• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Who built the first minicomputers?

Here, I always thought that "minicomputer" was a marketing term (e.g. what's the precise definition of a miniskirt and how do I separate short skirts from minis?). So essentially, a minicomputer is what you claim it is, although I suspect that few would call the ILLIAC IV a minicomputer.
 
Hi Al,
Thank you for bringing up the Packard Bell 250, as it is indeed a remarkable machine. It certainly should be included in the article and I will do so soon. With it's acoustic delay line memory, it's an interesting case, having an average access time of 1536us. It also had a small amount of 96us memory.

It was necessary to establish some minimum computing capability in the definition of "general purpose minicomputer" used in this study. While we didn't want to arbitrarily pick a fixed number, the general criterion chosen was that if it could run a high level language, that would be sufficient. I will take a look at the CINCH floating point interpreter which was offered but I doubt that it would rise to the level of a high level language. With about 1000-times the memory cycle time of the PDP-8, it appears that the PB-250 would not fit the definition.

Nevertheless, it was a useful and successful early computer and it was an oversight that it wasn't covered. So I really appreciate your mentioning it.

Steve L.
 
Hi Chuck,
Well, it's certainly true that the term "minicomputer" suffers from a lack of a documented, useful, clear definition. That's not to say that it has no meaning, however. The fact is, we often use that term and usually people in the field understand what we mean. In trying to clarify who built the first minicomputers, a major and delicate part of the task was to clearly define the term in a way which would be satisfying to most people who use it.

I would be the last person to claim that the definition put forth in the article is its "one true meaning." In fact, I expect and hope that folks such as yourself will help provide guidance, if I have strayed from what they mean by minicomputer.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to address this real and understandable concern.

Steve L.
 
For me a minicomputer is a computer that's small enough to be carried by people and moveable by a passenger car. The article starts out claiming the CDC-160 may be the first, but since I have first-hand experience working with a 160A it certainly was too large to meet my criteria :)
 
Hi Doug,

Yes indeed, something like your "small enough to be carried by people" was my first inclination too, as most of the minis that I used in the 70's would fit that, when the CPU was taken out of the rack. But did you see the part of the article in which the PDP-8 in the rack was compared to the PDP-5, side-by-side? They look like twins. The PDP-5 was very close to being a PDP-8, CPU-wise. Since the PDP-8 took up most of a rack, looks much like a PDP-5 and operates much like a PDP-5, is the PDP-5 to be excluded simply because it was packaged only in a rack?

The fact is, by the time you added enough stuff to make a nice system like the minis I used to see, it would take multiple racks. So it seemed arbitrary to exclude the single-rack machines. However, as you see in the conclusions, I found it useful to divide the minis into the small minis and large minis. The small minis are the desktops that you are thinking of.

In reviewing the literature, it seemed clear that people were referring to machines like the PDP-5, the LINC and the CDC-160 as minis, so they had to be included. But I agree with you, we need to class them as large minis and recognize that the PDP-8 was apparently the first of the small, general purpose, production minicomputers.

Steve L.
 
Gordon Bell claims in a peer-reviewed paper that "minicomputer" didn't enter the vocabulary until 1967. My opinion is that it was a marketing term that played off the sex appeal of the circa 1965 miniskirt appearance. Basically, it was what the salesman said it was--and talking about minicomputers before 1967 therefore becomes revisionism and is pretty much meaningless.

If you dispute the sex appeal thing, just consider Computer Autmation's "naked mini" of about the same time.

So, the first "minicomputer" therefore becomes whoever called their box that in 1967, probably DG or DEC.

Otherwise, we'd be talking about, say, the Univac 422, as a minicomputer, which it might well be if Sperry had called it that after 1967. Otherwise, it's just a small computer.

As a comparison, who made the first "Buffalo Chicken Wings"? Was it really the Anchor Bar, or did someone have the idea of making spicy chicken wings in a before 1969? (I note that Wikipedia specifies a butter sauce, but Molly Katzen in her "Moosewood" cookbook states that the original recipe calls for margarine.)

This sort of debate is typical of the frippery of the "historian" racket, who seem to need a good definitive answer. And please note that my wife, who is a history teacher, agrees with my view.
 
Hi Chuck,

>Gordon Bell claims in a peer-reviewed paper that "minicomputer" didn't enter the vocabulary until 1967...and talking about minicomputers before 1967 therefore becomes revisionism and is pretty much meaningless.

--- In no way did I mean to suggest that the TERM minicomputer was used contemporaneously with the machines which I found to be classifiable as minis. Rather, I am trying to clarify what that term has come to mean. All words take on the meaning that people who use them express.
 
Doug G said:
For me a minicomputer is a computer that's small enough to be carried by people and moveable by a passenger car...
Click to expand...

By this definition, the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) 1942 would qualify as a Minicomputer. I don't think any of us would count it as one, so the definition needs to be more complex.


Chuck(G) said:
Gordon Bell claims in a peer-reviewed paper that "minicomputer" didn't enter the vocabulary until 1967. My opinion is that it was a marketing term that played off the sex appeal of the circa 1965 miniskirt appearance. Basically, it was what the salesman said it was--and talking about minicomputers before 1967 therefore becomes revisionism and is pretty much meaningless...
Click to expand...

That may well be the correct attribution... there were a lot of "miniaturization" sensations throughout the late 50's and 60's - including the first "miniature" transistorized hand-held radios.

Chuck(G) said:
So, the first "minicomputer" therefore becomes whoever called their box that in 1967, probably DG or DEC...
Click to expand...
Here's where I think we have it - the first to apply the term - and I think that's DEC. Precisely when I recall the term the first time, is unclear to me, but certainly by 1968.
 
for the Forum Administrators...

for the Forum Administrators...

Code: 
[B]Warning[/B]: Declaration of vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_img()  should be compatible with vB_BbCodeParser::handle_bbcode_img($bbcode,  $do_imgcode = false, $has_img_code = false, $fulltext = '') in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode.php[/B] on line [B]0[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::do_parse() should be compatible with  vB_WikiCodeParser::do_parse($text, $do_html = false, $do_smilies =  true, $do_bbcode = true, $do_imgcode = true, $do_nl2br = false,  $cachable = false, $htmlstate = NULL, $minimal = false, $do_videocode =  true) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_php() should be  compatible with vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_php($code, $undo =  false) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_code() should be  compatible with vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_code($code, $undo =  false) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_html() should be  compatible with vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_html($code, $undo =  false) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_url() should be  compatible with vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_url($text, $link,  $image = false) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_img() should be  compatible with vB_WikiCodeParser::handle_bbcode_img($bbcode,  $do_imgcode, $has_img_code = false, $fulltext = '') in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]:  Declaration of vB_WikiPlainParser::handle_bbcode_img_match() should be  compatible with vB_BbCodeParser::handle_bbcode_img_match($link,  $fullsize = false) in [B]..../vault/class/bbcode/plaintext.php[/B] on line [B]34[/B]

[B]Warning[/B]: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at ..../includes/class_core.php:5755) in [B]..../newreply.php[/B] on line [B]900[/B]
This set of error text briefly appeared immediately after my previous post. I was then redirect back to this thread page.
 
Hi All;
I think I saw either this or something like it after I had sent SomeOne a private Message, earlier today.. It went by so fast I couldn't catch it..
I think this is Part of the "FIX" that at least I experienced Last night, when I tried to access the forum last night, and was told "The system was down due to Maintenance".. I also, experienced when uploading, with a picture, it is easier to accidentally try and upload twice.. The "system" tells me I have already uploaded, when posting and I need to wait 30 seconds before posting again.. And so looking at it by re-opening on a different access-point I find that I had some-how already posted, and so I close both sessions.. It just did it to me on this post, without a picture..
THANK YOU Marty
 
RSX11M+ said:
Here's where I think we have it - the first to apply the term - and I think that's DEC. Precisely when I recall the term the first time, is unclear to me, but certainly by 1968.
Click to expand...

from alt.folklore.computers about a year ago:

from a post by Doug Jones in afc in 1993

In my search through old issues of Computers and Automation, I've noticed
that the term Minicomputer didn't show up until 1968. The first use of the
term I can find is in a full-page Interdata ad in May 1968, page 10. By
December 1969, the term must have become fairly common, because they
devoted a full issue to "Minicomputers (and Their Applications)". Curiously,
none of the articles in that issue are by people from DEC or CDC, the
two companies that are in the best condition to claim to have originated
the minicomputer (either the CDC 112, the Lincoln Labs LINC or the DEC
PDP-5 / PDP-8 family seem to have earned that title).
 
(Apparently a previous reply was lost.)

..."minicomputer" didn't enter the vocabulary until 1967. My opinion is that it was a marketing term...So, the first "minicomputer" therefore becomes whoever called their box that in 1967, probably DG or DEC.
Click to expand...

--- The article is not about what was called minicomputer back in the day. Marketing people might have originated the term "minicomputer" but like all words, its meaning is determined by the people who use it. We do in fact use it and others seem to know what we mean. My task was to clarify what people do mean by it today. From there, I proceeded to look for the first machines that fit that definition.

Of course, I welcome helpful feedback on improvements to the definition I proposed.

Steve L.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top