Episode 63 - What's With The Wedge, Part 2

Advent of Computing

This concludes my series on the distinctive shape of early home computers. In this episode we finally cover the Sol-20 itself, the first system on the market to be shaped like a wedge. More generally, we try to figure out if the Sol-20 was the progenitor of hundreds of machines that followed, or if the wedge was inevitable. For such a simple question, this has become a surprisingly complicated topic. Selected sources: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/10/102702231-05-01-acc.pdf - Lee Felsenstein, oral history at CHM http://www.leefelsenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/I_Designed_the_Sol.pdf - Article about the Sol-20's design process http://www.leefelsenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Felsenstein-Tabloid-BW.pdf - Tom Swift Lives! Like the show? Then why not head over and support me on Patreon. Perks include early access to future episodes, and bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/adventofcomputing