The first Apple Computer from 1976

*The owner of this computer added a keyboard and wooden case

Apple Computers was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It was in this year that they created the first Apple computer — Apple I.

Hand-built in the garage of Jobs’ parents, the Apple I was actually just a motherboard. The user was required to provide two different AC input voltages (the manual recommended specific transformers), wire an ASCII keyboard (not provided with the computer) to a DIP connector (providing logic inverter and alpha lock chips in some cases), and to wire the video output pins to a monitor or to an RF modulator if a TV set was used.

200 total units were made. Jobs convinced a local computer store, The Byte Shop, to buy 50 at $500 a pop. These are the only 50 known to exist.

One of the original purchasers, Joe Torzewski, paid $666.66 for the board back in August of 1977. He sold it for $30,000.

Joe’s original Apple I

Joe’s finished Apple I

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Macworld Keynote Address video available
• Take me back… way back. Was I even alive?
• IBM moves to Apple
• Apple Computer turns the big 3-2!