Question AMD had processors in a "PC" before IBM !

Markfw · Apr 24, 2025

So, not sure what started me down this path, but Tektronix has four AMD Am2901 4-bit bit-slice processors used together to make a single 16-bit processor. It was released in 1978. The IBM PC was released in 1981. So AMD had the first Pc. But pricing was out of this world, except the display was included and well as keyboard. This and the 4051 (based on motorola 68000 processor) were used in the show Battlestar Galactica !

I not only programmed on this as my first language, but tough a class on it at Portland Community college !! It stored the program on the internal tape drive, and when the program reached its limit of memory would (when you programmed t this way) would basically wipe out the first section of code, go to track 2, and load the next section of code.

From Wikipedia "Released in 1978, the 4052 came with a full 32 kB of RAM for $9,795 ($46,100 in 2023 dollars) " and...

I don't see pricing on the IBM PC from wikipedia.

Please comment if I missed some important details.

dullard · Apr 24, 2025

Markfw said:
So AMD had the first Pc.

The Altair 8800 is widely considered the first PC in 1974. $621 when assembled, $439 in kit form.

Altair 8800 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Although this source puts the price a bit cheaper:

Altair 8800 Microcomputer

Not long after Intel introduced its 8080 chip, a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced…

americanhistory.si.edu

With all the bells and whistles it was $4000 though.

Markfw · Apr 24, 2025

dullard said:
The Altair 8800 is widely considered the first PC in 1974. $621 when assembled, $439 in kit form.

Altair 8800 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Although this source puts the price a bit cheaper:

Altair 8800 Microcomputer

Not long after Intel introduced its 8080 chip, a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) announced…

americanhistory.si.edu

With all the bells and whistles it was $4000 though.

Thanks for that. But with no display ? Maybe the 4051 was the first and the 4052 the second. The 4051 was Motorola 68000, but I guess the point now is, that AMD beat IMB and Intel to the first with a display ????

dullard · Apr 24, 2025

Markfw said:
Thanks for that. But with no display ? Maybe the 4051 was the first and the 4052 the second. The 4051 was Motorola 68000, but I guess the point now is, that AMD beat IMB and Intel to the first with a display ????

Here is another big player prior to IBM, with a display, the Tandy TRS-80, launched in 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80 This was the computer that IBM decided to copy.

I'm not sure why you keep trying to make a story here about someone beating someone else to the first PC.

Markfw · Apr 24, 2025

dullard said:
Here is another big player prior to IBM, with a display, the Tandy TRS-80, launched in 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80 This was the computer that IBM decided to copy.

I'm not sure why you keep trying to make a story here about someone beating someone else to the first PC.

Well, since I worked for Tektronix for 20 years, and spent 5 years writing code on the 4052 and taught classes on how to program in 405x basic, I was surprised to know it was AMD processors. And based on my research, I thought it was first. BTW, the TRS80 had to have a TV to create its output. I also taught a class on programming one of the commodore (spelling?) units. Also, the TRS80 was not really a programming language, and I don't remember how to save code on it. It was a Radio Shack toy as I remember.

I don't know why you are trying to cut me down.

Abwx · Apr 24, 2025

Markfw said:
So, not sure what started me down this path, but Tektronix has four AMD Am2901 4-bit bit-slice processors used together to make a single 16-bit processor. It was released in 1978. The IBM PC was released in 1981. So AMD had the first Pc. But pricing was out of this world, except the display was included and well as keyboard. This and the 4051 (based on motorola 68000 processor) were used in the show Battlestar Galactica !

View attachment 122665

I not only programmed on this as my first language, but tough a class on it at Portland Community college !! It stored the program on the internal tape drive, and when the program reached its limit of memory would (when you programmed t this way) would basically wipe out the first section of code, go to track 2, and load the next section of code.

From Wikipedia "Released in 1978, the 4052 came with a full 32 kB of RAM for $9,795 ($46,100 in 2023 dollars) " and...

I don't see pricing on the IBM PC from wikipedia.

Please comment if I missed some important details.

Guess that it was an in house evolution around Texas Instrument SN74181 from 1970, wich was a basic 4 bit ALU that could be daisy chained to get 8, 16, or even 64 bit, but for each added ALU there was one more exe cycle due to the carry, max frequency was up to 45MHz for the first model, wich was considerable at the time.

74181 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Win2012R2 · Apr 24, 2025

Markfw said:
It was released in 1978. The IBM PC was released in 1981. So AMD had the first Pc.

No - anything before IBM PC was not a PC!

Abwx · Apr 24, 2025

Anything Z80 or 6502 was a PC, FI Sinclair s ZX 80 and ZX81, IBM s PC was just one of the first using a X86 CPU.

eek2121 · Apr 24, 2025

dullard said:
Here is another big player prior to IBM, with a display, the Tandy TRS-80, launched in 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80 This was the computer that IBM decided to copy.

I'm not sure why you keep trying to make a story here about someone beating someone else to the first PC.

You reminded me: my first computer was the Tandy Color Computer 2!

Win2012R2 said:
No - anything before IBM PC was not a PC!

This is actually the correct answer.

LightningDust · Tuesday at 1:17 PM

There were many, many microcomputers from the mid to late 1970s and in no universe was AMD 29-series bitslice logic in the first one. What a bizarre thread this is.

Question AMD had processors in a "PC" before IBM !

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member

dullard

Elite Member

Altair 8800 - Wikipedia

Altair 8800 Microcomputer

Markfw

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Altair 8800 - Wikipedia

Altair 8800 Microcomputer

dullard

Elite Member

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member

Abwx

Lifer

74181 - Wikipedia

Win2012R2

Senior member

Abwx

Lifer

eek2121

Diamond Member

LightningDust

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