5B McKnight Johnston How the First Computer Has Improved

It was developed, not in a garage, but in the bedroom of Steve Wozniak's home on 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos (the house number was later changed to 2066). Steve Wozniak built the printed circuit-board, while Ron Wayne wrote the Apple-1 Operation Manual at his home. Steve Jobs did what he does best, advertising the Apple I to friends and family. They first previewed the Apple I in action during a May 1976 meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club. Paul Terell, the owner of the Byte Shop, the only computer store chain at the time, was impressed by what he saw and promised to buy 50 fully assembled computers for $500 each. As you can see, the machine was intended for hobbyist that would add ASCII keyboards and displays after buying the bare circuit board. It was not meant to be pre-built with fully-assembled displays and attachments. Jobs insisted it could be done and with the help of Woz, Bill Fernandez (who introduced Jobs to Woz) and Daniel Kottke (a friend of Jobs) they were able to build by hand all 50 of the motherboards on the second-to-last day before their loaned parts were due. They were not the "fully assembled" computers Terell had asked for, but he paid the men the cash they needed to pay off loans and make a good profit. Apple later sold the Apple I for $666.66 before being replaced by the much more practical and user friendly Apple II. Look at a screen shot of the Apple-1 display.

Program Description In 1900, a storm blew a boatload of sponge divers off course and forced them to take shelter by the tiny Mediterranean island of Antikythera. Diving the next day, they discovered a 2,000 year-old Greek shipwreck. Among the ship's cargo they hauled up was an unimpressive green lump of corroded bronze. Rusted remnants of gear wheels could be seen on its surface, suggesting some kind of intricate mechanism. The first X-ray studies confirmed that idea, but how it worked and what it was for puzzled scientists for decades. Recently, hi-tech imaging has revealed the extraordinary truth: this unique clockwork machine was the world's first computer. An array of 30 intricate bronze gear wheels, originally housed in a shoebox-size wooden case, was designed to predict the dates of lunar and solar eclipses, track the Moon's subtle motions through the sky, and calculate the dates of significant events such as the Olympic Games. No device of comparable technological sophistication is known from anywhere in the world for at least another 1,000 years. So who was the genius inventor behind it? And what happened to the advanced astronomical and engineering knowledge of its makers? NOVA follows the ingenious sleuthing that finally decoded the truth behind the amazing ancient Greek computer.