Minivac 601 Digital Computer Kit was an

electromechanical In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...

digital computer system created by

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...

pioneer

Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American people, American mathematician, electrical engineering, electrical engineer, and cryptography, cryptographer known as a "father of information theory". As a 21-year-o ...

as an

educational toy Educational toys (sometimes also called "instructive toys") are objects of play, generally designed for children, which are expected to stimulate learning. They are often intended to meet an educational purpose such as helping a child develop ...

using digital circuits.Advertisement: Minivac 601
Page 33, 1961-10, ''Popular Science''

Description

In 1961, the system was sold by Scientific Development Corporation's "Consumer Products Division", which was soon renamed as the "Digital Equipment Division".Advertisement: Minivac 601
Page 31, 1961-11, ''Popular Science'' The Minivac 601 was originally housed in a blue-painted wooden case. It used

DPDT In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

electrical relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

s as logic switches and for temporary data storage. The main board had a six-bit binary input/output array, consisting of simple DPDT slide switches, SPDT pushbutton switches, and indicator lights. A 16-position motorized dial

rotary switch A rotary switch is a switch operated by rotation. These are often chosen when more than 2 positions are needed, such as a three-speed fan or a CB radio with multiple frequencies of reception or "channels". A rotary switch consists of a spindle ...

could be used to input decimal or

hexadecimal In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...

numbers, to output numbers, or to act as a

clock signal In electronics and especially synchronous digital circuits, a clock signal (historically also known as ''logic beat'') oscillates between a high and a low state and is used like a metronome to coordinate actions of digital circuits. A clock sign ...

generator. The components could be interconnected by manually inserting

jumper wire A jump wire (also known as jumper, jumper wire, DuPont wire) is an electrical wire, or group of them in a cable, with a connector or pin at each end (or sometimes without them – simply "tinned"), which is normally used to interconnect the ...

s fitted with tapered pin connectors into sockets on the main circuit board. The combined components just barely allowed the simple computer to play a winning game of

Tic-Tac-Toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian or Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with ''X'' or ''O''. T ...

, or to simulate a simple

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

control system. An "advanced and improved" version called the Minivac 6010 was released in early 1962, housed in a gray metal case and featuring higher-quality components. It was supplied with additional patch cords incorporating special

resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active el ...

capacitor A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals. The effect of ...

s, and

diode A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode ...

s for further capabilities. Although the price was also increased considerably, the system was more successfully sold to the corporate market, rather than as a toy.Price and Perceived Value
Chapter 3, Page 11, Marketing That Works: How Entrepreneurial Marketing Can Add Sustainable Value to Any Sized Company, By Leonard M. Lodish; Howard L. Morgan; Shellye Archambeau, , "...the entrepreneur's line was the ...MINIVAC 601...no one in the third segment, the corporate sector, bought the product...the corporate types was: "Oh, that—it's just a toy!" The entrepreneur was creative and he listened carefully. He also understood marketing. His next product was the same basic kit—with the switches upgraded to higher tolerances and the machine color changed from blue and red to gunmetal gray. The name was changed to the MINIVAC 6010 and he increased the price from $79.95 to $479. The MINIVAC 6010 sold very well to the corporate segment at $479..." In 1962, the Scientific Development Corporation also advertised educational electronic kits based on

analog electronics Analogue electronics ( en-US, analog electronics) are electronic systems with a continuously variable signal, in contrast to digital electronics where signals usually take only two levels. The term "analogue" describes the proportional relati ...

technology.Advertisement: Basic Communications Kits
Page 16, 1962-06, ''Popular Science''

Gallery

File:Minivac601.jpg, Original blue-painted enclosure

References

External links

{{commons category, Minivac601

*Minivac 601 documentation (1961)
Book IBooks II-IVBooks V-VIMaintenance manual
Mechanical computers Educational toys