MCM/70
Subseries
· 1973-1974
· ca-yucom-mcm-01-mcm70
Description
Repository
York University Computer Museum
Date
1973-1974
Reference code
ca-yucom-mcm-01-mcm70
Access conditions
Reproduction conditions
Notes
Notes
The MCM/70 was designed in the period between 1972 and 73. From the hardware and software engineering point of view it didn't have much in common with early hobby computers, such as the iconic MITS Altair 8800 or Apple I, except that all these computers were microprocessor based. By the time the Altair 8800 kit was offered to hobbyists in the early 1975, with its minuscule 256 bytes of RAM memory and without any high-level programming language to program it, the MCM microcomputers were providing software support for practical applications ranging from engineering design, modeling and simulation to investment analysis and education. By the time the Apple 1 board was offered for sale in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak—co-founders of Apple Computers—the MCM machines were utilized by Chevron Oil Research Company, Firestone, Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, and U.S. Army, just to name some of the installations of the MCM hardware in North America.
The official announcement of the MCM/70 came on September 25, 1973, in Toronto. The computer was unveiled in New York on September 27th and, the following day, in Boston. One of its early prototypes was demonstrated in May of 1973 during the Fifth International APL Users' Conference in Toronto. The company maintained that the MCM/70 was "of a size, price and ease-of-use as to bring personal computer ownership to business, education, and scientific users previously unserved by the computer industry.''
The manufacturing of the MCM/70 started in mid 1974. The computer used the Intel 8008 microprocessor as the CPU and featured both resident and virtual memory. The computer was equipped with built-in plasma display, APL keyboard, and up to two cassette drives. The cassettes were used for storage and retrieval of data and applications software, as well as for the implementation of virtual memory which provided the user with up to 200 Kbytes of memory. The computer's ROM contained an operating system and an APL interpreter. In 1974 and 1975, the computer could be purchased for between $4,700 and $9,800 depending on the hardware configuration. Three models of the MCM/70 were offered: 702 (2KB of RAM and no cassette drives), 704 (4KB of RAM and a single cassette drive), and 708 (8KB of RAM and two cassette drives).
Control
Date of description
This description was last updated on 2026-05-09.