Re: Who invented the microcomputer?

The answer is a little fuzzy, so let's start with the beginning:

Charles Babbage was the first person to fully design a general-purpose computing machine. Even though he never built his machine, called the Analytical Engine, he is considered to be the father of the modern computer.

After Babbage, there were many calculating machines created for special purposes, but they weren't really computers because they couldn't be programmed. The first true computer, called ENIAC, was created by the United States Military.

The ENIAC was a mainframe computer and was the size of a room. Later, minicomputers were created. These computers were about the size of a car.

By this time, there were many people working on computers:

• William Shockley invented the transistor, and
• Robert Noyce built the first integrated circuit out of many transistors.
• Ted Hoff designed the first microprocessor, a general-purpose integrated circuit.
• Intel Corporation sold a few generations of microprocessors.
• MITS built the Altair, a microcomputer using Intel's 8080 microprocessor, but the Altair didn't have a programming language until
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a version of BASIC for it.
• After the Altair, several companies started selling microcomputers.