Kenbak Corp. Tech and Marketing Documents:

• Kenbak-1 Installation, Maintenance, and Theory of Operation:  The main owner's manual which came with a Kenbak-1.  Tells how to run it, maintain it, and then a technical "Theory of Operation" which explains how it works with full schematics, logic diagrams, and state diagrams (written 1971, corrected 9/20/1972)

• Kenbak-1 Laboratory Exercises:  A manual for students with no computer experience, starting with the basics, and teaching how to program through exercises and examples (dated 1971.)

• Kenbak-1 Programming Reference: 4/1/1971:  A manual for experienced programs, teaching the architecture, and details of each instruction in the instruction set.

• Computers in the Classroom Booklet (new)  5/1/1971:  A 4-page booklet for schools considering using computers in the classroom.

• Demonstrator Request and Agreement 1/15/1972:  A request form a potential customers to  borrow a computer for 2 weeks to try it out, and then either purchase, or return it.

• Concepts and Programming Unit for Schools (new) 3/10/1972:  Two marketing sheet describing types of school program packages which can supplement existing courses, make new  courses, or set up extracurricular computer clubs.

• Kenbak-1 Brochure 9/11/1972 : A sales brochure detailing the Kenbak-1

• GSA Pricelist for Government Purchases (new) 12/20/1972:  Price and discount schedule for government purchases, shows price increased from $750 to $850.

• Have Your Students ever Worked with a Computer (new) 1/16/1973:  A marketing document for schools.

• Do You Need Computers in the Lab? (new)  1/17/1973:  A marketing document for digital theory and logic courses.  Geared towards technical schools or colleges.

• What do You Offer your Students after Logic Trainers? (new)  1/18/1973: Another marketing sheet, explaining how a computer can be next step after digital circuits and logic trainers, for technical schools or colleges.

• Some User Reactions to the Kenbak-1 Computer  1/27/1973:  A marketing sheet with positive reviews of the Kenbak-1 by teachers and owners.

• CTI-5050 Brochure:  A similar sales brochure made by CTI Educational Products.

Biographies of John Blankenbaker:

While our biography is quite detailed, there have been many articles over the years telling John's story.  Here are some:

• John's own Story on www.kenbak-1.net:  John made his own website in 2010 to tell his story about the Kenbak-1 computer, and how he got interested in making a computer.  This is short, but has some good information.

• Oral History of John Blankenbaker 2007:  Lee Felsenstein, a computer legend in his own right, conducted an oral interview covering all of John Blankenbaker's life, from early upbringing on an Oklahoma farm, to his post Kenbak computer career, and his  research work in genealogy which occupied much of his retirement.  This delves very deeply into some technical information, more than any autobiography could do, and was the major source for our John Blankenbaker technical biography.  

• Video of John Retelling his Story:  At Vintage Computer Festival East in 2016 (VCF East XI) John was invited to give a talk about his development of the Kenbak-1.  He retells his story of thinking of making a computer in January 1949.  Content is good, but most Important as it really shows his humanity and personality.

• Chester County Press 2016 Story:  In 2016, this local newspaper did a story on John Blankenbaker.

• In His Own Words:  Speech from 1986 Boston Computer Museum Awards Ceremony:  a transcript of Blankenbaker's speech  at Boston's "The Computer Museum" awards ceremony.   This is probably the earliest record of John telling his background and the making of the Kenbak-1.  There are more  annotations than the bitsavers.org version, so more than 1 person probably made notes later.  Possibly Lee Felsenstein marked notes when he was preparing for his interview in 2007.

• The man who made 'the world's first personal computer':  A BBC News article from 2015, a few technical errors, but interesting.

• Oregon State Engineer 2017:  A fairly extensive and detailed article about John in the Oregon State University's annual Engineering Journal (backup here).

Links to more Kenbak-1 Information:

• Kenbak-1 Wikipedia:  A short, fairly accurate, commonly cited reference.

• John's Original Website:  A copy of an old website John made himself in 2007, kept alive by Achim Baque in Germany.

• TheFirstPC.com:  Achim Baqué's website, which tells his story acquiring the Prototype Kenbak-1 computer.  This also has links to many of his other related websites.

• AdWaterandStir.com:  Chris Davis has designed and sells several reproduction Kenbak-1 emulators, and runs a Facebook forum of users, which has some great programming and use information.

• Bitsavers Kenbak Archive:  Contains transcript of John's 1986 Boston speech, and several original Kenbak Corporation documents, including some marketing sheets/brochures, the Theory of Operation Manual, and the Programming Reference Manual.