Sphere 1

{{Infobox information appliance

| name = Sphere 1

| title =

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| image = Sphere Personal Computer Ad January 1976.jpg

| caption = 1976 Sphere Computer Advertisement{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1976-01/page/n24/mode/1up | title=Go Computer Now! | author=Sphere Corporation | magazine=Byte | date=January 1976 | access-date=6 February 2022 | volume=1 | issue=5 | pages=23 }}

| developer = Michael Donald Wise[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65293456 Michael Donald "Mike" Wise (1949–2002)], Find A Grave Memorial{{cite web |url=http://www.splor.com/about.html |title=Splore - About:Michael D. Wise, the founder of Splor |accessdate=2017-07-11 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040411112030/http://www.splor.com/about.html |archivedate=April 11, 2004 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?25740-Sphere-1|title=Sphere 1|access-date=2015-12-08|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093234/http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?25740-Sphere-1|url-status=dead}}

| manufacturer = Sphere Corporation[http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/sphere/newsletter/V1N1_Nov75.pdf sphere :: newsletter :: V1N1 Nov75] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324023021/http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/sphere/newsletter/V1N1_Nov75.pdf |date=2017-03-24 }}, November 1975[https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_spherenews_1070506 sphere :: newsletter :: V1N2 Apr76], April 1976, Internet Archive

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| releasedate = {{Start date|1975}}

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| price = US$860 (Kit:Sphere 1)

| discontinued = 1977[http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/solomons_memory.php SOLOMON'S MEMORY], by Les Solomon, Digital Deli

The Comprehensive, User-Lovable Menu of Computer Lore, Culture, Lifestyles and Fancy, by The Lunch Group & Guests, Edited by Steve Ditlea, published 1984, The 1977 First West Coast Computer Faire.... Outside the Brooks Hall site of the show was parked a small van containing Mike Wise and his unique computer from the Sphere Company located in Bountiful, Utah. The one thing we remember about the Sphere was that its BASIC was s-l-o-w. Real s-l-o-w! The Sphere computer was never seen again: it was advertised and a couple were even delivered to computer stores, but very soon Sphere vanished from the face of the earth-a fate shared by many other pioneering computer models.[http://www.earlycomputers.com/cgi-bin/item-report-main.cgi?20110729 The Sphere 1.], by Early Computers Project, The Sphere Corporation put out a newsletter entitled, "Global News"

| unitssold = 1,300{{fact|date=March 2022}}

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| os = "PDS" 1 KB Basic

| power =

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| cpu = Motorola 6800

| memory = 4 KB of RAM (Expandable to 64 KB), 1 KB PROM

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| display = 16 lines x 32 characters, CRT monitor

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| input = keyboard with a numeric keypad

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The Sphere 1 was a personal computer completed in 1975 by Michael Donald Wise and Monroe Tyler of Sphere Corporation, of Bountiful, Utah.{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1975-09/page/n95/mode/2up | title=The Computer "System" Concept | author=Sphere Corporation | magazine=Byte | pages=94–95 | issue=1 | date=September 1975 | access-date=6 February 2022 }} The Sphere 1 featured a Motorola 6800 CPU, onboard ROM, a full-sized CRT monitor, 4 KB of RAM, and a keyboard with a numeric keypad.

The Sphere 1 was among the earliest complete all-in-one microcomputers that could be plugged in, turned on, and was fully functional.{{Cite web|title=The first decade of personal computing.|url=https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/30_The_first_decade_of_perso.php|access-date=2020-12-14|author=David H. Ahl|work=CREATIVE COMPUTING VOL. 10, NO. 11 / NOVEMBER 1984 / PAGE 30|quote=You may think that the Apple II (1977) was the first integrated computer. Not so; the Sphere computer (1975) designed by Mike Wise contained the processor, keyboard, and display all in a case that looked very much like a Hazeltine terminal or TRS-80 Model III.}} Michael touted it as the first "true PC" because it had a keyboard, a number pad, a monitor, external storage, and did not run on a punch tape. In this respect, it is pre-dated by the 1973 MCM/70, among others, but the Sphere included a full-sized display that these generally lacked. When BYTE Magazine did its annual history of the computer, it always included Sphere 1, showing that prior microcomputers lacked the user I/O interface built into the Sphere 1.

The Sphere 1 also included a keyboard-operated reset feature consisting of two keys wired in series that sent a reset signal to the CPU triggering a hard reboot. Wise considered this to be the first keyboard activated reset{{snd}} a predecessor to the now-common Control-Alt-Delete combination.{{cite web|title=Vintage Computer Festival - Featured Speaker|url=http://www.vintage.org/vcf99/mw-bio.htm|accessdate=2011-12-13|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206025749/http://www.vintage.org/vcf99/mw-bio.htm|archivedate=2012-02-06}}[http://bugbookmuseum.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/vintage-sphere-computer-at-bugbook.html Vintage Sphere Computer at the "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum"], 2013-03-10

It is not clear how many systems were sold; production models were sent to computer stores, but the company disappeared shortly thereafter.