Question about REALLY old computers
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Posting Guru
Joined: May 2002
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From: Southwestern Michigan
Ken, Yes have dated your geekness. I knew you would have the answer..........not that I understood it.
I would have to say these machines were from 78 or 79 so I guess CP/M is it.
So was CP/M an operating system?
Never mind, I wouldn't understand the answer anyway lol.
I would have to say these machines were from 78 or 79 so I guess CP/M is it.
So was CP/M an operating system?
Never mind, I wouldn't understand the answer anyway lol.
Posting Guru
Joined: Sep 2002
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From: CT
My first computer was a Windows 3.11, then I updated to 3.1 then Windows 95, etc. etc. The Windows 3.11 thing was like back in 94' ?? My first computer was 100MHZ. I remember it saying "100" in green LED numbers on the tower. The tower was HUGE I may add.
Senior User
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All I remember about those old computers was playing Oregon Trail on them. I was in fourth grade, and it was our special " good behavior " benefit to play on the computer. Of course, we had to go into the principals office to play it, because he was the only one who had one.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,008
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From: Tucson
IBM PC
I still have my original IBM PC in the garage. I got it fully loaded up with 684k of RAM and two 5 1/4 disk drives. Of course, I was a bit disappointed to learn that it also needed software to run! That hangman game that it came with got old after a couple of months! It's fully tricked out now with a 32 meg (yes, meg) hard drive, a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive and a amberchrome monitor! And, hold on to your hat, a V20 processor which brought that CPU up to a screaming 5 Mhz. It would take about 90 seconds to boot. I remember a long involved dBase program I wrote that would take about two minutes to run (a report). I still had it when I finally achieved 486 status and it would take five or six seconds to run the same routine. Wow! Anyhow, I'm still pretty far behind the times (at home anyhow) with a 500 Mhz but it pokes along OK.
jor
jor
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Colorado
Ah, my beloved old Vic 20......5k memory, and that included the operating system. Paid a whopping $79 for it, as the Commodore 64 had just been introduced and made the '20' obsolete. I never could afford the hard drive, and it was months old before I could even buy the tape drive for it. I remember sitting up many nights, programming games into it without a way to do a back up, attempting to PROOF the program, then typing 'RUN' and having it lock up. Had to turn it off and that meant losing all the work!
I still have the thing, anyone want it? Tons of games too. I will say I learned VIC Basic programming on it, which translated fairly easily over to anybody elses version of Basic too. Great help for me in my job as I then learned H.P. basic for programming test equipment for calibration and operation.
Ken, remember when they thought it was impossible to exceed 100Mhz clock speed?
EDIT: Forgot to mention I had to buy the color tv for a monitor too......that cost much more than the VIC 20.
I still have the thing, anyone want it? Tons of games too. I will say I learned VIC Basic programming on it, which translated fairly easily over to anybody elses version of Basic too. Great help for me in my job as I then learned H.P. basic for programming test equipment for calibration and operation.
Ken, remember when they thought it was impossible to exceed 100Mhz clock speed?
EDIT: Forgot to mention I had to buy the color tv for a monitor too......that cost much more than the VIC 20.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 1997
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From: Enjoying the real world.
MS-DOS and PC-DOS were basically the same product. MS-DOS was the one Microsoft sold. PC-DOS was the version that IBM licensed from Microsoft.
CP/M, yes, 8-bit operating system designed to run on computers with a Z-80, 8080 or 8085 processor. Whole thing fit in about 5K of memory.
CP/M, yes, 8-bit operating system designed to run on computers with a Z-80, 8080 or 8085 processor. Whole thing fit in about 5K of memory.
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Posting Guru
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Well, Ken's dead on with everything. Bringing me back to my PC assembly Lang. and QBASIC..
WooHooo, that Computer Science degree finally came in handy! Thanks Ken, understanding what you said, just validated my entire college career!
WooHooo, that Computer Science degree finally came in handy! Thanks Ken, understanding what you said, just validated my entire college career!
Gone but not forgotten.
Joined: Jul 2001
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When you said "really" old, I thought you meant "really" old. In 1960 I was a Service Engineer on the Univac Model 1 File Computer, a vacuum tube system that required many tons of air conditioning and space about the size of a basketball court. Incoming data came from six paper tape machines and the fixed head memory drums were about the size of 55 gallon drums. There were seven full time engineers working 7/24 to keep it running. Now THAT'S old.
Some asked about hexidecimal, I still skip 9 & 10.
Dono
Some asked about hexidecimal, I still skip 9 & 10.
Dono
Last edited by dono; Nov 1, 2003 at 08:21 PM.
Elder User
Joined: Sep 2002
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From: White Sands, NM
Originally posted by DainBramage
Bringing me back to my PC assembly Lang. and QBASIC..
Bringing me back to my PC assembly Lang. and QBASIC..
Ahhhh! QBASIC! Down with QBASIC! I hated that thing. I don't know why, I guess I was just very resistant to change back then
I stuck with the GWBASIC editor to the end! I was also probably one of the last people in geekdom to give up on DOS and make the switch to windows. I couldn't stand 3.11 and really didn't take Windows seriously untill Win 95. I think I still have DOS 5.0 around here somewhere.....
Postmaster
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 4,532
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From: Trussville, Alabama
I have no idea what the computer was; it was a mainframe computer, not a desktop.
I can remember many LONG college nights spent typing in Punch Cards and then waiting in line for the computer to read my cards and run (hopefully!) my program.
The language was Fortran 77. The year was 1983.
Times sure have changed!
I can remember many LONG college nights spent typing in Punch Cards and then waiting in line for the computer to read my cards and run (hopefully!) my program.
The language was Fortran 77. The year was 1983.
Times sure have changed!
Posting Legend
Joined: Sep 2001
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I still have CPM programs on 5-1/4" floppies that would run under MS-DOS. I have a few decks of punch cards for Fortran-IV and even some paper tapes for use under Basic on a DEC PDP-8. The cards and tape all left over from the early/mid 70's.
Lead Driver
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 8,140
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From: Oak Harbor, OH
I have had:
IBM PC-Jr.
3 or 4 Ti99-4/a (all were black and silver)
2 commodore 64s
1 commodore Vic 20
1 tandy "trs 80 color computer"
1 tandy trs80 console (office) unit.
1 epson 286
1 386 sx25
1 386 dx 33
1 386 dx 40
1 486 sx25
1 486 DX2 50
1 486 DX4 75
1 XT (8088)
IBM PC-Jr.
3 or 4 Ti99-4/a (all were black and silver)
2 commodore 64s
1 commodore Vic 20
1 tandy "trs 80 color computer"
1 tandy trs80 console (office) unit.
1 epson 286
1 386 sx25
1 386 dx 33
1 386 dx 40
1 486 sx25
1 486 DX2 50
1 486 DX4 75
1 XT (8088)