The cleaners find two copies of the "first desktop computer".

Two Q1 microcomputers, from the 1970s, found by cleaners in the United Kingdom; Three are now known in the world

Recently, Two Q1 microcomputerswidely considered The first desktop computers With the world's only microchip, it was discovered by cleaners during a service in the United Kingdom. With the discovery of two engines, there are now three surviving units of this device known in the world.

The discovery was made by cleaning company employees JustClear, buried under several boxes. Second Brendan O'Shea, founder of Just Clear, told Live Science in an email that the models were last used by an oil drilling company in the mid-1970s; The other known model may be somewhere in Scandinavia.

Immediately after the discovery, the cleaning staff had no idea what they had found. then, O'Shea An expert was consulted, who informed them that the devices were the world's first fully integrated desktop computers, powered by a single-chip microprocessor.

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Microcomputer Q1 / Credit: Exposure/clarification

Old computer

According to Live Science, Q1 was Manufactured in 1972 by the American Q1 Corporation. With its orange and black design and plasma screen, the Industrial Computer is considered the precursor to the desktop computer we have today. For computing, this was an important milestone because before that, computers were equipped with multichip microprocessors; Q1, however, powered through A chipIntel 8008.

“Without Q1 Corporation there would be no PCs, Macs, Apple or Android phones,” he says. Paul NevProfessor of Computing at Kingston University, United Kingdom Report. “Early pioneers in the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for today's 'everything' device—the ubiquitous modern computer in everyday life.”

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After the discovery, the two computers were temporarily displayed in an exhibition at Kingston University, along with other devices considered to be the foundation of computer history. Now, devices can still be auctioned unless a museum or collector buys them privately.