My first desktop was an 8088 genuine IBM XT with two 10mb hard drives in it and 64mb of ram. It even had a 'turbo' switch on it so I could speed it up from the standard 4.77mhz to 10mhz, I thought it was FAST then!! My first 'portable', bought a couple of years later, was a Commodore SX-64 which was more of a 'luggable' in that you COULD carry it, but it was darned heavy. It had a 20mb hardrive in it and a tiny 4 inch screen, the keyboard covered the screen when you carried it around.
My first desktop was an 8088 genuine IBM XT with two 10mb hard drives in it and 64mb of ram. It even had a 'turbo' switch on it so I could speed it up from the standard 4.77mhz to 10mhz, I thought it was FAST then!!
Mornin Mikey, 64 Megs of Ram ?...you must have been a multimillionaire back
then :) 64 would have been alot back in those days !
Yeah it is funny looking back at our first machines.
I didn't start as early as many of because I had this *pencil and paper* attitude in the 1980's (had to do with my son and his school)
And I never was in a room full of computers until 1986 and that was only because I had a girlfriend who worked for Ross Perot's Electronic Data Service
So after seeing that I had to figure those things out (ok they weren't much fun in 1986)
I ended up fixing other peoples 1995 computers even though I didn't have my own yet.
Then I found Seti Classic and decided I would start with my super-fast first pc and installed XP Pro the week it came out here (yeah I live NW of Microsoft)
It had the PIII 500 with 127.49 MB ram and the 13GB HD and a huge and heavy monitor that lasted longer than the rest.
By the time LHC and Einstein started it was too slow to do anything so that started my pc insanity and all the updates over the last 10 years here.
My first desktop was an 8088 genuine IBM XT with two 10mb hard drives in it and 64mb of ram. It even had a 'turbo' switch on it so I could speed it up from the standard 4.77mhz to 10mhz, I thought it was FAST then!!
Mornin Mikey, 64 Megs of Ram ?...you must have been a multimillionaire back
then :) 64 would have been alot back in those days !
Bill
You are right, it was 64KB of ram!! I did add a ram extension card to the XT, in fact that's where my pc tinkering began, me trying to make it faster and better than any other pc. I used to pick up the free "Computer Shopper" magazine, it was like a phone book of computer sellers, and would start calling them whenever I had a question. I found I could usually get one answer per company before the tech support folks would hang up on me for not being an actual customer.
I built a Sinclair kit in electronics class. Got an A even though it never worked. Also had a Timex Sinclair. BTW, the mystery person is female.
Then I got an Orange +2. It had dual processors: whatever the Motorola chip was that Apple was using, and also I think a Z80. It could run as an Apple clone, or CP/M or FORTH.
First PC was the Radio Shack 8086/8. They already had their 80286 box out at the time, but I didn't want to spend the extra money for it. MS-DOS 3.something was on a ROM chip and there was no hard drive, just a 5.25 floppy. I later added a 3.25. Actually got a little use out of it.
Then I got a Pentium 4 (I think) with the fairly new Windows XP on it in January of 2002. That was the first one I owned that ran Seti. Eventually, I tried to save on buying an OS by putting its HDD in a Pentium D system I built myself, but it never worked right.
I won't bore you with the rest of my menagerie.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
I, too, remember the Vic20; but, I never did anything with one. My high school had a couple on hand. I worked with the Nova Z-80 mini-frame. Two 12" hard drive platters; 0, and 1. Sixteen terminals. Had to save work every five minutes; you were sorry if you didn't.
I, too, remember the Vic20; but, I never did anything with one. My high school had a couple on hand. I worked with the Nova Z-80 mini-frame. Two 12" hard drive platters; 0, and 1. Sixteen terminals. Had to save work every five minutes; you were sorry if you didn't.
My high school had a main frame type computer and you had to save your data on paper punch tape, it came out o the machine in a LONG roll of paper tape with holes in it. Then when you wanted to continue programming the next day you had to feed the tape into the machine, hoping it didn't break forcing you to start all over again! I wrote several programs before I graduated, playing games of pool and golf being the ones I remember the most.
I, too, remember the Vic20; but, I never did anything with one. My high school had a couple on hand. I worked with the Nova Z-80 mini-frame. Two 12" hard drive platters; 0, and 1. Sixteen terminals. Had to save work every five minutes; you were sorry if you didn't.
My high school had a main frame type computer and you had to save your data on paper punch tape, it came out o the machine in a LONG roll of paper tape with holes in it. Then when you wanted to continue programming the next day you had to feed the tape into the machine, hoping it didn't break forcing you to start all over again! I wrote several programs before I graduated, playing games of pool and golf being the ones I remember the most.
The Z-80 at my high school is where I learned to program in BASIC. Of course; I had to relearn how to do it when we got the 8088 and it was using GW-Basic. (GW-Basic was the clone of IBM's BASIC-A...) In junior college, I tried to learn Turbo Pascal; however, I quickly found that my brain was NOT geared towards programming and withdrew from the class.
My first desktop was an 8088
My first desktop was an 8088 genuine IBM XT with two 10mb hard drives in it and 64mb of ram. It even had a 'turbo' switch on it so I could speed it up from the standard 4.77mhz to 10mhz, I thought it was FAST then!! My first 'portable', bought a couple of years later, was a Commodore SX-64 which was more of a 'luggable' in that you COULD carry it, but it was darned heavy. It had a 20mb hardrive in it and a tiny 4 inch screen, the keyboard covered the screen when you carried it around.
RE: My first desktop was an
Mornin Mikey,
64 Megs of Ram ?...you must have been a multimillionaire back
then :) 64 would have been alot back in those days !
Bill
Yeah it is funny looking back
Yeah it is funny looking back at our first machines.
I didn't start as early as many of because I had this *pencil and paper* attitude in the 1980's (had to do with my son and his school)
And I never was in a room full of computers until 1986 and that was only because I had a girlfriend who worked for Ross Perot's Electronic Data Service
So after seeing that I had to figure those things out (ok they weren't much fun in 1986)
I ended up fixing other peoples 1995 computers even though I didn't have my own yet.
Then I found Seti Classic and decided I would start with my super-fast first pc and installed XP Pro the week it came out here (yeah I live NW of Microsoft)
It had the PIII 500 with 127.49 MB ram and the 13GB HD and a huge and heavy monitor that lasted longer than the rest.
By the time LHC and Einstein started it was too slow to do anything so that started my pc insanity and all the updates over the last 10 years here.
RE: I have a Betamax player
Me to and a Philips N1700.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
RE: RE: My first desktop
You are right, it was 64KB of ram!! I did add a ram extension card to the XT, in fact that's where my pc tinkering began, me trying to make it faster and better than any other pc. I used to pick up the free "Computer Shopper" magazine, it was like a phone book of computer sellers, and would start calling them whenever I had a question. I found I could usually get one answer per company before the tech support folks would hang up on me for not being an actual customer.
I remember the Vic 20, but I
I remember the Vic 20, but I never had one.
I built a Sinclair kit in electronics class. Got an A even though it never worked. Also had a Timex Sinclair.
BTW, the mystery person is female.
Then I got an Orange +2. It had dual processors: whatever the Motorola chip was that Apple was using, and also I think a Z80. It could run as an Apple clone, or CP/M or FORTH.
First PC was the Radio Shack 8086/8. They already had their 80286 box out at the time, but I didn't want to spend the extra money for it. MS-DOS 3.something was on a ROM chip and there was no hard drive, just a 5.25 floppy. I later added a 3.25. Actually got a little use out of it.
Then I got a Pentium 4 (I think) with the fairly new Windows XP on it in January of 2002. That was the first one I owned that ran Seti. Eventually, I tried to save on buying an OS by putting its HDD in a Pentium D system I built myself, but it never worked right.
I won't bore you with the rest of my menagerie.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
I, too, remember the Vic20;
I, too, remember the Vic20; but, I never did anything with one. My high school had a couple on hand. I worked with the Nova Z-80 mini-frame. Two 12" hard drive platters; 0, and 1. Sixteen terminals. Had to save work every five minutes; you were sorry if you didn't.
TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join SETI Refugees
Since 22h no answer
Since 22h no answer here...Okay, I make the part.
2 Bad news this day. QZ8501 and Norman Atlantic.
But I found an new nice website for ship spotting: http://www.vesselfinder.com/
RE: I, too, remember the
My high school had a main frame type computer and you had to save your data on paper punch tape, it came out o the machine in a LONG roll of paper tape with holes in it. Then when you wanted to continue programming the next day you had to feed the tape into the machine, hoping it didn't break forcing you to start all over again! I wrote several programs before I graduated, playing games of pool and golf being the ones I remember the most.
RE: RE: I, too, remember
The Z-80 at my high school is where I learned to program in BASIC. Of course; I had to relearn how to do it when we got the 8088 and it was using GW-Basic. (GW-Basic was the clone of IBM's BASIC-A...) In junior college, I tried to learn Turbo Pascal; however, I quickly found that my brain was NOT geared towards programming and withdrew from the class.
TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join SETI Refugees