© Mark Ollig
What year comes to mind when you think of the personal computer revolution?
Many consider 1977, when Apple Computer unveiled its Apple II personal computer.
Others say it was in 1981, when the IBM Personal Computer Model 5150 was released.
Sept. 25, 1973, years before these two companies revolutionized the industry, Mers Kutt, president, CEO, and chairman of Micro Computer Machines Corp. based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, unveiled what many described as the world’s first portable personal computer.
Called the MCM-70, this 20-pound portable computer was designed and manufactured in Canada.
The MCM-70 outer case looked much like an Apple II personal computer, which didn’t come out until four years later.
Kutt included a note with each computer stating, “The simplicity of the MCM-70 and its associated computer language make personal computer use and ownership a reality. Enjoy the privilege of having your own personal computer.”
The MCM-70 included a keyboard, plasma screen, and two cassette tape drives to store and run programs. It could operate using AC or batteries.
The computer used an Intel 8008 processor (Intel released the 8008 in 1972), with a clocking speed of 200 kHz, available up to 800 kHz (kilohertz).
It included 16,000 bytes of core memory (expandable to 64,000) with a working memory of 102 kB (kilobytes).
The computer uses the APL microprogramming language.
APL was first used in 1966 and developed by Kenneth Iverson, a Canadian computer scientist.
Iverson authored the book, “A Programming Language,” hence the use of the APL acronym.
Kutt decided to use APL, as it was considered a do-it-yourself programming language that allowed almost anyone to operate the computer using instructions, which Kutt thought would help the MCM-70 “sell itself.”
“My sales manager took one home. Within 15 minutes his wife was using it to compare prices of several brands of powdered milk, and was showing her neighbor how to use it,” Kutt said in an Oct. 6, 1973 article appearing in The Financial Post, a Canadian newspaper.
The MCM-70 sold for $3,500 in 1973. In today’s dollars, it would equal $21,162, which put it out of reach for most folks.
Because of the price, Kutt focused on selling the computer to businesses and government agencies, and decided to market them as a salesperson would copier machines; by giving demonstrations of the MCM-70’s capabilities and uses.
Kutt also believed the independent professional and small businessperson wanted to have their very own computer.
He envisioned his computers inside schools years before Apple Computer placed its own there.
Schools and colleges in 1973, paid on average $25 per student hour of terminal access to mainframe computer time-sharing services.
Kutt priced the MCM-70 at the cost of 25 cents per student hour.
Hospitals and companies such as Chevron and Mutual Life Insurance and US government agencies, including NASA and US Army, purchased MCM-70 microcomputers. They used the computer mostly for complex mathematical calculations and evaluations.
In 1975, Mers Kutt had gone on to start a new company called All Computers Inc.
June 10, 1977, the Apple II personal computer went on sale to the public.
Apple took the lead in the personal computer market, outselling the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) and the Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80.
On a side note, another historic event took place in 1977.
Sept. 5, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 satellite. As of Tuesday, Voyager 1 is 14,008,806,651 miles from Earth and traveling through interstellar space. Four of its instruments are still functioning.
Voyager 1 is still sending telemetry data to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Deep Space Network, but I digress.
Aug. 12, 1981, IBM released its IBM Model 5150 personal computer using MS-DOS.
It was the early 1980s, and Micro Computer Machines Corp. was having trouble generating revenue from Canadian sales of the MCM/70.
By 1983, Micro Computer Machines in Kingston discontinued its operations.
By the end of 1993, Apple Computer manufactured a total of 6 million Apple II computers.
In September 2019, Mers Kutt filed a lawsuit in US District Court, alleging $350 billion in damages against more than 40 technology companies, telecom providers, and financial firms. Apple Computer and the US Government were included in this lawsuit.
Kutt claimed some 8 billion computers manufactured by the technology companies who are the defendants in this lawsuit, used his patented technology from US Patent No. 5,506,981 and US Patent No. 5,450,574.
It was said he accused most of the computer industry of patent infringement.
Two weeks ago, Kutt’s $350 billion lawsuit was dismissed because an opening brief with the court hadn’t been filed by the July 2 deadline.
I can only imagine how Kutt felt about that one.
“It’s going to revolutionize the computer market the way the pocket calculator revolutionized the office calculator business,” said Kutt of his MCM-70 in 1973.
And for a while, the MCM-70 did.
Mers Kutt was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and is 87 years old. He currently lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
See a photo of the MCM-70 computer at https://bit.ly/33RuSto.
Stay safe out there.
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| The MCM-70 computer |