Sphere Microcomputer
date: label: date made
content: 1976
name: label: maker
content: Sphere Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This microcomputer has a white metal housing with a black keyboard and a black glass panel over the screen.
label: Description
content: The first issue of <I>Byte </I> magazine, published in September of 1975, contained a two-page advertisement from Sphere Corporation, a firm founded that year in Bountiful, Utah. It showed three microcomputer systems, ranging in price from the "Hobbiest" at $650 (an 8-bit parallel computer with 4K words of read/write memory, a Motorola 8800 microprocessor, and a keybord with a numeric keypad) to "Intelligent!!" at $750 (user programmable with further features) to "BASIC" at $1345 that included full extended BASIC and could be purchased with a desktop display and video monitor for additional fees. By the following issue, Sphere had modified all three of these systems and raised prices. In the June, 1976, issue of <I>Byte</I>, Sphere advertised yet another microcomputer, this one billed "the Pleaser." It closely resembles this object, although there is no power supply shown in the advertisement. By this time the address of Sphere is given as in North Salt Lake, Utah. The advertisement describes the "advanced" central processing unit, the program development system, and a new 4K read only memory board. It also shows an integrated keyboard and monitor - with no number keypad on the keyboard. The ad does not give specifics on the circuitry of the machine. Adjacent to the advertisement, is an article by Bruce A. Anderson of San Diego, California on"Assembling a Sphere." It does not describe precisely the same model as that in the Smithsonian collections, but does suggest the challenges of attempting to assemble products of the company and early microcomputers more generally. By April of 1977, Sphere Corporation was bankrupt. Its assets were purchased by Matteson Techniques Inc. of Wethersfield, Ct.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: "The Computer System Concept," <I>Byte,</I> September 1975 1, #1, pp. 94-95 (Sphere advertisement); October 1975,1, #2, pp. 2-4 (Sphere advertisement), July 1976 1 #11, p. 21 (Sphere advertisement).
label: Description
content: Bruce A. Anderson, "Assembling a Sphere," <I>Byte</I>, July 1976 1 #11, pp, 18-20.
label: Description
content: Non-accession 1990.3165, especially 1990.3165.16- .21.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Utah, Bountiful
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jonathan A. Titus
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0610.01
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0610.01
label: accession number
content: 1990.0610
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Microcomputer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, plastic, glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 1/4 in x 18 1/4 in x 19 1/2 in; 33.655 cm x 46.355 cm x 49.53 cm