© Mark Ollig
A unique computer exhibition took place in California April 15-16, 1977. It was called The West Coast Computer Faire.
This two-day business and personal home computer event took place at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium and Brooks Hall.
It showcased 180 exhibitors and attracted 12,657 curious attendees.
During the exhibition, conferences provided tutorials and information about computers, software, computing games, speech recognition systems, musical synthesizers, and more.
Other electronic devices, including projection TV, were displayed during the computing exposition.
Roundtable discussions during The West Coast Faire answered questions about using computers and software for individual hobbyists, business owners, and operators.
Business software demonstrations included showing how a computer could easily track and keep a running inventory of a company’s merchandise.
The Homebrew Computer Club, a well-known California grassroots computing organization, participated during the event.
Its representatives included Steve “Woz” Wozniak, 26, and Steve Jobs, 22, of Apple Computer.
They both introduced and demonstrated their new home personal computer, called the Apple II.
The Apple II was Apple Computer’s first attempt at selling a personal computer directed to everyday American households.
As many of you and I will recall, by the end of the 1970s, the Apple II became a predominant computer, and the rest, as they say, is history.
See a 1977 photo of the Apple II computer at https://bit.ly/3pamLB7.
The 1977 West Coast Computer Faire showcased introductions for the new Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Micro Computer System, and Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) computer.
Many computing devices were on display, including a time-sharing computing terminal from Teletype called the Dataspeed 40/2 business computing terminal.
The Dataspeed 40/2 sent and received data with a mainframe computer. It operated at 300 to 1,200 bps (bits per second) and featured a keyboard, CRT (cathode ray tube) display screen, and a small paper printer.
The Teletype Corporation, a subsidiary of Western Electric Company, which was the manufacturing branch of the Bell telephone system owned by AT&T, produced the Dataspeed 40/2.
See an August 1976 Bell System magazine advertisement and technical reference guide for the Dataspeed 40/2 computing terminal at https://bit.ly/3pZXrio.
The Cromemco Z-2 microcomputer used the Zilog Z80 8-bit microprocessor chip and a 4 MHZ 250-nanosecond cycle-time board clock. Its all-metal, square-boxed chassis held 21 printed wiring card slots.
Besides performing practical business and individual computing operations, the Cromemco Z-2 plays the Tank War, Space War, and the Chase computer game.
Tank War involves two military tanks maneuvered and controlled by individual players using two joysticks.
The game includes sound effects and proved to be very popular, as many people enjoyed playing it during The West Coast Computer Faire.
The Cromemco Z-2 microcomputer was available as a put-together do-it-yourself kit, or could be ordered fully assembled from the factory. It retailed for $595 in 1977, which today is equivalent to $2,663.
A photograph of the Cromemco Z-2 computer and its 1977 magazine advertisement is at https://bit.ly/3cMQ3mG.
NorthStar Computers from Berkeley, CA displayed their North Star Micro Disk System computer during the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire.
The OS (operating system) used with its computer was North Star DOS (disk operating system).
The North Star Micro Disk System computer’s high-level computer programming language was called North Star BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code).
Its disk system executed the software programs written on floppy-disks.
See an original 1977 copy of the 23-page “North Star BASIC Version 6” manual explaining BASIC machine line commands by going to https://bit.ly/3p0ib8j.
Heuristics Inc. demonstrated its new product, called SpeechLab, which uses peripheral hardware to allow a computer to recognize human speech. It cost $300, which amounts to $1,343 in today’s dollars.
A ComputerWorld newspaper article Aug. 15, 1977, explains how SpeechLab technology removed data from a person’s analog speech-wave, digitized it at 64 bytes per word, and then applied a pattern-matching technique to recognize the person’s voice.
The First West Coast Computer Faire successfully demonstrated how a computer and software could benefit individuals’ daily lives and improve small businesses’ operations.
See a 1977 poster announcing the First West Coast Computer Faire at https://bit.ly/3pZVHWc.
I recall reading BYTE computing magazines during the late 1970s and 1980s, with its stories of electronic components, computer hardware, software, and peripherals used for building and operating hobbyist computers.
In the May 1977 BYTE, Wozniak explained the Apple II design, “To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive.”
BYTE magazines from 1975 to 1997 are available at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine.
And so, by the end of the 1970s, personal computing got real.
Stay safe out there.
