<b>A Map of connections in the early microcomputer industry</b>
<p>This is an attempt at a visualization of the connections in the sometimes-incestuous early microcomputer industry. It is not yet claimed to be complete, but should be seen as a work-in-progress. Primarily driven by the adverts in this collection, together with the research from the magazines of the day that they came from, it shows the active companies of the era (primarily 1976-1987) as well as the more significant machines they produced (significant to the company, if not the industry) and the connections between them. It also shows that three companies stand out particularly as "hubs" - Commodore in the US, and Acorn and Sinclair in the UK. What it doesn't do is attempt to evaluate subjective influence, so whilst some may argue that Apple is "the most influential computer company of all time", during the period in question the company comes across as fairly insular and only produced four micros of note.</p>[panimage: archives/computers/graphs/computers.svg]
