In February, I received a request for information about the Librascope L-2010 Portable General Purpose Digital Computer from Evan Koblentz, a computer historian and technology journalist based at the InfoAge Science Center, in New Jersey. Evan was writing a book about the history of "portable" computing and needed more information about the L-2010, a 1962 desktop computer with one of the first flying head disc memories. He first learned of the L-2010 on our Librascope Memories website.
Key members of the L-2010 development team, including Roy Bartlome, Grey Stone, and Marty Rudolf all kindly provided Evan with the "behind the scenes" information he needed for his new book. The illustrated 100 page book is titled "Abacus to smartphone: The evolution of mobile computers", and is available on both his website (
click here), and Amazon. The print version is $19.99, and an electronic (PDF) version is $8.00.
This unique history book includes a good variety of innovative computer companies and their products that older engineers will remember, plus a few they probably never heard of. Most will conclude the book provides a good balance between completeness and brevity, which makes it an interesting fast read.
