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MicroWat Northern Digital cover
physical object
Identifier
2016.7.4Description
Black mesh sides, case is beige-white, otherwise identical to 2016.7.3, serial number is 28. The MicroWAT was created here at the University of Waterloo to solve a teaching problem: too many students learning to program, and not enough computers. In the late 1970s, there were plenty of cheap personal computers, such as the Apple II, the Commodore PET, and the Radio Shack TRS-90. But computer scientists here felt that those were not powerful enough for "real" programming languages, such as FORTRAN or APL. The MicroWAT was designed with an advanced Motorola 6809 microprocessor to use the Waterloo micro languages and to be plugged into a standard "dumb" terminal-essentially a screen and a keyboard. Jerry Krist founded Northern Digital Inc (NDI) to manufacture the MicroWAT, but probably less than one hundred were ever made.Related people
Chrisoula Vergis (is documentarian of)Institute for Computer Research, UW (was donor of)