Gawd, they know how to make me feel old...
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
I built my first computer back in 1978. It was a Netronics Elf II kit[^]. Don't you dare not to call it a real computer, just because I did not have the money for any floppies at that time. :-) Indeed have all 'real' computers gone to East Hyperspace (and their physical remains to the trash bin), while the little Elf II still works, including the ancient monitor.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." -
Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
I played about with a Sinclair ZX80 with 1k memory including the video. Then I moved into a Compukit UK101 which had 8k memory and was an absolute s** to get anything to load or save. I did my degree using an Amstrad CPC6128 and had an external ROM box, which I had an Assembler, and possibly a word processor. I also built an emulator adaptor which I plugged into what would eventually become a standalone computer and I used the emulator to debug the program on the device. Eventually after 10 years, the Amstrad sort of let go - just the rubber band to drive the 3.5" floppy and a replacement was going to cost a fortune. One of these days, I will get it back out and see if I can make it live again.
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
In the "not counted" range I had a ZX81 and two rubber key ZX Spectrum 48k (an issue 1 with the hand mods on the board, and an issue 2 when that broke). Then I had a couple of ACT Sirius computers (early PC clones, called Victor 9000 in the USA) that were cast-offs from my dad's office. The first had twin 5.25" floppy, the second had a 5MB hard drive! Both ran MSDOS 1.0 (although I think I later got my hands on 3.0). We then had an Acorn Archimedes A440, followed by an Acorn Risc PC - those were some of the best computers I ever owned to this day. When the Sirius died we broke it for parts and used the HDD and the PSU on the table attached the A440, for extra storage. Since then, I succumbed the x86 hegemony and ran a series of cheap boring PCs. At school I used some fun machines too. An RM 380Z running CPM, many BBC Model B machines, an Amstrad thing that ran CPM and had Logo, and a CBM 4032 which was like a Commodore PET but with a better keyboard.
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Move over, parvenus! My first computer was a Commodore PET 2001 with 8KB (that's KILO-bytes)! My dad bought it in 1977, and it was one of the first five of its kind in Israel. The Commodore PET 2001 had a built-in cassette recorder/player, which could be used to store/load programs and data. Given that many (most?) mainframes of the time still used tape for mass storage (a disk drive might be used for the O/S and for commonly-run programs), I take exception to the assertion that a computer with a cassette tape was not a computer. I used it for many things, from calculating e and pi (to about 10,000 digits - all that I could do in-memory) to learning 6502 assembly language to game playing (I purchased an incredibly slow version of chess that ran in those 8KB). Those were the days! :)
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My first computer was an AMSTRAD 1512 without HDD with CGA (4 colours) and one 5 1/4 floppy drive and 512 MB of RAM. :cool:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
You lot are mere babes 8( This is the first computer I actually owned (though by no means the first that I used), and I built it myself from a kit... [^]
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You lot are mere babes 8( This is the first computer I actually owned (though by no means the first that I used), and I built it myself from a kit... [^]
I'm sure that if I would press strong enough that $%&#@ NVIDIA card it's giving me problems would work here... :laugh:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
C64, at first with NO storage, as I got it from a school buddy at 12..13 years or so, but his FDD was broken. So I learned BASIC from the manual and wrote little programs, each day a new one :D Until I got a floppy drive from someone else weeks later. Interestingly it came with a mouse. So I learned a bit asm and wrote a IRQ based "mouse driver" moving a HW sprite arrow around, something I'd seen on a PC at a buddy's house ^^ As for PCs, it was a Tandon PC XT, 5MHz, 640KB RAM, no hdd, dual 5.25" floppy, monochrome orange monitor, MSDOS 3.2 or so. With GWBASIC, ugh ^^ The school had dumped it, so I thought, let's try a real PC.
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C64, at first with NO storage, as I got it from a school buddy at 12..13 years or so, but his FDD was broken. So I learned BASIC from the manual and wrote little programs, each day a new one :D Until I got a floppy drive from someone else weeks later. Interestingly it came with a mouse. So I learned a bit asm and wrote a IRQ based "mouse driver" moving a HW sprite arrow around, something I'd seen on a PC at a buddy's house ^^ As for PCs, it was a Tandon PC XT, 5MHz, 640KB RAM, no hdd, dual 5.25" floppy, monochrome orange monitor, MSDOS 3.2 or so. With GWBASIC, ugh ^^ The school had dumped it, so I thought, let's try a real PC.
If the Spectrum doesn't count (guess which one from my username) then the Atari STFM - 8Mhz CPU and 512KB of RAM. First PC? 486 with a 25Mhx CPU overclocked to 33Mhz, 4Mb RAM, 170Mb HDD - that thing cost me nearly a grand in 1994. I still have the CPU :-)
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
My first "real" computer? Are we counting only computers we've owned personally, or should we include computers we've used that belonged to others (e.g., employers)? The first computer I ever owned was a laboratory-surplus ADDS MultiVision prototype: an Intel 8085-based machine that ran a CP/M-80-compatible O/S that I designed. It had 64 KiloBytes of RAM, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, interfaced to an external RS-232 terminal, and was patched together with clip wires and faith. I managed to snarf a 30 MegaByte Seagate Winchester disk drive prototype for it, but as the thing required more electrical power than my home could supply it -- it weighed 60 pounds and had 14 inch platters -- I never got it to work properly. The first computer I ever worked on was an IBM 1800 "minicomputer" that took up a room the size of a small cafeteria. It had 6.2 KiloWords of 16-bit-wide core memory, 256 KiloBytes of disk storage, and a single 9-track tape drive. It was originally intended for the control of laboratory equipment, but was never used for that purpose...possibly because it would crash at a harsh look and took approximately 20 minutes to bootstrap. Feeling a little younger now?
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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I don't remember it exactly, it was maybe an "IBM PC XT". But I remember very well when I bought an additional 300MB HDD. It felt like I can never fill it up :laugh: And soon I began to hate the 300MB when I had to backup it on 700kB diskettes with FASTBACK or something like this :java: :zzz: Bruno
I wrote FastBack! (really) Yeah... it was a major pain, hdd to floppy! Lloyd
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Transam Triton. Practical Electronics Magazine project from 1978. Built from components based around an 8080 processor and running Tiny Basic with a character based screen. After building it I was hooked! I re-designed it around an 8085 processor adding a 'fancy' video around a new Texas Instruments chip and writing a load of machine code graphics routines. Eventually went BBC Computer then PC. Great fun!
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I wrote FastBack! (really) Yeah... it was a major pain, hdd to floppy! Lloyd
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
IBM PC Convertable with Intel 8088 processor (4.77 mhz), 512k ram, no HDD, but twin 3.5" DS floppy (not DSDD, mind you), monochrome nonback-lit graphics with a 4 color CGA monitor added on. :-) (16 color EGA blew my mind when I first saw it...) wrote my first Basica programs on this beauty! wish I still had it...
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My first was the IBM System/360-65[^]. I then went to the oldest, which was the IBM 1620 Model I[^]. No cassette tapes on those babies.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that... - Harvey
Yup. IBM 1620 with hydraulic disk drive that always leaked hydraulic oil on the floor! An I think it had 40K of 6-bit Binary Coded Decimal "digits". Pretty quickly learned how to cold-start it by using the bit switches mounted on the front of the selectric typewriter that was the operator's consol. Punch cards and a 60 lines per MINUTE line printer (upper case only). Those were the good old days.
Roy Williams
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Really? Than congratulation! For me it was a really great tool. Especially the possibilities for include/exclude I liked _very very very_ much! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Bruno
I should be clear that FASTBACK was one of those tools MS 'borrowed' from the CP/M arena (without any compensation back then. :laugh: ) In its original incarnation, it was called "FastCOPY", and had most - but not all - of the features that showed in the FASTBACK version. I think I sold all of about 500 copies... :zzz: In all, it was a fairly trivial utility to write, and having it 'promoted' to officialdom was sort of an honor, back then. Lloyd
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
In university, Xerox Sigma 6. My first was an Apple IIe with dual 360k floppies I bought before float in the Marines. You should have seen the admin guys look at me: "Here's that report sorted by serial number, here it is sorted by last name, here it is sorted by rank and date of rank." In the off hours the troops would play NFL football on it.
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IBM AT: EGA "Graphics", 512kB RAM on the MB and a 6MHz processor, but 2 20MB Harddrives (5¼" Double height, could be used as anchors) and one 5¼" floppy (1.2 MB) The 512MB RAM was a very frustrating limitation. So when I upgraded it I had enough money for a DX50 + 16MB RAM or a DX2/66 + 8MB RAM. Being as frustrated as I was with the RAM limits of the old MB I chose more RAM. Just to find out that there were no programs that could use more than 8MB at the time. :sigh: At the same time I also upgraded to an 800MB 3½" HDD supposedly state of the art at the time, just to find out that the old battleships were faster. :wtf: <edit>And the old IBM keyboards were so sturdy you could go to battle with them as a Claymore substitute</edit>
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
My first "real" computer was the True-Blue PC AT 8mhz with 640K and the 384K add-on board for TSR programs, 32 MB HDD and 2 1.2MB HD floppies and EGA video. Second hand at a "must-sell all" sale for only $1,100. Although if moving up from cassette is the only criteria, then it's an Atari 800XL. (Great programming system)
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
1978 - My first true [digital] love. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_Data_Processor#mediaviewer/File:PDP-12-Update-Uppsala.jpeg[^] I used it to do my thesis on speech recognition by computer. I actually had a functional zero-crossing detector interface module (c/w directional microphone) and the software written. If I'd only stuck with it after my paper was written.... one of the few regrets of my life. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :^) (P.S. Ok, I didn't own it. More like it's owned me all these years.)
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1, Z80 processor, S100 motherboard, 64K RAM + 64K hard-to-access memory, 2 x 720K 8" disk drives in a separate cabinet. Computer + disks weighed > 80lbs together. Text-only monitor was connected by RS-232. I also had a 512 x 512 graphics monitor and a primitive dot-matrix printer. I programmed in assembler, Pascal, an muLISP.
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Comitstrip: First Computer[^] My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk). And that was second hand... What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count :laugh: )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
