Inventing the PC

The MCM/70 Story

By: Zbigniew Stachniak

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eText | 11 May 2011

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In May 1973, Micro Computer Machines, a Toronto-based electronics company, gave a public demonstration of a small computer called the MCM/70. Powered by a microprocessor and operated with APL, a sophisticated programming language, the MCM/70 was positioned to be a practical, affordable, and easy-to-use personal computer - the very first of its kind. Inventing the PC details the invention and design of the MCM/70 computer and the prolonged struggle to bring it to market. Zbigniew Stachniak offers an insider's view of events on the front lines of pioneering work on personal computers. He shows what information and options PC pioneers had, how well engineers and entrepreneurs understood the revolutionary effect personal computers would have on society, and how that understanding - or lack thereof - shaped both their engineering ingenuity and the indecisiveness and over-reaching ambition that would ultimately turn a very promising venture into a missed opportunity. Providing comprehensive historical background and rich photographic documentation, Inventing the PC tells the story of a Canadian company on the cutting-edge of the information age.