World's first personal computer sold for Rs 24.5 lakh

The world got its first personal computer somewhere around 1971. No, the PC is not what it looks like today, but it was a very simple box with a few buttons. Only 40 machines were ever built and sold. It was designed and invented by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation in 1970 and the first one was sold in 1971 for a whopping $750. And now, there are only 10 of these known to exist in the world.

The Kenback-1 was was an 8-bit machine with 256 bytes of memory and could execute instructions of only around 1000 per second. The computer had a series of buttons and switches and used pure codes as inputs. The output would be a series of lights that the user had to know what it meant. The computer would weigh around 6.3Kg and housed in a steel cabinet.

On November 7, the Kenback-1 was auctioned at the Auction Team Breker and claims to be in fully working condition with all original parts.

Photo credit: computerhistory.org