History of Micro-Computers - The MESSUI Place

MICRO PROCESSOR EVOLUTIONNOTABLE QUOTES"What peripheral device most often describes thehome hacker's ultimate system? It is, if course, thefloppy disk."—Ira Rampil, December 1977 BYTE"In less than eight months, more than five thousandpeople have proudly purchased WordStar . ."—a MicroPro ad, April 1980 BYTE"The sin of inefficiency is venial compared to themortal sin of "user-unfriendliness." I'd buy anoperating system any day that takes a long timeto run a given program but which makes me moreproductive by communicating with me in usefulways."—Chris Morgan, June 1981 BYTE"The current personal computer market is aboutthe same size as the total potato-chip market. Nextyear it will be about half the size of the pet-foodmarket and is fast approaching the total worldwidesales of panty hose:'—James Finke, President, Commodore International Ltd.,February 1982 BYTE"CP/M 2.2. is extremely important, and the Z80chip will live forever because of it."—Portia Isaacson, Future Computing Inc.,May 1982 BYTE"To be a real hacker means to dedicate a substantialpart of your life to the advancement of someapplication of a technology. It means going behindthe backs of stuffed-shirt administrators who thinkthat, despite their inability to do the technical work,they have royal prerogatives to push thetechnologists this way and that to satisfy obscure,largely symbolic organizational needs."To be a real hacker means to make a magnificentobsession of creating someeffect previously unknown,especially when others say youcannot or may not do it. You willimpoverish yourself, devote yourwhole being to the task, and gofar beyond the limits thatreasonable people place onunremunerative effort."—Lee Felsenstein, 198 5A decade of personal computerdevelopment displayed at The ComputerMuseum in Boston.46 JUST COMPUTERS • DECEMBER 1985PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS