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Home Computers

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Part of the book series: Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science ((UTICS))

Abstract

We consider a selection of home and personal computers, including early home computers such as the MITS Altair 8800, which was introduced in early 1975; the Apple I and II computers, which were released in 1976 and 1977, respectively; the Commodore PET computer, which was introduced in 1977; the Atari 400 and 800 computers, which were released in 1979; the popular Commodore 64 computer, which was introduced in 1982; and the Sinclair ZX 81 and ZX Spectrum computers, which were released in 1980 and 1981, respectively. We discuss later Atari and Amiga computers and the Apple Macintosh computer, which was a major milestone in computing.

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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O’Regan, G. (2016). Home Computers. In: Introduction to the History of Computing. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33138-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33138-6_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33137-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33138-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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