News House cleaners find two of the world's first desktop PCs in random boxes — Intel 8008-powered Q1 PC has 16KB of memory, 800 kHz CPU

[Admin]

Two of the Q1 PC, which is the first-ever desktop PC made with a single-chip microprocessor, were found during routine waste clearing in London.

House cleaners find two of the world's first desktop PCs in random boxes — Intel 8008-powered Q1 PC has 16KB of memory, 800 kHz CPU : Read more

 

[repeating13]

Two of the Q1 PC, which is the first-ever desktop PC made with a single-chip microprocessor, were found during routine waste clearing in London.

House cleaners find two of the world's first desktop PCs in random boxes — Intel 8008-powered Q1 PC has 16KB of memory, 800 MHz CPU : Read more

My eyes about popped out of my head reading 800 MEGAHERTZ in the title.

I remember installing a Pentium Overdrive processor as an upgrade in probably 1996, and that CPU was running 266Mhz.

 

[COLGeek]

My eyes about popped out of my head reading 800 MEGAHERTZ in the title.

I remember installing a Pentium Overdrive processor as an upgrade in probably 1996, and that CPU was running 266Mhz.

Corrected. Thanks.

For additional information:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8008

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

It is also odd to think that at the same time multi-chip processors were operating in megahertz (the Apollo 11 guidance computer was 1mhz), so I wonder how many discussions centered around "Single chip processors will never be faster than multi-chip processors".

And somewhat ironically, 50 years later, multi-chip designs are proving that true again.

 

[askyron]

In 1968 our computer club was given access to Olivetti programable desktop calculators. We were told they were called desktop calculators because it required a vice president level approval to purchase computers, but desk top calculators were much easier to approve. These were programmable in BASIC so, I guess the question is, what was a desktop PC?

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

My eyes about popped out of my head reading 800 MEGAHERTZ in the title.

I remember installing a Pentium Overdrive processor as an upgrade in probably 1996, and that CPU was running 266Mhz.

No listen, do not believe your lying memory, those 66 Mhz state of the art PCs of the early 90s were also lies.

 

[oliverzip]

The earlier Datapoint boxes had Intel 4004 in them. My mum used to program them and set up a business around them in the late 70s. They had a Lan and all. Why wasn't that the first PC?

 

[Aleax23805]

No listen, do not believe your lying memory, those 66 Mhz state of the art PCs of the early 90s were also lies.

True. His memory is *way* off about the Pentium Overdrive CPUs. There were two versions - 63 and 83MHz, for 25MHz and 33MHz bus 486 systems respectively. 266MHz didn't happen until the Pentium II processor, around 1997.

The 1990s saw clock frequencies explode like no other decade. At the beginning of 1990, the fastest CPU was a 25MHz 486DX. By the (very) end of 1999 we had 800MHz Pentium !!! Coppermine (yes, I stylized it the way intel did back in the day, LOL) processors - clock rates went up by a multiple of 32 in 10 years. I recall I was CONSTANTLY upgrading in the mid 90's, myself.

 

[jmcgaw]

I can relate even though I've never heard of these computers. I built a 8008 computer back in the day (RGS008) and thought it the most amazing thing imaginable at least until I built a 8080 system that got the clock up to 2mHz and carried 16mB of memory (IIRC).

 

[greenreaper]

... it required a vice president level approval to purchase computers, but desk top calculators were much easier to approve. These were programmable in BASIC so, I guess the question is, what was a desktop PC?

Plot twist: 'PC' actually refers to Personal Calculator.

 

[MyXPC]

Thanks God were the affordable Z80 processors.

 

[vacheasatryan]

You should read about the founder Daniel Alroy of Q1. I was lucky to work for him as a consultant for ten years in NYC. He has lots of stories, the main takeaway is that it was a bet he wanted to win, so he built the q1

 

[DaphneAlroy]

My very heart just popped out! Daniel Alroy, the founder of Q1 is my father. He passed away on January 31, 2021 at the Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. Please feel free to ask me anything about him. We currently have an ex-employee of Q1 reverse engineering one of Q1's first computers.
(Sorry folks, I posted my first Reply in the wrong box).

 

[DaphneAlroy]

Thank you vacheasatryan for letting me know about this article and thread!

 

[dalewb]

I'm really glad they didn't scrap this bit of computer history! I was born months before this pc was made, but I did have opportities to use single core cpus for a while in the late 90s - 386, 486, etc - but the real paradigm shift for me was my first (circa 2005) dual-core AMD Athlon X2 - it made certain near-impossible tasks possible during a time when I frequently had to compile pc game levels, and blew my mind with its computational power. Now that thing would struggle to run a web browser, I bet - computing progress matches on...

 

[dalewb]

My very heart just popped out! Daniel Alroy, the founder of Q1 is my father. He passed away on January 31, 2021 at the Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. Please feel free to ask me anything about him. We currently have an ex-employee of Q1 reverse engineering one of Q1's first computers.
(Sorry folks, I posted my first Reply in the wrong box).

Wow wow wow!! You are as much a part of computing history as your late father. I don't think it's appropriate to say "congratulations," but perhaps "thank you" (to your father) for his part in moving the needle forward in computing technology, and to offer up a posthumous standing ovation.

 

[DaphneAlroy]

Wow wow wow!! You are as much a part of computing history as your late father. I don't think it's appropriate to say "congratulations," but perhaps "thank you" (to your father) for his part in moving the needle forward in computing technology, and to offer up a posthumous standing ovation.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I sent the link to Karl who is working on the Q1 computer, and to my son Daniel (yup, named after his grandpa), who has far better computer expertise that I do.

 

[MattisLind]

Except for the fact the machine in the picture is a Q1 Lite made in 1976. It has a standard Zilog Z80 in there, not an Intel 8008. I used to own one so I know it quite well. The original Q1 from 1972 had a 8008 and was housed in a Diablo daisy wheel typewriter. Compared to other contemporary (1976) computers the Q1 Lite is not very special. Perhaps the most odd thing with it is the floppy disk format which has sector sizes that varies among different tracks.

 

[dcasanares]

Nice, I worked on the Z80 processor and I guess if might have been the 8008, definitely worked on the 8088 and the 8087 Math processor.