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Old-Computers.com | View information about Old-Computers.com within our Technology Website Reviews section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
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Old-Computers.com
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One of our very favorite web sites is a nostalgic place called Old-Computers.com. It contains great photos and info on a thousand models of historic personal computers that are now only junk and antiques. These archives go back at least to the 1950s. The details provided about every one of these venerable old machines is fairly impressive. The computers are arranged alphabetically by model/name, so you can quickly find the poop on whichever one you're interested in.
Come with Computer Buzz on a quick trip down Memory Lane and let's take a look at some PCs from the past in a very approximate chronological order.
Official Website: Old-Computers.com
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MITS Altair 8800
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Introduced in 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 was one of the very first "home" computers ever made. Some claim that it was the very first PC, although its lack of practicality calls that claim into question. It was sold as a kit, but for a little extra, you could buy one fully assembled. It had no keyboard, the program had to be entered with the toggle switches located on the front panel of the box, and as it didn't have any video output the result was displayed via LEDs.
MITS made several peripherals and cards for this computer: a video card, a serial card to connect a terminal, a RAM expansion card, and an eight-inch floppy drive that used hard sectored floppies and stored a whopping 300 KB.
Several Altair models were introduced, and they had the same basic characteristics except for the CPU (Intel 8080 and later 8080A).
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Apple I | World's first real PC
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Way back in 1976, Steve Wozniak was working for Hewlett-Packard and wanted to build his own computer, but he couldn't afford the popular Intel 8080 chip. He would have used the Motorola 6800 chip, but it too was beyond his modest means. Finally he decided to build his computer around the MOS 6502 which was selling at the time for $25.
The resulting computer, called the Apple I, was easier to use than the primitive Altair. Notably, the Apple I had a keyboard connector and could display characters on a TV whereas the Altair used toggle switches and LEDs for input and display.
A friend of Woz, Steve Jobs, was interested in this computer. Together they created the Apple Computer Company and tried to sell their gizmo. Paul Terrell, the owner of a computer shop, was interested in this computer, but only if it was fully assembled (the Apple I was sold "naked", no monitor, no power supply, no keyboard, no tape drive, etc.) and with a cassette interface, which Wozniak designed.
They sold about 200 of these units. This machine was so popular that Jack Tramiel of Commodore offered to buy Apple. Apple was, at the time, a major purchaser of MOS 6502 processors, and Commodore owned MOS Technologies. Wozniak wanted $15,000 more than Tramiel offered, and the deal fell through.
The Apple I was followed the next year by the Apple II. And as they say, "the rest is history."
(Adjacent image depicts one owner's configuration for the Apple I kit computer.)
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Apple II | World's first production PC
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The Apple II was launched inn 1977, and it was the successor to the Apple I on which it was largely based. It was the very first commercial success of the Apple Computer Company, and it was the first personal computer that was ever available to the general public.
Because Steve Wozniak wanted to demonstrate his Breakout computer game with the new Apple II, he decided to add color, sound, and minimum paddle support to the Apple I's successor.
The Apple II came with 4 KB RAM, but it was possible to add 4 KB or 16 KB RAM chips. Thus, the system could have memory in the following sizes: 4KB, 8KB, 12KB,16KB, 20KB, 24KB, 32KB, 36KB, or a full 48KB. This was one of the strong points of the Apple II; from the beginning, it was designed with expansion in mind. The 8 expansion slots were further proof of that users could expand their system easily, just by plugging cards into the slots.
The ROM included a 6502 disassembler, Sweet 16, a 16-bit CPU emulator, and the Integer Basic written by Wozniak in machine language. Not having to load a language from tape or disk to start programing was also a significant advantage over competitors. Even the innovative plastic case proved to be an important feature to attract customers.
Just a few months after the Apple II presentation at the first West Coast Computer Fair in April 1977, Apple received about 300 orders for the Apple II--over a hundred more than the total number of Apple I's ever sold.
The Apple II was followed in 1979 by the Apple II+ which brought some much needed enhancements.
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Commodore PET
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The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in 1977. Although it was not a top seller outside the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, it was Commodore's first full-featured computer and would form the basis for their future success.
The first model was the PET 2001, including either 4 KB (the 2001-4) or 8 KB (2001-8) of 8-bit RAM. It had a small built-in monochrome monitor with 40-25 character graphics. The machine also included a built-in Datassette for data storage located on the front of the case, which left little room for the keyboard. The 2001 was announced in 1977 and the first 100 units were shipped in mid October 1977.
Although the machine was fairly successful, there were frequent complaints about the tiny calculator-like keyboard, often referred to as a "chiclet keyboard" because the keys resembled the popular gum candy.
Sales of the newer machines were strong, and Commodore then introduced the models to Europe. However there was already a machine called PET for sale in Europe from the huge Dutch Philips company, and the name had to be changed.
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Trash 80 Model I
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The Tandy TRS 80 Model I was the first member of one of the most famous computer families of the early days of PCs. It was among the very first home computers and was launched in 1977 just shortly after the famous Apple II and the Commodore PET. It was semi-affectionately referred to as the "Trash-80."
The TRS 80 was developed within the Radio Shack engineering group, based upon several processor chips: SC/MP, PACE, 8008, 8080, and finally the Zilog 80. The operating system, based on CPM was called TRS DOS (which Tandy pronounced "Triss DOS," but everyone else called it "Trash DOS"). It was pretty buggy, and many TRS 80 users prefered NEW DOS, an operating system provided by a third-party outfit called Apparat.
The Trash 80 used a black and white RCA TV set, sans tuner, as a monitor. The earlier models came with a modest BASIC called Basic Level 1. Both BASIC and the operating system resided on 4 KB of ROM.
To compensate for the machine's modest capabilities, Tandy developed a device called Expansion Interface which enabled some new features: additional 16 or 32 KB of RAM, two tape unit connectors, a printer port, a floppy disk controller, a serial port, and a real time clock.
The Model I was followed by the TRS 80 Model II (a business computer) and Model III which had almost the same characteristics as the Model I.
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Atari 400 and 800
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The Atari 400 and 800, both of which appeared in 1979, were the first home computers to use custom coprocessors and the first to use "sprites" and special video interruptions like display lists--features that would be implemented later on the Commodore 64, then on the Commodore Amiga (the Atari 400, 800, and Amiga were all designed by Jay Miner).
The 800 offered high graphic resolution, lots of colors and great sound capabilities, more than other computers of that day. The 400 and the 800 had same characteristics, but the 800 had 48 KB of RAM (instead of 16), two cartridge ports (only one for the 400), and a proper mechanical keyboard (a membrane keyboard for the 400).
In fact, the very first Atari 800 Computers were shipped with 8 or 16 KB memory, expandable to 48 KB. After initial release, the 800 came standard with 48 KB memory.
Prior to production, the 800 was known inside Atari as code name "Colleen," and the 400 was code named "Candy."
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Franklin ACE 100
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In 1981, four years after Apple introduced its Apple II, Franklin Computer Corporation sought to duplicate Apple's achievement and released its first computer, the Franklin ACE 100.
The ACE 100 was a flagrant, bald-faced copy of the Apple II. The main board had very nearly the same design, and the ROM content was exactly identical except for the curious fact that the Apple copyright had been removed.
Nevertheless, the ACE supported some features that were missing in the Apple II, such as lower-case letters and a numeric keypad. The ACE 100 had a short life--hardly one year--and was soon replaced by the ACE 1000.
However, it found its infamous place in computing history when Apple took legal action against Franklin for counterfeiting its ROMs, and the US Court of Appeals decided in August 1983 that computer programs in ROMs could legally be copyrighted.
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IBM PC (aka Model 5150)
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Introduced in 1981, the IBM PC (aka Model 5150) was the computer that caused the death of CP/M-based computers.
In the early part of 1980, IBM decided to create a microcomputer. After vacillating between the Intel 8086 (16-bit) chip and the Motorola 68000, they decided to use the less powerful Intel 8088 (8/16-bit) processor in order to insure maximum compatibility with the plethora of 8-bit peripherals that were already on the market. For an operating system, IBM contracted with Microsoft who purchased an existing OS called QDOS (which reportedly stood for "Quick and Dirty Operating System") from a small company called Seattle Computer Products and rebranded it PC-DOS and then later MS-DOS.
The original IBM PC wasn't very powerful (and was certainly less powerful than a lot of 8-bit computers at the time). The very first PCs had only 16 KB RAM and no floppy disk units. They used cassettes to load and store programs.
The model 5150 was a success due to the name and reputation of IBM, high quality construction (especially the keyboard and monitor), great expandability, and IBM's decision to publish complete technical specs. The PC 5150 quickly became a standard, and IBM ran the business computer market up to the end of the 1980s.
The PC was available with either a CGA or MDA video adapter. The CGA adapter actually has an RCA composite output to hook it up to a TV if you did not want to pay for the CGA monitor.
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Commodore VIC 20
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The VIC-20, a version of the PET series (using the same microprocessor and BASIC language), was the first computer to sell more than one million units. Once dubbed the MicroPET during the 1980 Computer Electronics Show, it went on sale in 1981 as the VIC-20. VIC referenced the VIC-I (Video Interface Chip) chip used for graphics and sound.
The VIC-20 was launched in Japan in late 1980 (under the VIC-1001 name) with a Japanese Katakana set of characters. It was subsequently released in North America in May of 1981. Though these are the official release dates, several prototypes of the Commodore VIC-20 were reportedly available in late 1979. These early machines offered only 4 KB of RAM and used a different set of game cartridges.
Thanks partly to the colorful graphics, the VIC-20 was an immediate success. At its peak, more than 9000 units rolled off the assembly line each day. Adding to its success was the fact that it was the first color computer to break the $300 price barrier.
A wide range of peripherals and software were developed for the VIC-20. The failed Commodore 16 eventually became the successor of the VIC-20.
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Osborne 1
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Introduced in 1981, the Osborne 1 was arguably the very first portable computer, although it had no battery and needed an external power source. Its name comes from Adam Osborne, the petroleum engineer who made this computer a reality.
It had a very small built-in screen (8.75 x 6.6 cm) which could display 128 columns, and it weighed more than 10 kilograms, so it was really more of a "luggable" than a true portable. The first models couldn't display more than 52 columns by line, so to access to the 76 other columns, the user had to scroll around the screen with the cursor keys.
It ran under CP/M and was sold with Digital Research CBASIC (compiled BASIC), SuperCalc (spreadsheet), WordStar (word processor), MailMerge (mailing) and Microsoft's MBasic.
This machine was succeeded in 1983 by the Osborne Executive which featured a larger screen and lower-profile disk drives.
Osborne Computer Corporation did not fare well in direct competition with the first IBM PC compatibles (and wildly successful Compaq Portables) and went bankrupt in 1983.
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Tandy 2000
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The Tandy 2000 was launched in December of 1981, a full year before the model 1000. It was based on the Intel 80186 CPU which proved to be a miserable mistake.
On the surface the computer was quite the catch: The "T-2000" featured new instructions and new fault tolerance protection over the TRS-80 and COCO computers. Tandy built the 2000 with advanced color graphics, Intel 16-bit processing at 8 Mhz, and two floppy drives, and a CPU that was out performing even the 80286 computers of the time. It was a robust computer with excellent features, but the quirky 80186 CPU would come back to haunt it. The Tandy 2000 was considered by many to be the first AT- style computer in North America, a bold and risky move by Tandy.
The new 80186 chip was not popular with software developers, so few wrote programs for it. More to the point, however, the Tandy 2000, while touted as being compatible with the IBM XT, was different enough for most software beyond purely text-oriented to not work properly. It also differed by having a Tandy-specific video mode (640 x 400, not related to, or forward-compatible with, the emerging VGA standard) along with the new concept of keyboard scan codes and the proprietary 720 KB 5-1/4-inch floppy format. No other computer used this disk format, which was single-sided high-density, using standard 1.2 MB double-sided high-density disks.
The Tandy 2000 was nominally BIOS-compatible with the IBM XT, which allowed extremely well-behaved MS-DOS software to run on both platforms. However, most MS-DOS software was not so well behaved, rendering it incompatible with the Tandy 2000. The 2000 was further killed by the arrival of the new 80286 CPU in the IBM AT two months after its release.
In fairness, Tandy wasn't the only casualty of the 80186. Other computers that were built on that format, mostly in Europe, were marketed with the CP/M operating system and suffered the same ignominious fate.
(Adjacent image shows Bill Gates promoting Tandy's model 2000.)
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Kaypro II
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Despite its name, the 1982 Kaypro II was the first Kaypro model. The name was Kaypro II, so as to invite comparison with the extremely popular Apple II.
One advantage of the Kaypro over the Osborne 1, which was available at about the same time, was its 9-inch built-in monitor, easily twice the size of the Osborne's. Though the Kaypro II had no graphic features, it could display 80 x 24 characters. There were two single-sided, double-density full-height 5.25-inch disk-drives (190 KB each). One could be used to boot CP/M and the other to run the applications.
The Kaypro II was a real "luggable" system. Even though it weighed more than ten kilograms, it could be easily moved with the handle on the back. At the rear of the system, there was a serial port, a parallel port, a keyboard connector, a brightness control knob, and a reset button.
Perfect Writer, Perfect Calc, Perfect Filer, Perfect Speller, S-Basic, CP/M, and Profitplan were bundled with the system. Later WordStar was also included.
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Commodore C64
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Released in 1982, the Commodore 64 is, along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, perhaps the most famous "home" computer ever. According to the 2001 edition of Guinness Book of World Records, the C64 was the most "prolific computing device ever manufactured." During its production run from 1982 to 1993, about 30 million units were sold. That's more than all the Apple Macintoshes in the world.
The C64 was essentially an up-market version of the VIC 20. A wide range of software packages, games, and programming languages was available for this machine which was available practically anywhere from a toy shop to a business supplier.
Superficially, the C64 closely resembled the VIC 20. It had the same casing, an identical keyboard configuration, and virtually the same interfaces and sockets. But the apparent similarity belies some fundamental differences: an MOS 6510 processor and 64 KB of RAM (which was quite generous at the time for a computer in this price range).
Music synthesis was performed by a special sound chip. The sound envelope could be controlled on three voices for a full nine octaves of each. It was one of the first computers to offer both a high quality sound chip and graphic resolution with many colors.
A large number of peripherals was developed specifically for this computer, and it can also use several of the VIC 20 peripherals.
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IBM PC XT (aka Model 5160)
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The IBM PC XT (model 5160) was the immediate successor of the original IBM PC. The XT stands for "eXtended Technology" and was introduced in early 1983. It has some enhanced features: CGA graphics card, hard disk, more memory, and no more tape port. But it wasn't very innovative.
There are in fact two versions of the XT motherboard. The first one can accept from 64 KB to 256 KB of RAM, whereas the later one has support for up to 640 KB of RAM, the 101-key keyboard, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and a few other features.
In addition to the deletion of the cassette port, the XT also had eight 8-bit ISA expansion slots versus the PC's five. The XT's slots were also positioned closer together, the same spacing all PCs still use today. This made old PC's largely worthless because you couldn't buy an XT clone board and drop it into a PC case. Eight slots were a huge boon to the power user who had previously found himself having to pick and choose which upgrades to install in the five slots in the PC.
The 5160 was replaced with the PC XT S (20 MB hard disk, slim size floppy disk drive, 640 KB of RAM) and then with the PC XT 286 (with the new Intel 80286 processor).
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Tandy 100/102
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The Tandy 100 was a very early (1983) down-scale laptop computer that didn't do much, but it was quite good at what it did. It was actually made in Japan by Kyocera who also made it for Olivetti (Olivetti M10) and NEC (PC 8201). All the applications were written by Microsoft and stored in ROM. These programs included a text editor, a telecommunication program (which uses the built-in 300-baud modem), and a rather good version of BASIC.
The operating system uses 3130 bytes of the 8 KB of RAM, so the 8 KB models didn't sell very well. But there was also a 24 KB model, and one year later, Tandy replaced the Tandy 100 with the Tandy 102 (which also has 24 KB of RAM), and a year later still (1985) with the Tandy 200.
The Tandy 102 is a half inch thinner and one pound lighter than the Model 100, but many people just preferred the feel of the 100.
Sportswriters loved them because of their rugged simplicity and long battery life. The CMOS CPU (80c85) allowed the Tandy 100 to be used for an incredible 20 hours with only four AA batteries. Writers could sit in the press booth and peck out their stories and then send them in to the office via modem in plenty of time to make the morning edition.
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IBM PCjr
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After launching the IBM PC, IBM tried in 1983 to establish a standard for home computers with the PC "junior," which was a greatly scaled-down version of the PC, especially designed for home activities. Two IBM PCjr models were available: a basic one and an enhanced one (with 128 KB or RAM, 30 programs, and a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive and controller).
Unlike the original IBM PC, the power supply was not integrated in the case. The keyboard was linked by infra-red to the CPU (though there was an RJ11 standard phone jack plug that could be used in order to save batteries). It was not possible to add an 8087 math co-processor. To use a standard RS232 serial device, the user had to buy a special adapter.
The PCjr ran under MS-DOS 2.1. There was a 300 bps internal modem available from IBM , and third party modems were also available at 1200 bps. A cartridge containing enhanced BASIC (with special graphics instructions) was also available. To get an 80-column text display, a extra 64KB of RAM was needed.
Many IBM PC programs would not run on the PCjr because it did not include a DMA controller. The controller was available through a memory add-on from Tecmar Systems.
Despite its name, the PCjr had little success and never managed to replace the established home computers like Commodore 64, Apple II, or Atari 800.
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Compaq Portable
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Announced in November 1982, the first Compaq Portable was actually shipped in January of 1983. This was arguably the system that destroyed IBM's monopoly on the PC market. It was the first IBM-compatible clone computer that was legally made.
The system's BIOS was developed from scratch by using a team of 18 persons who took IBM's BIOS apart and made notes of the system calls contained within it. That way, Compaq was able to develop a PC compatible without any risk of a lawsuit from IBM, since the code was written from scratch (reverse engineering). It reportedly cost them $1 million to do it.
The system itself weighs a hefty 34 pounds and was dubbed a "luggable" computer rather than a true portable. It contained a 9-inch green phosphor CRT display and both serial and parallel ports. The system did MDA graphics as well as CGA by switching the scan frequencies of the monitor.
The only difference between the standard and Plus models was that the latter had a single 5.25-inch floppy drive and a 10 MB hard disk, while the original model had two 5.25-inch drives. All units supported two 5.25-inch floppies at 160 KB, 320 KB, and 360 KB. All units could have 10, 20, or 30 MB hard drives but Compaq only shipped 10 MB Rhodime reinforced drives (good for a 40-G shock). Some models also had a 20/40 MB tape drive. Compaq also shipped a brown nylon or brown leather carrying case.
In its first year of trading, Compaq earned more than $111 million on this single product. During that year (1983), more than 53,000 Portables were sold.
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Apple Lisa | Distant cousin of the Mac
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After a 1979 visit to the nearby Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) where he saw lots of new technologies, Steve Jobs, then chairman of Apple, determined to develop a graphical computer. After lots of work (and two rejected prototypes along the way), the Apple Lisa was announced in January 1983.
The Lisa project cost over $50 million and was the result of more than 200 man-years of research and development. It was supposed to be the Next Big Thing from Apple. The LISA OS was a true preemptive multitasking operating system.
Contrary to one popular misconception, Lisa was not the ancestor of the Macintosh. Lisa and Macintosh were two distinct projects at Apple. The original Lisa couldn't use Mac programs and the Mac couldn't run Lisa software.
But, because of its exorbitant price ($10,000 in 1983) and competition from the Macintosh, the Lisa was one of Apple's biggest flops. It was designed around a Motorola CPU and an S-100 bus.
A new version of the Lisa was presented in January 1984, the Lisa 2. It had virtually same features but used a 3.5" 800 KB floppy drive instead of the old 5.25" floppy drives. Three versions of the Lisa 2 were eventually released. None was a success.
After the Mac Plus came out, Apple offered all owners of Lisas and previous Macs the option to exchange their old computers (and some cash) for the new Plus. In 1985, the Lisa lost its name and became the Macintosh XL. Its ROM and its display were modified to use the Macintosh OS, and it was marketed as a development system for the Mac.
The XL was sold until 1986 but became obsolete when the new Mac II and Mac SE were launched in 1987.
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IBM Portable (Model 5155)
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Few people have heard of or let alone seen the ill-fated IBM Portable (model 5155) which was introduced in 1984. It was brought to market to go head to head with the famous Compaq Portable that had been introduced the previous year, and it got blown out of the proverbial water.
The portable was equipped with a 9'-inch amber screen which could display text and graphics. The OS was PC-DOS 2.1, and the CPU was an 8088. It came with 256 KB of RAM, expandable to 640 KB. It offered 7 extension slots, 5 being free (4 short and only 1 long).
The main drawbacks of the Portable were that it was not delivered with a hard-disk, and it weighed a whopping 30 pounds. It represented a rare failure on the part of IBM at a time when Big Blue could seemingly do no wrong
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IBM PC AT
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The IBM PC AT was the successor of the original PC and the PC XT. IBM added a lot of new features; they abandoned the old 4.77 Mhz Intel 8088 for the much faster 16-bit 80286 (running at a very conservative 6 Mhz) , so the PC AT was able to use new 16-bit expansion slots. It had a new keyboard too with cursor keys and a key that could lock it.
Two models were launched in 1984: the PC AT model 1 (256 KB of RAM, two floppy disk units, and a color screen) and the PC AT Model 2 (512 KB of RAM, one floppy disk unit, a 30-MB hard disk, and a color screen).
The PC AT had a new version of the Microsoft OS: MS-DOS 3.0, which could manage the new 5.25-inch floppy disk format (1.2 MB), the new hard disk capacities (20 MB and more), and allowed file sharing.
This computer was revolutionary, and it was an enormous success, but it was the last time IBM ever imposed a standard upon the PC industry. After the AT, it was all downhill for Big Blue.
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Apple Mac 128
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With their II and III series getting rather long in the tooth, and the Lisa being rather pricey, Apple had to do something to get back into the small-business market. They did.
The 1984 Macintosh 128 can be considered the very first commercially successful computer to use a GUI (Graphical User Interface). It was, however, not the first GUI based computer, as that honor belongs to the Xerox Star 8010 in 1981.
The Mac appeared a couple of years after the Lisa and was a very attractive alternative to PC compatibles and their command line MS-DOS and text-based applications. After a shakey start, the Mac met with great success despite having no hard disk, only single-sided floppies, no expansion slots, and very little memory.
The Mac 128 was replaced later by the Macintosh 512 (the same computer but with 512 KB of RAM) then later by the Macintosh Plus.
The 128 and 512 were non-upgradeable, non-expandable in almost all departments, but especially with regard to memory. They both had memory chips soldered directly to the main logic board.
There were also two variants of the Macintosh 512. The original 512 was shipped with a 400K floppy drive and 64 KB of ROM which did not support hierarchical file systems. The 512KE (E for "Enhanced") was shipped with 128 KB of ROM, an 800 KB floppy drive and supported HFS right out of the box.
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Tandy 1000 series
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The Tandy 1000 was a line of IBM PC compatible computers made during the 1980s by the American Tandy Corporation for sale in their chain of Radio Shack stores in Canada and the US. It was the successor to their influential TRS 80 line of computers, and it eventually replaced Tandy's COCO line of 8-bit computers as well.
The original Tandy 1000, introduced in 1984, was slightly smaller than the IBM PC and most of the clones of the day. Consequently it would not physically accept an industry-standard full-length expansion card. For anything longer than a half-length card, you had to buy a proprietary three-quarter-length card from Radio Shack. Gotcha!
The 1000 featured a proprietary serial keyboard port along with two similar joystick ports on the front of the case (a feature that would become standard in later models). The rear featured a PC standard monitor connector (compatible with CGA/EGA), a composite (TV) video-out connector, a single RCA-style monophonic line-level audio connector, a port for a light pen, and an unusual edge-card connector used to attach a parallel printer. An adapter would be needed to work a standard IBM style printer.
The original Tandy 1000 came standard with one 5.25-inch disk drive with an additional bay available for the installation of a second 5.25-inch drive. 128 KB of memory was standard, with the computer accepting up to 640 KB of total RAM with the addition of expansion cards. MS-DOS 2.11 and DeskMate 1.0, Tandy's own suite of consumer-oriented applications, were included with the system. Unlike most PC clones, early Tandy 1000 computers had MS-DOS built into ROM allowing the OS to boot in just a few seconds.
In 1984, when the "T-1000" was in its prime, you might have paid about $2500 for a full featured system with matching monitor.
The original line was equipped with the Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77Mhz, which was later increased up to 7.16Mhz, as well as the upgrade to 8086 and 80286 processors at 10Mhz (in the TL & TX configurations). Common models of the machine included the Tandy 1000, EX, HX, SX, TX, SL, SL/2, RL, and TL, TL/2, TL/3.
The T-1000 was a workhorse in the IBM PC world, and it was Tandy's last attempt in the home computer market. In the early 1990's Tandy Corporation sold its computer manufacturing business to AST Computers.
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Commodore Amiga 1000: Gone but not forgotten
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The inventor of the Amiga 1000 was Jay Miner, the same man who had created the Atari 800 some years before. He employed the concept of three coprocessors to help the main processor. At the beginning, 1985, Amiga had only 64 KB of RAM. The original Amiga, called the Lorraine, was meant to be primarily a game machine with some computer capabilities.
Atari initially invested the money in the Amiga Corp. to do the R & D on the Amiga computer line. When the design was finished, Amiga Corp. gave Atari the option to purchase the technology. Atari passed in favor of their own in-house project. Amiga Corp. then offered the technology to Commodore, Inc., who were quick to snap it up, seeing that their own 16-bit computer was so far from being ready for market.
The operating system (AmigaDOS) was done by MetaComCo, a British company that specialized in the Motorola 68000 processor. It was a fully multitasking system which looked like UNIX but with a graphical user interface.
Amiga BASIC was written by Microsoft, but the very first Amigas were shipped with a non-Microsoft BASIC called ABasiC.
The Amiga 1000 was succeeded by the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000. The Amiga line never really caught on, although there are still a few old-timers who somehow manage to keep their Amigas up and running.
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Apple Mac Plus
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The Macintosh Plus, released in 1986, was the first real improvement on the Macintosh 128 (The earlier Macintosh 512 was only a Mac 128 with 512 KB of RAM).
The Plus had a lot of new features: the extended ROM held the new version of Mac OS, enhanced graphics libraries, drivers for hard-disk and external floppy-disk units, a SCSI bus, AppleTalk networking, and the new Hierarchical File System.
The new floppy-disk unit could use double-sided 800 KB disks (only single-side 400 KB disks for the 128). It had an enhanced keyboard with a numeric keypad and, last but not least, it had a SCSI 1 (1.5 MB/s) interface for peripherals.
This computer would be succeeded in 1988 by the new Macintosh series: the Macintosh SE and the Macintosh II. However, the ever-popular Plus stayed in Apple's product line longer than any other Macintosh machine, almost five years, and was on sale until 1990.
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Tandy Color Computer 3
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The Color Computer III was the last in Tandy's line that were often referred to affectionately as "CoCo" computers. It appeared in 1986.
The CoCo3 came with 128K of RAM, an analog RGB video port, enhanced 640x192 graphics capability, a 64-color palette, and more. (All ports contained on the CoCo 1 and 2 models were also available on the CoCo3, i.e., RS-232 serial, cassette, right and left joysticks, and a 40-pin expansion slot.)
The CoCo3 was upgradeable to 512 KB of RAM. A Multi-Pak (a 4-port bus expander) plugged into the Expansion Slot allowed use of controllers for floppy disk drives, hard drives (MFM, RLL, SCSI, and even IDE), multi-port true RS-232 devices, MIDI units, and more.
Tandy made several prototypes of a Color Computer model IV but it was never released.
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Apple Mac Portable
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The Mac Portable was Apple's first attempt to produce a portable version of a desktop Macintosh computer. The machine was partially engineered by Alan Kay, and when introduced in late 1989, it was the first laptop computer with a GUI interface.
The Portable had a Motorola 68000 CPU (in actual fact, a low-power 68HC000) running at 16 Mhz, so it was not the fastest Mac around, although the machine was twice as fast as a Mac SE and nearly as fast as a Mac II. Its $6500 price tag made it a hard item to sell.
Despite its hefty weight (16 pounds), the Mac Portable was well-designed. It featured an advanced active-matrix LCD screen, up to 9 MB of SRAM (though few Portables had more than 4 MB), a 1.44 MB floppy disk drive, an optional modem, and an optional 40 MB 3.5-inch hard disk drive. Its lead-acid battery--responsible for much of the machine's weight--offered 8 to 10 hours of autonomy which was quite an achievement at that time.
Eighteen months after the Portable was first launched, Apple replaced the LCD screen with a backlit version, replaced the SRAM chips with less expensive versions, and lowered the price. It was still hard to sell, and the machine was discontinued six months later.
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NeXT Cube
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The NeXT Cube computer impressed a lot of people when it debuted in 1988. Its technical features, its object oriented operating system, and its graphical interface--even its black case and matching printer--were very far from the standards of the time. And its proprietary Unix-BSD-based NeXTStep OS was far ahead of its time.
The NeXT computer was bundled with a lot of great programs and a powerful 400 dpi laser printer. Some technical features were a bit idiosyncratic (gray-scale display, no floppy drive, no hard disk) but were modified in the next generation with the NeXT Station and the NeXT Cube 040.
Later NeXT released the NeXTdimension for the Cube. It was a board based on an intel860, which offers a true 32-bit Postscript color display and video sampling features. You could buy the NeXTdimension board alone or a NeXTcube upgraded with it, sometimes referred as a "color Cube".
At $10,000 a pop, this computer was too expensive for the general public and had little commercial success. A few years later, it was discontinued, but the later versions of this computer are still in use in some places as servers. The NeXT was used as the world's first web server, and it was also the platform used to write the world's very first web browser. The NeXTStep OS was used as the basis for Mac OS X.
(Adjacent image shows NeXT Cube, keyboard, and monitor from overhead view.)
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NeXTstation
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The NeXTstation, sometimes referred to as the NeXT "slab," was a low profile version of the NeXTcube from Steve Jobs' NeXT Computers. It was introduced in 1989, at least partly to compensate for the poor sales of the original cube.The magneto-optical drive in the cube was replaced by a hard-disk in the slab, as cube users found the MO drive too slow and mechanically unreliable. The thin design of the case did not allow for any NeXTbus expansion slots. Networking was via an Ethernet port, and the standard monitor was a 17-inch grayscale unit designed by Frogdesign.
There were several models, including a NeXTstation (25 Mhz Motorola 68030), a ColorStation with color display (4096 colors, 25 Mhz 68040) and a ColorStation Turbo (33 Mhz 68040). They all came with a floating point math coprocessor.
You can still occasionally find a slab for sale on eBay, and the NeXTstep OS does not seem nearly as outdated as the other operating systems of that era.
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BeBox: This winner was a loser
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Be was founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gass', former manager of the French Apple subsidiary. For almost five years, twelve engineers from Apple, NeXT, and Sun designed the BeBox and its operating system, BeOS. In October 1995, Be, Inc. unveiled its first (and only) computer, the BeBox. The total design cost was about US$9 million. The first BeBox machines were mainly intended for use by software developers.
BeBox hardware was based on dual PowerPC 603 CPUs running at 66 MHz (later 133 MHz). The motherboard was not really innovative but featured a large range of I/O ports, including IDE and SCSI interfaces, standard PC card slots, MIDI, audio, and infrared ports plus a special GeekPort for hardware experiments.
The Be Operating System was also developed from the ground up. It aimed to be an alternative to Windows and the Mac OS, both of which were handicapped by backward compatibility hardware and software issues. BeOS was a clear and clean multi-processor (up to eight), multi-threading, multi-tasking, GUI-based operating system, optimized for digital media management.
In spite of its numerous advanced features, the BeBox never enjoyed the success expected by its designers, mainly because it was compatible with nothing else in the computing industry. Less than 2000 Be machines were delivered worldwide between October 1995 and January 1997, when production ceased. Needless to say, BeBoxes are extremely collectible today.
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