IBM SCAMP Microcomputer
date: label: Date made
content: 1973
name: label: maker
content: IBM
label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: Some personally operated computers, such as this one, came from companies traditionally associated with larger machines. In late 1972, the IBM General Systems Division in Atlanta, Georgia, asked the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, California, to develop a product that would raise the visibility of the programming language APL. Paul Friedl and his colleagues in Palo Alto spent six months developing this pioneering portable computer, known as the SCAMP (Special Computer, APL Machine Portable). The prototype used existing components - a cathode ray tube from Bell Brothers, Inc., for the display; a Norelco audiotape cassette recorder for secondary storage; a keyboard from IBM in Raleigh, North Carolina; memory cards from IBM Germany; and a PALM microprocessor board from IBM in Boca Raton, Florida. The APL language processor emulated one for the existing, much larger, IBM 1130 computer.
label: Description
content: The SCAMP is designed to be a portable and folds into a suitcase-like frame. The upper part, including the monitor, pops up when in use. The frame is chocolate brown and the cover and upper part are almond white.
label: Description
content: Friedl and his colleagues used the SCAMP in over one hundred demonstrations. A menu on the screen indicated possible uses – as a calculator or for financial analysis, project planning, educational drill, engineering analysis, or statistical analysis. The machine served as a prototype for the IBM 5100 portable computer, a machine announced in 1975 that sold for between $8975 and $19,575 and found a range of applications. Some consider the SCAMP as the grandfather of the highly successful IBM Personal Computer (IBM 5150), introduced in 1981.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Paul J. Friedl, “SCAMP: The Missing Link in the PC’s Past?” <I>PC Mag: The Independent Guide to IBM Personal Computers</I>, November 1983, vol. 2 no.6, pp. 190-197.
label: Description
content: Jonathan Littman, “The First Portable Computer: The Genesis of SCAMP, Grandfather of the Personal Computer,” <I>PC World</I>, October 1983, pp. 294-300.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Palo Alto
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0681.01
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0681.01
label: accession number
content: 1988.0681
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microcomputer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (case, keys, components material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (cord material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (screen material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (circuitry material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 21 in x 22 1/2 in; 25.4 cm x 53.34 cm x 57.15 cm