Hardware Analysis - Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Thempleton Aart — 2008-11-08T15:18:08-05:00

Oh yeah,
here they are the already functioning computers I've retained from the past.

The SC/MP (read scamp) INS 8050 ISP-8A/500 SC/MP-1 from National Semiconductors; you'll find it's description here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Semiconductor_SC/MP

and some pictures here:

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~hl/c.SC-MP.html

It was equipped with a 2kx8bit NMOS SRAM card with INS2102 golden chips, a real upgrade at that time!

To complete it to a real "userfriendly" computer (lol) an ASR-33 teletype as keyboard and ASCII printer were connected to the SC/MP through its 20mA current-loop port, featuring the punched tape reader/puncher unit used as mass storage device for data and programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASR33

Lol, what days...!

Later, in 1979 or so, I added a self made video character generator with stunning 40 lines x 64 chars grid shown on the screen of the directly connected B/W television on VHF, and an electric ASCII keyboard.
Last but not least a set of eight golden ROMs containing the National Semiconductor's "NIBL Tiny-BASIC" found its place on the expansion slots to sometimes substitute the hexadecimal machine code programming on SC/MP's on-board hex keypad + 7segment red LED display.

In 1977 a E&L MMD-1 Singleboard Microcomputer was added to my "IT lab":

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~hl/c.E&L-MMD1.html

It was my very first i8080 computer...

In 1981 I got my first PC, the IBM-PC 5150 with a couple of full size 5"1/4 floppy drives and a 5161 Expansion Unit with a 10MByte hard disk. Real luxury bought in occasion of my degree.
It is already equipped with the original IBM-PC-DOS 1.0 I from time to time rewrite from scratch to freshen its contents on the floppies.

BTW I conserve in my treasure all the early PC o.s. like DRDOS&GEM, Windows 1.01 and all the following versions, Linux 1.10 etc..

More hw stuff lies around in its boxes like:

Sinclair ZX-80, ZX-81, ZX-Spectrum with accessories like its microdrives, Commodore VIC-20, C-64 with ext floppy drive and Cassette drive, Amiga-500 etc., etc. etc.

My first self-powered (trans)portable PC:

Olivetti M15, i8080, 640KB RAM, 2xFloppy 720KB, LCD CGA 640x480. Used for on site servicing and radio amateur field day communication contests in RTTY, ARC/Fetch, SSTV... modes.

It's a long list and it can be longer but I'll not stress your patience.

Ciao.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Gerritt — 2008-08-01T00:52:32-05:00

First Video Game? Thats easy....PONG.
I played just about everything that Infocomm ever came out with, starting with Zork and working through Deadline, Enchanter, etc. But even before that, there where cartridge type text adventures that I played on a VIC-20 or a Tandy, can't even remember now....

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Osmer Batcheller Batcheller — 2008-07-31T04:47:16-05:00

I had two others thoughts, first sort of computer related does anyone remeber their first calculator. I recall I was in 7th grade when the calculator was first made affordable to the masses and I had one which I think my parents paid about $30 for, which was a fair amount of money at that time when they were paying less then a quarter a gallon for gas, and it was definatly not small but not huge but could only add, subtract, multiply and divide but it was the time of the space age when everyone seemed to want to watch every single launch on our back and white sets, and I swear my friends and I thought the calculator was straight out of NASA. I was the most amazing and sophisticated electronic device I had up to that date ever seen in my life, and I am only 47.

The other thing I would like to hear about is the first video game you were every really interested in and did anyone get into the "talkies." I loved one, I forget its name, but it was like the rest where you were simply at a DOS prompt and then a paragraph would appear and tell you were you were, in this game a particular room of a castle, and what was in the room, and you would write what to do and if the game was written to understand a command you would be rewarded with a new paragraph. Commands had to be simple like "Go East", "Open Door" etc, and you had to draw and map on paper as you went along. Playing Half Life Episode 2 today I started thinking about that game for some reason. In a fairly short time that is a change which I find truly amazing.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Gerritt — 2008-07-30T21:06:36-05:00

Hmmm...If I have my timeline correct he may have:
MS-DOS 3.2 or 3.32
256-512K RAM (possibly 1-1.5MB of LIMS Extended Memory)
1 or 2 5.25" DSDD 360K Floppies (3.5" 720K FDDs came out around the same time so thats a possibility also)
ST-251 (40MB MFM 5.25" HH HDD)
EGA or Mono (green or amber) 14" CRT
Wordstar or Wordperfect Word Processor
DBase DBII database SW
Lotus 123 or VersaCalc or VistaCalc Spreadsheet
Cost new, including SW around $3500-4000 USD

Am I close to the pin?

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

McFly — 2008-07-29T16:56:07-05:00

Damn ... I don't think even Windows 2.0 was out then lol ... sounds like a DOS man.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Dragon Peaceful — 2008-07-17T09:22:44-05:00

LOL, some businesses still use dot matrix. They use them for printing onto forms, e.g. auto mechanics shops. So they're still around, and some stores still stock ribbons for these printers.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Kieran Blenkarne — 2008-07-17T09:04:23-05:00

Dot Matrix Printers.....ARGH!!!! Worst sound EVER.

I will not miss those.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

G. Keller — 2008-07-17T07:49:44-05:00

Hehe, yeah, it was only Compaq and Packard Bell I believe and when the 25-33mhz started getting really popular and they entered into that storm of "Yay, it's -33- mhz, not 25mhz!!" and then the next week, for the same price, the 50mhz procs come out. And just kept going... Our PB wasn't that bad since it was Win 3.11 with the REAL DOS (I even have those install disks on 5.25"). I even found some of the real old disks, those 8.5" ones that're so big that if you take out the magnetic inner disk, you could almost use it as a frisbee. One thing I definitely don't miss though are modems...1200 all the way through to 56k.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Dragon Peaceful — 2008-07-17T06:50:18-05:00

LOL, 22 years, still in use, that got to be a record. What OS does he use? Win 3.1? If all he does is adding up some numbers, yeah a 286 is sufficient. Programs like Excel were already existed back in Win 3.1 era, and all the basic functions were already there.

For previous posts, can't believe 2 other people have 486's from Package Bell. I guess they were popular back then. In another note, I can't believe the 90's were almost 20 years ago... seem like just yesterday to me. Time flies, and I guess I am getting old.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Kieran Blenkarne — 2008-07-17T05:04:37-05:00

My dad, who just retired, still used his old 286 for his accounting work. Technology moved forward, but he didn't. I asked him why he never bought a newer PC and the fact is, why? It did everything he needed just fine.

He got it the week after I was born in 1986. So thats a 22 year old PC that never EVER needed repair in a workshop full of metal swarf from metal cutting, smoke and 22 years of general dust. He is now traveling the world, but kelpt it in storage back here in NZ

What a PC.

He also has a ASUS Laptop running XP, but his business was run from that 286.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

G. Keller — 2008-07-17T03:51:22-05:00

Wow, I love threads like this...definitely got some in here with older stuff than what I've got but here we go.

1) C-64 was the oldest that we still had in some box when we moved back from Jeddah, SA in 1988.

2) Packard Bell Legend 18CD w/ 8mb ram, 200 mb drive, some archaic video card that did support SVGA (all those amazing colors!), soundblaster pro I believe, and Windows 3.11 (still got the install diskettes (3.5). Still got some of the games too! Wolfpack and some racing game, and my first real FPS was Wolfenstein (Escape from Castle Wolfenstein was fun too).

3) Still have the first dot matrix printer we used on the above pc, but I've long since forgotten the brand it was.

Man, the memories...then: you could do just about anything with your computer and things were so simplistic...now: you can't run an OS efficiently unless you've got a minimum of 1gb of ram and forget Windows Vista; you need at least a dual-core 2.5ghz proc, 3gb of DDR2/3 ram, and a 200gb SATA II drive (yeah I know, stats are a little skewed, hehe) not to mention most stuff won't work right on Vista, even if it's for XP/98, because of the dumb@$$ way MS always has to do things.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

70f9 — 2008-07-10T08:04:05-05:00

The oldest computer I have owned or atleast the most.."Epic" computer I have owned is my Macintosh SE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE

8 Mhz Processor, 4 Megabytes or Ram, and a 20 Megabyte SCSI Hard drive.

I still have the original mouse and keyboard to

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Osmer Batcheller Batcheller — 2008-06-22T03:26:58-05:00

I build computers as a hobby as in college in the 70's I learned to program and started tinkering. I am also complusive and always seem to think I will find some need for a part in the future. About the only thing I dispose of are CRT's. I have a work room and garage full of computer hardware cases, half assembled PCs, etc. but my two fondest machines are my IBM PCjr (which I am still a litlle ashamed to admit I paid money for and even still have) and my first notebook, the Compaq brick (weighed over 40 pds) as I was fond of calling it as I have a bad back today partly due to it. That particular notebook, had a 5" screen ran on the old big paper floppies, and was the size of a midsize desktop today. It was originally developed by the Osborne Computer Company and Compaq got in on the act in the early 80's, until Osborne went bankrupt in 83. The front folded down to become a keyboard and reveal a 5" screen which displayed orange, rather than the typical green, characters. Needless to say this was not a runaway hit. I seem to recall that not long after that Tandy, who actully used to be a pretty big player in the computer market, came out with a small handheld or laptop or somesuch that took off.

Finally, I have a boxes of memories, literrally. I for years have put memory I am not using into a padded box. The same goes for outdated CPUs or those with bent pins I never seem to get around to fixing, unfortunately I got stuck overnight with a bit too many P4's (like I know a lot of laptop part suppliers just did with T7000 and T5000 laptop cpus - core duos were already obsolete in my mind except for some server types).

My favorite CPU is still the P2, expecially the Xeon, only because of the look. While I know the plastic caused heat concerns they still made a bold statement.

You are entirely correct, these old innovations bring up some fond and not so fond memories. Thanks for a great topic. One last thing I read an artcle today that Intel is plowing tons of money into a ten year old idea, but one that would not work at the time due likely to size, and that is to simply add memory and a powerful GPU to the chipset. How times turn.

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

phil davis — 2008-06-19T18:11:01-05:00

yeah i had one of those but mine was a DX4 100Mhz with no sound and only 256bit colour
i remember being really pleased when i fitted a sound card, graphics card (4 Mb) and a 750 Mb hard drive and could actually watch a video even tho not fullscreen! lol

Re: Re: Obsolete computer hardware, remember this?

Joe Taylor — 2008-05-23T14:28:10-05:00

I'm a pack rat when it comes to hardware. I still have a working Zenith Supersport 8088 based portable computer as well as an early Gateway Handbook 286-based unit that is smaller than the Asus EeePC. I also have a 486DX-66 desktop running OS/2. A friend of mine had a Packard Bell 486SX-25 complete system that he installed Linux on. At last check it had been running for more than a year without a restart.

I have a habit of picking up old computers and laptops that are being tossed in the trash, just to see if I can get them working again.