[Discuss] Old computers Re: (OT) Steve Jobs 1955-2011

[matt at mattshields.org (Matt Shields)]

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 11:42 AM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:

> Jerry Feldman mentioned an old computer:
> > My first home computer was an Apple II (1978). What Jobs saw back
> > then was that a desktop computer could be useful to real people.
> > At the time, there were a few hobby computers. I almost bought a
> > MITS Altair
>
> The first desktop I ever ran across was in my math teacher's class in
> Arlington, VA in 1977:  an HP 9830A (you can find pics of it via Google).
> Anyone else remember those?  It had 4K of RAM, kept your programs on a
> cassette tape, printed out (quickly) on an 80-column wide thermal printer.
> You programmed it in BASIC; I remember writing a banner printing program
> and a
> biorhythm chart generator.
>
> Being exposed to bigger mainframe computers starting around '72, I never
> thought of these micro things as anything other than toys.  So when the
> TRS-80
> and Apple ][ came out, they held little interest for me--my first
> factory-built (i.e. not cobbled-together) home computer was a 1982 DEC
> surplus
> PDT-11/150; it ran RT-11.  The first "real" home computer, that rivaled
> mainframe performance, came along about 10 years later:  the Intel 486.
> That's when speed-of-light constraints came to favor microchips over the
> "frames" containing CPUs in multiple circuit boards spread across a
> backplane,
> and transistor density has accelerated ever since.
>
> By the time of the 486, Linux was available: today's supercomputing
> clusters
> usually run Linux.
>
> -rich
>
>
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Mine was a Commodore Pet.  Dad bought one for his business and one for home.

Matthew Shields
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