[Discuss] Old computers Re: (OT) Steve Jobs 1955-2011

[Jerry Feldman]

On 10/08/2011 12:37 PM, Matt Shields wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 11:42 AM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:
>
>> Jerry Feldman mentioned an old computer:
>>> My first home computer was an Apple II (1978). What Jobs saw back
>>> then was that a desktop computer could be useful to real people.
>>> At the time, there were a few hobby computers. I almost bought a
>>> MITS Altair
>> The first desktop I ever ran across was in my math teacher's class in
>> Arlington, VA in 1977:  an HP 9830A (you can find pics of it via Google).
>> Anyone else remember those?  It had 4K of RAM, kept your programs on a
>> cassette tape, printed out (quickly) on an 80-column wide thermal printer.
>> You programmed it in BASIC; I remember writing a banner printing program
>> and a
>> biorhythm chart generator.
>>
>> Being exposed to bigger mainframe computers starting around '72, I never
>> thought of these micro things as anything other than toys.  So when the
>> TRS-80
>> and Apple ][ came out, they held little interest for me--my first
>> factory-built (i.e. not cobbled-together) home computer was a 1982 DEC
>> surplus
>> PDT-11/150; it ran RT-11.  The first "real" home computer, that rivaled
>> mainframe performance, came along about 10 years later:  the Intel 486.
>> That's when speed-of-light constraints came to favor microchips over the
>> "frames" containing CPUs in multiple circuit boards spread across a
>> backplane,
>> and transistor density has accelerated ever since.
>>
>> By the time of the 486, Linux was available: today's supercomputing
>> clusters
>> usually run Linux.
> Mine was a Commodore Pet.  Dad bought one for his business and one for home.
>
>
The first computer I ever use/programmed on was an IBM 7044 that used
card input in 1965. I learned FORTRAN 2, and subsequently BASIC for a
feed into GE Time Sharing as an undergraduate. In graduate school we had
a DEC PDP-8 with a hard drive. I recall a DEC service guy coming in to
clean the drive. We did not have mag tape, so input was from PPT, TTY,
or punched cards. One project I did was to replace the printer driver
for the Potter Printer. I would spend hours in the lab.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90 
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