--if not also legal trademark--used 2 misordered (square) brackets "][", instead of a pair of capital-'I', as a perverse pair of Roman numerals to identify the 2nd major product from Apple Computer (beware that CathInfo's SMF BB-Code posting syntax might prevent me from displaying them properly).
Note ‡: "MOS" abbreviates the semiconductor technology "Metal Oxide on Silicon". More modern readers might've encountered the letters "CMOS" from time to time; that abbreviates the especially low-power-consumption semiconductor technology "Complementary Metal Oxide on Silicon".