All About Old Computers

[boomouse]

Thanks for the link although I am no longer into programming. But, imagine I left our accounting with a payroll preparation system using clipper and it is still being used although from time to time it is being modified by a CompSci graduate. I should have had it copyrighted and ask for some compensation aside from my regular salary, he he he. That was 15 years ago . . .

 

I know exactly how you feel. I did a payroll system too for a major university 27 years ago in Level II COBOL where I showed them how an IBM PC/XT worth only P180,000 (8088 8-bit Intel CPU @ 4.77 MHz, 640 kb RAM, 10MB 5.25-inch full height HD) manned by one systems analyst can replace a Burroughs B-70 minicomputer system worth over P500k. Last time I checked, in 2001 they were still using it on a Pentium 4 running MS-DOS.

 

The last 'computer para sa tunay na lalake" I used professionally was a Honeywell Bull minicomputer running the Pick OS. Apps were written in R/Basic and the CPU has a system-level interpreter. You have to do a sysgen from tape backup to install the OS and backup to tape cartridges which could store an astounding 140 MB at a time. I had nine terminals connected via the RS-232, and VT-100 emulation in Crosstalk 10 datacomm software. My printer then was a Dataproducts 600 lpm dot matrix that made a hell of a racket when the soundproofed hood was opened. The whole thing had to be housed in a closed cubicle with a 10 KVA UPS and two 12,000 BTU window AC units (only one was used at a time, the other was backup). But life was already easy by this time as I was already the CIO—then called the MIS-manager. And the whole thing was indeed prone to a lot of mismanagement if you were not careful because reports were command line generated using postfix polish notation. How many still remembers what this is?

[nizerion]

My first PC was an IBM (forgot the model) but it had a chunky keyboard (pwede mo ipalo sa ulo, deadly weapon) and a monochrome monitor (green display) I remember the days we still use 5 1/4 inch floppy disk na madalas amagin. Pag na ka hard drive ka astig na.

[utouto]

the first time i was able to use an RDBMS was on a non-GUI computer. our class was able to use an Oracle database on a 386SX server running on Xenix. The client machines were PC XT clones. We were making a client application using C.

 

oo nga pala. in the same room was a Sun workstation. The first time I saw a GUI.

Edited February 21, 2010 by utouto

[friedkamote]

Wow...memory lane.

 

I still remember the first PC i used. An Intel 386 using Windows 3.1 (if i remember correctly).

 

The first computer i bought for myself was an Intel Pentium II, 64MB memory, 8MB video card, with a 4Gig Hard drive. This was pretty hot stuff then. Haha.

[noyzky7]

Memory flashback .. My first computer is Acer Aspire, was an intel Pentium, 100Mhz, 32mb ram

 

1gb hdd with Windows 95 ... Bili ko dati mga around 64k branded kasi.. year 1996 or 97...

[alphageminie]

memory lane, way back, MSDOS and using the big Floppy disks, yun pwede na pamaypay, pag nawala ang boot disk, away away na hehe

[guy^]

i still have my pentium 486x.. working pa din. sobrang tibay tong desktop ko na to. 1995 ko pa nabili to. tatago ko to baka tumaas value nito paglipas pa ng 10yrs from now hehe...

[noyzky7]

i still have my pentium 486x.. working pa din. sobrang tibay tong desktop ko na to. 1995 ko pa nabili to. tatago ko to baka tumaas value nito paglipas pa ng 10yrs from now hehe...

 

Wow! electronics antique collection... he he he

[boredinmanila]

Reminiscing...my first puter was the one that came before the 286. It had two 51/4 floppies and no hard drive. DOS pa gamit dati at green pa yung monitor ko. Ha ha, I remember having to create bootdisks pa to allocate yung 640k na memory para makapaglaro ng games. Also had to switch floppies for most of my games. I also remember using PC Tools.

 

A bit OT but anyone remember the oldest game they played? I think mine was Karateka, he he

[johnlove]

I think mine was "Galactian"

[boomouse]

Mga bata pa pala kayo.

 

My first real PC was an Apple II. The CPU was a 6502 (from Motorola I think) with 16 kb of RAM on board. Apple BASIC was also in ROM. To use CP/M, the precursor of DOS, you need a CP/M card) with a Zilog Z-80 CPU) in one of the slots plus another card to have 64 KB of RAM which at the time was something to brag about. To boot AppleDOS, you boot form a cassette drive. The CPUs by the way ran at a then speedy 1.77 MHz.

 

Video was generated from what we called an 80 column card because everything was text-based at the time and 80 characters of text across the terminal is just about as long as what you would be able to type on a typewriter. Printers were either dot matrix or for letter-quality printing, a daisy wheel printer (which was essentially a typewriter without a keyboard). Fonts were not even a term in use at the time. Character pitch was all you could choose from. From 8, to 10, to 12, characters per inch. If you wanted boldface, the printer will do a double strike with the second one slightly offset to create fatter characters.

 

To print you also need an i/O (input/output) card which has a parallel and serial port. Color displays were not really popular because their resolution sucked. Mono displays in green or amber were the preferred CRTs.

 

Storage was initially via tape cassettes. I progressed to dual 5.25-inch single-sided floppies driven off another card in the system appropriately called a disk controller. Floppies would store 175 kb of data after formatting. To save money, we would cut a slot in the other side of the soft sleeve of the disk so that we can flip ti and use the other side too. At this point, the whole system with the Okidata Microline 80 column dot matrix printer already cost over P35k in 1982 pesos. Earning a little money allowed the purchase of a hard disk. The brand was Corvus, it was the size of an Air Jordan shoebox, was as noisy as a baby vacuum cleaner and stored a magnificent 5 MB of data.

 

I also had a three-button joystick of unknown brand that I used to play Pong, Pacman, and the earliest Flight Simulator. This system impressed the heck out of a lot of people. You can already write apps in dBase II using a language that looks like BASIC with a few twists. Wordstar word processing ensured you had the nicest looking documents, and with VisiCalc, you get to impress most girls agonizing over their accounting classes because now, not only would their assignments always balance, they would look very high tech too with that impressive dot matrix print out on continuous form paper.

[Kurtsky Keigee]

Box type CPU with green colored font.

[Flash Sentry]

Ha, someone actually remembers using cassette tapes for storage. My first computer was a Radio Shack, way back in 1985 or so, before the PC even became a thing here in the Philippines. Basically it's sort of like how a console is since you have to plug in on the TV, which served as its monitor. I don't remember much of it since I didn't use it too much. After that we got our first 386 PC, around 1988 or so. What's nice during those times was that I was one of the few who had a PC then, and in college when we had a course on basic computer I was way ahead of many of my classmates since I already know how to use Wordstar (wow, you are really old if you actually remember Wordstar as the word processor then). And yes, mono chrome CRTs--green or amber display. Never liked the green one so much. Amber was so much better. CRT then progressed to the white cursor/display which was definitely a lot better than green.

[Google]

magkakabistuhan na ng idad dito.

 

first desktop computer i've used. an IBM PC/XT. booting and storage via floppy disks.

first huge computer i've used. an IBM S/36. booting via disk drum. running via CICS. I remember doing systems administration jobs here via Assembler language. This one occupies one huge room, with 4 tape drives na 24, 12 and 6 inches in diameter ang size. Batch processing lang to generate reports.

My first gaming console was a commodore.

[Flash Sentry]

I don't know if anyone has tried looking into the rural areas for old computers. I would think there are still those who are using CRTs and legacy Pentium II PCs that still run on Window 98 (or even Windows 95). Again, I don't know, but it is possible that there still those out there.