. @guardian has a *beautiful* gallery of home computers, showing at rapidly changing face + lack of design conventions of home PCs between birth in 1970s + 1990s

BUT we also haz classic home PCs at @sciencemuseum - a short thread https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2020/apr/11/the-early-days-of-home-computing-in-pictures

Introduced in late 1970s, MITS Altair 8800B was widely acknowledged as 1st home computer kit + developed by American electronics enthusiast Ed Roberts, who had founded Model Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), originally to sell calculator kits https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8384537/altair-8800b-computer-system-1977-1982-personal-computer

We have not 1 but 2 Commodore Pet 2001 Series PCs in our collections!!

Released in January 1977, Commodore PET 2001 was popular in schools throughout UK, US, + Canada due to its simple keyboard + all-in-one design.

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8094438/commodore-pet-2001-series-personal-computer-personal-computer and https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co493761/commodore-pet-2001-8-bs-personal-computer-1977-personal-computers

And, boy oh boy, we've *heck of a lot* (that's scientific measurement) of Sinclair computers esp ZX's in our collections incl this gorgeous Sinclair ZX81 microcomputer, successor to ZX80, 1st computer made to appeal to mass market
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co62579/sinclair-zx-81-microcomputer-1981-1985-microcomputers
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/categories/computing-&-data-processing?q=sinclair

We also have a Dragon32 home computer. Introduced in 1982, UK models were aptly made in Port Talbot in Wales. Dragon32 competed in home PC market against Sinclair ZX + BBC Micro + was commercial failure

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co418043/dragon-32-family-computer-1982-1985-personal-computer

We also have stunning Acorn A3000 computer, 1989, or rather stunning photo of Acorn A3000 computer *box*, which was introduced by UK firm Acorn Computers Ltd 1989 + used their own ARM RISC processor architecture (you may have ARM chip in your smartphone)

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8210539/acorn-a3000-computer-1989-computer