Vintage Computers
Dec 5, 2019 14:37:23 #
I had that Commodore 64 prior to my IBM PC XT. HDD was a floppy disc...
Dec 5, 2019 14:39:59 #
Screamin Scott wrote:
I had that Commodore 64 prior to my IBM PC XT. HDD was a floppy disc...
My first computer was a TI-994A. Storage was on an ordinary cassette using an ordinary cassette recorder.
Dec 5, 2019 14:43:40 #
DWU2 wrote:
My first computer was a TI-994A. Storage was on an ordinary cassette using an ordinary cassette recorder.
Good old Texas Instruments..... I had several of their calculators over the years...
Dec 5, 2019 14:54:46 #
Screamin Scott wrote:
Good old Texas Instruments..... I had several of their calculators over the years...
Where TI went off the rails in PC's is that they tried to use the razor/razorblade business model. They wanted everything proprietary so they could sell the PC's cheaply and make their profit on peripherals and software, which only they could supply. Obviously, that didn't work out too well for TI.
Dec 5, 2019 15:21:08 #
DWU2 wrote:
Here's my guesses - left to right, top to bottom: TRS-80, Compaq, Apple IIc, original Mac, original IBM PC, Windows 3.0
The OS is Windows NT version 3.1.... or maybe better known as Windows Not Today! :)
Dec 5, 2019 15:26:19 #
Screamin Scott wrote:
My old IBM PCXT had a whopping 10mb hard drive...
That was HUGE back then!
Dec 5, 2019 15:31:53 #
We had been using minicomputers for a couple years but when the Apple ][ came out we bought a couple and used them. They had their limitations but could provide interfaces with a couple of instruments. The availability of hardware was a problem but we managed to build a couple circuit boards to do things we needed to do. Eventually the desktop computers got more capable and the PC got lots of third party hardware so we switched to PCs in the mid '80s.
Once we started running PCs we had 7 track and 9 track tapes available. Hard drives back then were infinitesimal by todays standards. Nobody talked about Gigabytes for almost another decade. Now Terabytes are amateur level. The serious guys are into Petabytes.
Didn't go back to apple until I bought an iPhone last year.
I guess I'm a vintage computer user.
Once we started running PCs we had 7 track and 9 track tapes available. Hard drives back then were infinitesimal by todays standards. Nobody talked about Gigabytes for almost another decade. Now Terabytes are amateur level. The serious guys are into Petabytes.
Didn't go back to apple until I bought an iPhone last year.
I guess I'm a vintage computer user.
Dec 5, 2019 16:38:32 #
Dngallagher wrote:
That was HUGE back then!
Back when files/programs were all sized in K, not Meg.
Dec 5, 2019 16:44:38 #
Longshadow wrote:
Back when files/programs were all sized in K, not Meg.
Back when files/programs were all sized in K, not Meg.
We had a Xerox minicomputer. It ran an instrument, took data, did some preliminary analysis and wrote the results on tape. After using it for a couple years we doubled the memory to bring it up to 8K. All the programs fit into that initial 4K. Around 1976. The cost of the additional 4K of memory was about $4K.
The computer had an ASR33 hooked up to it. That was the manual I/O. The program was on paper tape. Printing out the program took about a half hour at 10 characters/second.
Dec 5, 2019 17:14:55 #
Dngallagher wrote:
The OS is Windows NT version 3.1.... or maybe better known as Windows Not Today! :)
....or as I recall, we called it Windows Nice Try!
Dec 5, 2019 17:15:46 #
Dec 5, 2019 17:19:35 #
We had one IC test system that used a teletype terminal.
We were finally able to upgrade it to a Decwriter (dot matrix terminal).
Teletypes were much fun to watch.
Chugga, chugga, clink, chugga, clank, chugga, chugga,
and that was to print one character.
The guy that designed those must be in an asylum somewhere.
A mechanical marvel and nightmare.
We were finally able to upgrade it to a Decwriter (dot matrix terminal).
Teletypes were much fun to watch.
Chugga, chugga, clink, chugga, clank, chugga, chugga,
and that was to print one character.
The guy that designed those must be in an asylum somewhere.
A mechanical marvel and nightmare.
Dec 5, 2019 17:26:23 #
I wish I had photographed my first PC. It was a rectangular box with a small screen at one end (about 9" square) and had the first accounts package (Similar in every way to Excell)that got taken over with MS. It had a basic page edit. I upgraded to a 086 pc with writer software - took a while for me to get a pc that ran Windows.
Wish I had learned code instead >>>>>
Wish I had learned code instead >>>>>
Dec 5, 2019 17:40:11 #
G Brown wrote:
...Wish I had learned code instead >>>>>
There's still time.
I started learning Python this year.
Dec 5, 2019 17:44:35 #
DirtFarmer wrote:
There's still time.
I started learning Python this year.
I started learning Python this year.
Hope it's simpler than JAVA!
CSS is getting intense also.
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