Personal Computer

Who coined the term personal computer ? The Oxford English Dictionary says Byte magazine used it first, in its May 1976 issue. But Yale Law School librarian Fred Shapiro decided to do some digging on his own – with help from JSTOR, an online electronic database for academic journals. JSTOR's arts and sciences archive offers scans of 5 million pages from 117 journals, some dating back 150 years. Using character-recognition software, JSTOR creates searchable files for each document , allowing full-text searches across 15 academic fields.

While searching for the origin of personal computer , Sharpiro uncovered several competing claims. Stewart Brand, founder of Whole Earth Catalog, says on his Web site that he first referred to a “personal computer” in a 1974 book; and GUI pioneer Alan Kay is said to have used the term in a paper published in 1972.

But a search on JSTOR's general science archive turned up what Shapiro says is the earliest recorded use of personal computer , in the October 4, 1968, issue of Science . The issue contains a Hewlett-Packard advertisement for its new HP 9100A. “The new Hewlett-Packard 9100A personal computer,” the advertisement says, is “really, willing and able... to relieve you of waiting to get on the big computer.” The $4900 device – a desktop scientific calculator equipped with magnetic cards – doesn't seem like much of a computer nowadays. And at 40 pounds, it wasn't very personal, either. But according to Shapiro, it was the first device to be called a personal computer.