EXPLORE:  EXHIBITS,  COLLECTIONS,  RESEARCH

Do you know that

Some of the first computers powered by the microprocessor were designed and manufactured in Canada. One of the earliest such computers was the CPS-1 designed at Microsystems International Ltd. (or MIL). It used the MF7114 microprocessor also designed at MIL.

While the CPS-1 was not designed to be a PC, the MCM/70 computer built by Micro Computer Machines of Toronto certainly was. The unveiling of the MCM/70 in September of 1973 was the world's first announcement of a microprocessor-powered PC.

One of the earliest hobby computers built around a microprocessor was put together by a Canadian electronics hobbyist Howard Franklin of Toronto who, in 1974, used the MIL 8008 microprocessor to power his computer.

All these computers and several other early Canadian PCs are housed in the York University Computer Museum, Toronto, Canada.

New at YUCoM

New online exhibit—Computer Hobby Movement in Canada—chronicles  a decade-long computer hobby movement in Canada and its role in bringing computing into the homes of Canadians.