In 1971, Federico Faggin at Intel created the first microprocessor, a CPU in a single chip. That chip would be called the 4004 and used in electronic calculators. About three years later, in 1974, MITS began designing the Altair 8800, based on Intel's later 8080 microprocessor. What happened in between—in those crucial three years—however, is as seminal as it is forgotten.
Over a year before the first microprocessor, in December of 1969, Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) had commissioned Intel to design a CPU-in-a-chip, with CTC's own instruction set, which was meant for the intelligent terminal DataPoint 2200. But Intel was late with what would later be called the 8008 microprocessor, and so CTC released the 2200, in 1971, with their own TTL-based, multi-chip CPU. The 2200, despite being marketed as a programmable terminal, was a fully-featured desktop computer, the first of what is today the standard PC.
But Q1 Corporation (acquired in 1974 by Nixdorf Computer AG) delivered another significant first: about two years before MITS, they designed, manufactured and sold the Q1 microcomputer, featuring the same Intel 8008 that was too late for CTC. The first Q1 was sold in December of 1972 (!), only 8 months after the 8008 was released by Intel. The Q1 was, therefore, the first true microcomputer—that is, the first fully-integrated desktop computer featuring a single-chip microprocessor for CPU.
Later versions of the Q1 would feature Faggin's later design at Zilog, the Z80 microprocessor. But the distinctiveness of the Q1 line would remain: quality builds, a unique industrial design and aspect ratio, and—yes—neon-orange plasma displays!
As of this writing, short of a post-1974 sales brochure, a brief history on old-computers.com and a rather commercial system overview preserved by the Technikum29 museum in Germany, there is no publicly-available technical documentation on this gallant and trail-blazing line of microcomputers. Therefore, having gotten hold of a later Q1 model—more specifically, a Q1-Lite-IWS with serial number LW-379—I've decided to reverse-engineer, document, possibly restore, and later place the machine at the Dutch Home Computer Museum, a registered public interest non-profit. This website, and its companion Github repository, will document all the information I can collect about the machine. It will be updated over time, on an on-going basis, so please make sure to come back regularly.
UPDATE: We now have the mainboard schematics of the Q1 Lite system (the one in the video and photos below), provided to us by Karl-Wilhelm Wacker, who used to work on the Q1 Lite development!
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Other known, surviving Q1 units:
- At Technikum29 in Germany
- At Datormuseum in Sweden
- With Peter Andersen, in Denmark
- An informal count of other surviving Q1s in private hands, not related to museums, brings us to about 8 known surviving units.