The Bendix G-15 computer was introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It was about 5 by 3 by 3 feet and weighed about 950 pounds. The base system, without peripherals, cost $49,500. A working model cost around $60,000. It could also be rented for $1,485 per month. It was meant for scientific and industrial markets. The series was gradually discontinued when Control Data Corporation took over the Bendix computer division in 1963.

The chief designer of the G-15 was Harry Huskey , who had worked with Alan Turing on the ACE in the United Kingdom and on the SWAC in the 50s. He made most of the design while working as a professor at Berkeley, and other universities. David C. Evans was one of the Bendix engineers on the G-15 project. He would later become famous for his work in computer graphics and for starting up Evans & Sutherland with Ivan Sutherland.

The G-15 had 180 vacuum tube packs and 300 germanium diode pack. It could use a high-speed paper tape punch for output, punched cards, or a graph plotter. It had magnetic tape storage. It used paper tape from a machine like the Friden Flexowriter or standard punch card input. ALGO was one ALGOL-like language available for use with it.

The G-15 is sometimes described as the first personal computer, because it had an interpretive system, called “Intercom”. The title is disputed by other machines such as the LINC and the PDP-8 and some maintain that only microcomputers such as those which appeared in the 1970s can be called personal computers. About 300 G-15s were installed in the United States and a few were sold in other countries such as Australia and Canada. Some have survived and have made their way to computer museums or science and technology museums around the world.

External links

• The Bendix G-15
• Picture of a G-15
• Another G-15 reference
• Bendix G-15 documentation