The Kenbak-1: The First Personal Computer You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

When people think of the first personal computer, names like the Apple I or the Altair 8800 often come to mind. But before those machines made waves in the mid-1970s, there was the Kenbak-1. Released in 1971 by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation, the Kenbak-1 is widely recognized as the world’s first personal computer. It was a modest-looking machine housed in a metal case with rows of switches and lights for input and output, but it set the stage for the revolution that followed.

The Kenbak-1 was powered by small-scale integration TTL chips instead of a microprocessor—since the first commercial microprocessors hadn’t been released yet. It had just 256 bytes of memory and relied on toggle switches to enter instructions. Users would program it in machine code, flipping switches to input binary instructions and watching LEDs blink out results. It may sound primitive today, but in 1971 this was groundbreaking. It offered individuals—mainly students and hobbyists—a way to directly experiment with computing without needing access to a massive mainframe.

Only about 40 Kenbak-1 units were ever built and sold, making it incredibly rare today. Its commercial failure was due in part to its high cost ($750 at the time, roughly $5,000 today) and its complexity for casual users. Still, it represents a critical “proof of concept” moment: that a computer could be personal, small, and affordable enough for a single individual, rather than a corporate or academic institution, to own.

Looking back, the Kenbak-1 is a fascinating piece of computing history that deserves more recognition. While it never achieved widespread adoption, it laid the groundwork for the personal computing movement that would explode just a few years later. For collectors and enthusiasts, it remains a holy grail artifact—a reminder that even the biggest technological revolutions often begin with small, overlooked experiments.

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