Which computer was released first, Digi-Comp I or LNW-80?
Digi-Comp I The Digi-Comp I was a functioning, mechanical digital computer sold in kit form. It was originally manufactured from polystyrene parts by E.S.R., Inc. starting in 1963 and sold as an educational toy for US$4.99.
IBM 801 The 801 was an experimental minicomputer designed by IBM. The resulting architecture was used in various roles in IBM until the 1980s. The 801 was started as a pure research project led by John Cocke in October 1975 at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The name 801 comes from the building the project was housed in, number 801. IBM was looking for ways to improve performance of its existing machines, with project team members studying traces of programs running on System/370 mainframes and looking at the compiler code. From this project came the idea that it was possible to make a very small and very fast core, which could then be used to implement the microcode for any machine.