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From: D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: origin of "personal computer"
Message-ID: <8511052150.AA19797@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 5-Nov-85 15:45:02 EST
Article-I.D.: ucb-vax.8511052150.AA19797
Posted: Tue Nov  5 15:45:02 1985
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From: ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!drutx!druhi!lbl@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu  (LocklearLB)

>     No, I don't remember when "PC" meant "a personal computer" in any
>generic sense.  And I doubt if you do either.  The only PC's that existed
>before IBM were "Pocket Computers".  IBM coined the term personal
>computer.
>Excuse me, but I certainly hope you meant to put a :) after that sentence.
>If you didn't, I'm sure that you never heard of an Apple personal computer
>or a Radio Shack personal computer.  Both were introduced years before
>IBM entered the market.  Neither of these was the first personal computer
>by a long shot.  The term "personal computer" has been around a lot
>long than IBM's PC has.

I hope to shout!  How about the PDP-1, PDP-8, & PDP-11 by Digital Equipment
Corp.  The PDP stood for "Personal Data Processor" and was probably the first
standalone interactive computer that didn't require massive resources needed
to support a mainframe.  I believe the first dates to the early 60's.
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