Vintage Computers - The Datapoint 2200 & "Computer Terminal Corporation" THE REST OF THE STORY!!

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Datapoint 2200 computer

Bugbooks

The Personal Computer Revolution started in San Antonio, Texas.

This blog was updated 3/26/16 and posted .

I received a very informative response from Gordon Peterson to my video about the "Computer Terminal Corporation"  (CTC) 2200 Terminal.  The famous radio personality Paul Harvey would say - here is the Rest of the story.  You can read Gordon's fascinating  reply below.  I purchased the book he recommend about the CTC story. WOW it is an exciting read. The CTC story and the people involved is really an important story about the creative effort & computer that started the Personal Computer Revolution and the first  8 bit microprocessor for Intel  ---- the 8008.  Here is my first blog about the Datapoint 2200 "CLICK"

Gordon worked for Datapoint for 9 years and had a inside view of the of personalities, creation of products and the rise & fall of the company.
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Here is Gordon's response. 

Gordon Peterson Jun 11, 2014 • Computer Terminal Corporation 2200 - Start of Intel 8008 Microprocessor

The Datapoint 2200 was a revolutionary machine for a whole lot of reasons.  It was the first general-purpose computer designed for single-user, desktop use, and that looked more like a piece of office equipment than like a piece of exotic electronics.  I worked in Software Development / Advanced Product Development / R&D at Datapoint for more than 9 years, and it was a very rewarding time.   I designed and wrote the world's first commercially available LAN software there... the company sold over a billion dollars' worth of that product.  I also was the lead developer of the disk operating system there for several years.  A lot of us Datapoint folks are on the DatapointComputers Yahoogroup.  Also, there's a wonderful book about Datapoint's key role in the creation of personal computing... highly recommended.
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Datapoint 1100

I was aware of "Computer Terminal Corporation" during my career teaching about instrumentation and computers at Virginia Tech however I seems to have missed a lot of the story. I am delighted to have one of the Datapoint 2200 on display in my museum. I also have a Datapoint 1100 in the computer warehouse that is in nice condition.

Book about Datapoint

"Datapoint - The lost story of the Texans Who Invented the Personal Computer Revolution" by Lamont Wood - ISBN 978-1-936449-36-1
(2010) 325 pages

If you are interested in the start of the microcomputer revolution and the history of the pioneers - this is a must read book.





More resource information:

Here is some great research about the first microprocessor - Ken Shirriff's Blog 

 Datapoint Wikipedia

Datapoint Group on Yahoo 

I  remember for many years I did not think I would find a CTC2200 and wanted to have one as it is one of the first 8 bit computers. During the late 80's I was able to find not only this fine example and the source also had a  CTC 1100. The CTC 2200 and 1100 now are part of the "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Collection"

 ^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}     Send Message    Like us on Facebook  My Blog about hometown Floyd VA