Subject: RE: The very first personal computers - How many are left?

From: "Kapteyn, Rob" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Apr 13 00:39:15 2003

I still have the Altair 8800 that my Dad bought for me when I was in high
school.
It was not very long before we realized how "special" it's role in history
was.
So, I suspect that the survival rate of these was relatively high.
(Most of the lost ones were probably accidentally burned up by incompetent
tinkerers :-)
Of course the number of early 8800 models produced was not that high, and a
good number
of those were upgraded with "B" front panels and power supplies.
(those original tiny switches are a real pain)

-Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]On
Behalf Of Vintage Computer Festival
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 11:29 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: The very first personal computers - How many are left?

On Tue, 8 Apr 2003, steve wrote:

> here are my guesses....
>
> --- The Design Fort DTP <[email-masked]>
> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > One thing I was always interested in - and the
> > visitors in my Computer
> > Museum often want to know - is how many of the very
> > first personal computers
> > are still in existence. By first PCs I mean the
> > following machines:
> > Kenbak 1
> 10-20

There were only 40 made (interestingly in Brentwood, California, just 30
minutes north of where I live in Livermore).

Here's a brief article:

http://www.pretext.com/mar98/shorts/short3.htm

I can stretch my imagination and believe that 10 may still be around, but
certainly not 20.

> > Altair 8800
> 500 (a,b,bt)

Move it over one decimal place to the left.  From what I know, about
50,000 Altair's of all models were produced.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer
Festival
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com
*

---

From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Apr 13 00:39:21 2003

On Tue, 8 Apr 2003, Kapteyn, Rob wrote:

> I still have the Altair 8800 that my Dad bought for me when I was in
> high school. It was not very long before we realized how "special" it's
> role in history was. So, I suspect that the survival rate of these was
> relatively high. (Most of the lost ones were probably accidentally
> burned up by incompetent tinkerers :-) Of course the number of early
> 8800 models produced was not that high, and a good number of those were
> upgraded with "B" front panels and power supplies. (those original tiny
> switches are a real pain)

There were thousands of Altairs that were used in process control
applications in all manner of industry, from industrial to medical.  Most
of these would have been 8800b's or "turnkey" Altairs (i.e. no front
panel).

So when we ask how many Altair's still remain, are we asking how many
8800's, or how many of all the models?  If we are talking about 8800's, I
would say that number is probably less than 1,000.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

---

From: "Erik S. Klein" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Apr 13 00:39:38 2003

> would say that number is probably less than 1,000.

From my (limited) experience I think you're right.  The 8800s are more
rare then the later 8800b and 8800bt models.  The 8800a seems to be the
least common, maybe because it had a fairly short production run (I'd
have to double-check to be sure).

The total of all models surviving is probably no more then about 5,000
or so with most being B or BT models.  I think these machines were
readily scrapped, along with tons of other vintage bits, in the early
80s when the PC world exploded and The Next Big Thing was always a week
away.

Most of those that do remain aren't exactly in pristine condition.

Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com