The Apple Computer 1, originally released as the Apple Computer and known later as the Apple I or Apple-1, is an 8-bit desktop computer released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak. The idea of selling the computer came from Wozniak's friend and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The Apple I was Apple's first product, and to finance its creation, Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500 and Jobs sold a second hand VW Microbus, for a few hundred dollars. Wozniak demonstrated the first prototype in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California.
Stephen Gary Wozniak, also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he co-founded Apple Computer, which later became the world's largest technology company by revenue and the largest company in the world by market capitalization. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution.
Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, the company expanded into the hobby market, making leather moccasins and coin purses, making huge sales among Scouts, leading to a fast growth in sales.
Donald E. Lancaster is an American author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer.
Roanoke is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia.
Floyd County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,476. Its county seat is the town of Floyd. Floyd County is included in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Named after Virginia politician John Floyd, the county was established in 1831. The county is located on the high plateau of the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounded by the Little River. In the 1960s and 1970s, Floyd proved popular with people in the era's counterculture, particularly those who wanted to live in closer contact with nature.
Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia Tech.
Christiansburg is a town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States. The population was 21,041 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County. Christiansburg, Blacksburg and the city of Radford are the three principal municipalities of the Blacksburg–Christiansburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses those municipalities, all of Montgomery County, and three other counties.
The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics and was sold by mail order through advertisements there, in Radio-Electronics, and in other hobbyist magazines. The Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC.
The MCM/70 was a pioneering microcomputer first built in 1973 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and released the next year. This makes it one of the first microcomputers in the world, the second to be shipped in completed form, and the first portable computer. The MCM/70 was the product of Micro Computer Machines, one of three related companies set up in Toronto in 1971 by Mers Kutt. It is considered by some historians to be the first usable personal microcomputer system.
The Mark-8 is a microcomputer design from 1974, based on the Intel 8008 CPU. The Mark-8 was designed by Jonathan Titus, a Virginia Tech graduate student in Chemistry. After building the machine, Titus decided to share its design with the community and reached out to Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics. He was turned down by Popular Electronics, but Radio-Electronics was interested and announced the Mark-8 as a 'loose kit' in the July 1974 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine.
Retrocomputing is the use of older computer hardware and software in modern times. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardware and software for sentimental reasons. However, some do make use of it.
The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on society.
The Personal Computer Museum was located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, in a building formerly owned by the municipal government. The building was built with bricks reclaimed from the Brantford Opera House.
WVMP is a broadcast radio station licensed to Vinton, Virginia, serving Metro Roanoke, Virginia. WVMP is owned by Todd P. Robinson's WVJT, LLC.
James Irvin "Bud" Robertson Jr. was an American historian on the American Civil War and professor at Virginia Tech.
The Huckleberry Trail is a multipurpose trail that measures almost 15 miles in length in Montgomery County, Virginia, connecting the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The trail is 12 feet (3.7 m) wide with an asphalt surface.
The Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation is a cultural institution in the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia, that sponsors exhibits, concerts, lecture series, and other cultural activities. The museum is headquartered in the Alexander Black House. The BM&CF also consists of the St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall, a museum of African-American heritage in Blacksburg.
The 1901 VPI football team represented Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute in the 1901 college football season. The team was led by their head coach A. B. Morrison Jr. and finished with a record of six wins and one loss (6–1).
The Computer Museum of America was established in Roswell, Georgia and opened in July 2019 to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Moon landing. It is the largest technology museum on the East Coast with the opening of Phase I and when completed will be among the largest in the world.
