The Best of Both Worlds? A History of Time-Shared Microcomputers, 1977–1983

This account of the evolution of time-shared microcomputers, often overlooked members of the microcomputer industry, looks at articles and advertisements that appeared in Byte magazine from 1977 to 1983. The author’s quantitative and qualitative analysis reveals that time-shared microcomputers attempted to combine the best aspects of microcomputer and mini-computer/mainframe technologies and, for a time, were a considerable, important part of the microcomputer industry.