• 1975

Company Description

Sphere Corporation, of Bountiful, Utah was founded by Michael Donald. Michael Donald "Mike" Wise was born in Wiesbaden, Germany to Donald Wise, a Major in the Air Force stationed in Germany, and his wife Bonnie Jean Eacho. He was the third of 5 children born to the pair. In 1975, Mike, the founder and president of Sphere Corporation, a computer company based in Bountiful, Utah, implemented the first usage of the Ctrl-Alt-Delete function as a way to clear Ram without powering down. This was used in the Sphere 1, which featured a Motorola 6800 CPU, onboard ROM, Monitor, 4 KB of RAM, and a keyboard with a numeric keypad. Sphere 1 was acknowledged as the first true Personal Computer by Byte (magazine) in its commemoration issues (every 5 years). What differentiated the Sphere I from prior microcomputers was that it included a keyboard, a numeric keypad, and a monitor.

  • Manufacturer:

    Hardware
  • Formed:

    1975
  • Company Address:

    UT
    United States
  • We recognize our sponsors starting at $1 per entry.
    Learn more at https://www.ithistory.org/benefits