Sphere 1

The Sphere I was a personal computer completed in 1975 by Michael

Sphere I
Donald Wise and Monroe Tyler of Sphere Corporation, of Bountiful,
Utah.[9] The Sphere I featured aMotorola 6800 CPU, onboard ROM, a
big Monitor, 4 KB of RAM, and a keyboard with a numeric keypad.
Sphere I. The Sphere I was among the earliest microcomputers.[10]
Michael touted it as the first "true PC" because it had a keyboard, a
number pad, a monitor, external storage, and did not run on a punch
tape. When Byte Magazine did its annual history of the computer, it
always included Sphere 1, showing that prior microcomputers lacked
the user I/O interface built into the Sphere I.

The Sphere 1 also included a keyboard operated reset feature

consisting of two keys wired in series that sent a reset signal to the
CPU triggering a Hard reboot. Wise considered this to be the first
keyboard activated reset - a predecessor to the now-common Control-
Alt-Delete combination.[11][12]

References
1. Byte Magazine, Volume 1 Issue 5, January 1976 (http://ww
w.swtpc.com/mholley/BYTE/Jan1976/Jan_1976_BYTE.htm)
2. Michael Donald "Mike" Wise (1949 - 2002)(https://www.find 1976 Sphere Computer Advertisement[1]
agrave.com/memorial/65293456), Find A Grave Memorial Developer Michael Donald Wise[2][3][4]
3. Splore - About:Michael D. Wise, the founder of Splor(http
Manufacturer Sphere Corporation[5][6]
s://web.archive.org/web/20040411112030/http://www .splor.
com/about.html) at the Wayback Machine (archived April Release date 1975
11, 2004)
Introductory 860 US$ (Kit:Sphere 1)
4. http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?
price
25740-Sphere-1
5. sphere :: newsletter :: V1N1 Nov75(http://www.textfiles.co
Discontinued 1977[7][8]
m/bitsavers/pdf/sphere/newsletter/V1N1_Nov75.pdf) , Units sold 1,300
November 1975
Operating "PDS" 1 KB Basic
6. sphere :: newsletter :: V1N2 Apr76(https://archive.org/detail
system
s/bitsavers_spherenews_1070506), April 1976, Internet
Archive CPU Motorola 6800
Memory 4 KB of RAM (Expandable to 64
KB), 1KB PROM
Display 16 lines x 32 characters, CRT
Monitor
Input keyboard with a numeric keypad
 7. SOLOMON'S MEMORY (http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/s
olomons_memory.php), by Les Solomon, Digital Deli The
Comprehensive, User-Lovable Menu of Computer Lore,
Culture, Lifestyles and Fancy, by The Lunch Group &
Guests, Edited by Steve Ditlea, published 1984,The 1977
First West Coast Computer Faire.... Outsidethe Brooks Hall
site of the show was parked a small van containing Mike
Wise and his unique computer from the Sphere Company
located in Bountiful, Utah. The one thing we remember
about the Sphere was that its BASIC was s-1-o-w . Real s-1-
o-w! The Sphere computer was never seen again: it was
advertised and a couple were even delivered to computer
stores, but very soon Sphere vanished from the face of the
earth-a fate shared by many other pioneering computer
models.
8. The Sphere 1. (http://www.earlycomputers.com/cgi-bin/item-
report-main.cgi?20110729), by Early Computers Project,
The Sphere Corporation put out a newletter entitled, "Global
News"
9. Sphere Advertisement (Page 94-95)(https://archive.org/stre
am/byte-magazine-1975-09/1975_09_BYTE_00-01_The_W
orlds_Greatest_Toy#page/n95/mode/2up), Byte Magazine
Volume 00 Number 01, Published September 1975, Internet
Archive
10. The first decade of personal computing.(http://www.atarima
gazines.com/creative/v10n11/30_The_first_decade_of_pers
o.php) By David H. Ahl, CREATIVE COMPUTING VOL. 10,
NO. 11 / NOVEMBER 1984 / PAGE 30,You may think that
the Apple II (1977) was the first integrated computer
. Not
so; the Sphere computer (1975) designed by Mike W ise
contained the processor, keyboard, and display all in a case
that looked very much like aHazeltine terminal or TRS-80
Model III.
11. "Vintage Computer Festival - Featured Speaker" (http://ww
w.vintage.org/vcf99/mw-bio.htm). Retrieved 2011-12-13.
12. Vintage Sphere Computer at the "Bugbook Historical
Microcomputer Museum"(http://bugbookmuseum.blogspot.
com.au/2013/03/vintage-sphere-computer-at-
bugbook.html), 2013-03-10

External links
Sphere 1 Vintage Computer - Buy First "True" PC 1975
(PDF's) Newsletters, Schematics, User manual

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