Computers in the Stone Age
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I know this thread is going to get tossed soon, but I'll throw this one in, possibly under the wire. In 1965, we had two AN/FST-2 computers at our radar site. Look that one up on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_AN/FST-2_Coordinate_Data_Transmitting_Set Gary -- http://ag0n.net 3055: http://ag0n.net/irlp/3055 NodeOp Help Page: http://ag0n.net/irlp ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Michael Walker
Besides the relay-based Mark 1, the first electronic computer I programmed
was a Univac 1. Its memory consisted of 100 10-foot long acoustic delay lines, each capable of storing 10 characters - don't remember what the encoding was. You could walk into the main frame. Electronics was vacuum tubes. The tape drives used strings and pulleys to tension the tape. Later IBM drives used vacuum lines, very sophisticated. All these drives would skip blocks of data, so you had to store sequence numbers with the data so you could check that a block was not dropped. The IBM 650 had drum storage - no RAM. The programmer had to know at which arc of rotation the drum was to optimize the code. The first removable "cartridge" disk drives had 7 megabyte capacity. We tried to use something called an IBM Datacell - RCA had a similar called Race - with cut pieces of tape stored in cans. 400 megabytes of storage, but it was never put in production. We have it nice now! Just put 256 gig of DDS memory in an Intel NUC. Very nice indeed. Monty K2DLJ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Charlie T, K3ICH
And does anybody remember the Doctor DX cartridge for the Commodore 64
from AEA? That was an amazing piece of work. I used one to train for a trip to J6 for CQWW CW in 1991. 73... Randy, W8FN On 5/28/2014 2:44 PM, Charlie T, K3ICH wrote: > Don't forget how revolutionary the Commodore VIC-20 was with all of > 3.2 K of RAM. We (Microlog) made a plug in called the AIR-1 for the > VIC that allowed CW & RTTY communications. I wrote a complete > production test program in BASIC that required no other test equipment > but plugging in the AIR-1 and running the tape loaded test program. > It checked the CW copy, aligned the AFSK generator and verified CW & > PTT keying, all in that 3.2 K of RAM with neat graphic indicators on > the screen for the production testers. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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In reply to this post by mcduffie
Gary,
How did you have 2 AN/FST-2's. Two actual separate machines, or one machine with A & B channels, with the common power supply racks? Where was that radar site? I had AN/FST-2B, S/N 0001, at 648th Radar Sq, Benton AFS, PA, and I started working on it Apr 63. No test points, and plenty of "lights out" cold tube filament checks. 73, Rick, W7LKG -----Original Message----- From: Elecraft [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of AG0N-3055 Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 14:25 To: elecraft Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Computers in the Stone Age I know this thread is going to get tossed soon, but I'll throw this one in, possibly under the wire. In 1965, we had two AN/FST-2 computers at our radar site. Look that one up on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_AN/FST-2_Coordinate_Data_Transmitting _Set Gary -- http://ag0n.net 3055: http://ag0n.net/irlp/3055 NodeOp Help Page: http://ag0n.net/irlp ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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In reply to this post by wb4jfi
Enough of these pointless operating systems. You should be running figFORTH on PHIMON like I do on my 1976 Digital Group Z-80 (32MB, dual PHI-decks) :) :)
Grant NQ5T On May 28, 2014, at 2:05 PM, [hidden email] wrote: > I still have a working IMSAI 8800 with three SA-800 drives and an H19 terminal. I can boot CP/M and run Wordstar, several Basics, a Pascal and a C compiler. Plus, most of the CP/M-UG and SIG/M-UG disks. I also have an Altair 8800 and an Altair 8800 "Turnkey" (no front panel), along with several other S-100 cards. The Altair ran one of the first bulletin boards in the country (Ward Christensen CBBS) for AMRAD. I also have my first 5-slot IBM PC, and many versions of DOS. > > The Commodore 64 also had a Z80 card, which allowed you to run CP/M. > > How about a nice game of chess? > 73, Terry, WB4JFI > > > > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Lewis Phelps
And Radio Shack started selling the TRS-80 on August 3, 1977. I bought one on that date, and was told to expect delivery in two weeks. It arrived at the store on Christmas Eve! It had a Z-80 and an entire 4K of memory. And Microsoft (or what was to become Microsoft) sold the OS and BASIC to Radio Shack. Microsoft likes to say that Gates and Allen wrote it, but they bought it from someone for a song, and resold it to Radio Shack for a small fortune. That is what got them started.
It booted in BASIC from ROM. It included an instruction book on how to program in BASIC. I knew nothing about any of this and wanted to learn. Boy, did I learn quickly. It was so engrossing that I would often wonder what that strange light coming through the window was. I would go to the window, pull back the shade, and realize that it was dawn! I still have all of this! Including the boxes! And it still works! Dan Allen KB4ZVM -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 5/28/14, Lewis Phelps <[hidden email]> wrote: Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Computers in the Stone Age To: "[hidden email] List" <[hidden email]> Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 4:59 PM > Someone wrote: >> Desktop computers did not come into being until the advent of the IBM PC in the 1980s. Nah. Heathkit H89 came out in 1979. “All-in-One” desktop computer. Z-80 processor. CP/M OS addressed 64 KB and used 39 kb of that total. two 5” floppy drives (dual sided 800k) as an option. Later, somebody came up with a card that plugged into the 5” drive slot and gave 128K of silicon hard drive. Now THAT was advanced for its era. Booting from that was faster than lightning, for its time. And do not forget the Ohio Scientific Instruments OSI Challenger 4P…. Lew Lew Phelps N6LEW Pasadena, CA DM04wd Elecraft K3-10 Yaesu FT-7800 [hidden email] www.n6lew.us Sent from my Mac Pro 256-Array Supercomputer (9.42 teraflops) On May 28, 2014, at 11:19 AM, Kevin Cozens <[hidden email]> wrote: ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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In reply to this post by Kevin Cozens-2
I was off by a year. It was the January 1975 issue of PE that had the Altair
8800 on the cover. On 14-05-28 09:32 PM, Bill Blomgren (kk4qdz) wrote: > The 6800 systems did not use the s-100 bus... the s-100 was a very poorly > designed bus that was wrapped around the 8080 chip, and not general purpose > enough.. Lordy how things have changed since then. There was also a 6809 based version of their product for a while. IEEE got involved with the S-100 bus and came up with an enhanced spec for the S-100 that was released as IEEE-696 (if memory serves). I have a copy of the IEEE doc somewhere. -- Cheers! Kevin. http://www.ve3syb.ca/ |"Nerds make the shiny things that distract Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | the mouth-breathers, and that's why we're | powerful!" #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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In reply to this post by dlajr
Gates and Allen actually did write that software. After seeing what the pair had written in their dorm room, Dr Roberts invited them down to the MITS facility in New Mexico to improve the software for his product. They did so, then eventually moved back up to home - Bellevue, WA to continue the effort. This same software was ported to the favorite processors (mainly Z80, 8080 and 6502, although there may have been a 6800 version) and showed up in many systems, including the Apple, TRS-80, OSI C1P (still have mine) and many others. My first recollection of the Microsoft name comes from a Dr Dobbs article back in 1975 or 76.
Microsoft purchased the beginnings of MS-DOS from Seattle Softworks for the IBM effort. My first computer? A home-brew 6502 system started in late 1976, proposed as an article for QST, but not accepted. We had to sneak computer product reviews into QST at that time since the prevailing attitude was that they had little to do with ham radio (reference my review of the Processor Technology VDM-1 in March 1977 QST, among others). That attitude changed within a year. My 6502 system saw its first attempt at contest logging in ARRL November SS 1977, but a severe RFI problem caused the effort to be abandoned. Boy have things come a long way since. Jack Brindle, W6FB (ex-WA4FIB) On May 28, 2014, at 6:19 PM, Daniel Allen <[hidden email]> wrote: > And Radio Shack started selling the TRS-80 on August 3, 1977. I bought one on that date, and was told to expect delivery in two weeks. It arrived at the store on Christmas Eve! It had a Z-80 and an entire 4K of memory. And Microsoft (or what was to become Microsoft) sold the OS and BASIC to Radio Shack. Microsoft likes to say that Gates and Allen wrote it, but they bought it from someone for a song, and resold it to Radio Shack for a small fortune. That is what got them started. > > It booted in BASIC from ROM. It included an instruction book on how to program in BASIC. I knew nothing about any of this and wanted to learn. Boy, did I learn quickly. It was so engrossing that I would often wonder what that strange light coming through the window was. I would go to the window, pull back the shade, and realize that it was dawn! > > I still have all of this! Including the boxes! And it still works! > > Dan Allen > KB4ZVM > -------------------------------------------- > On Wed, 5/28/14, Lewis Phelps <[hidden email]> wrote: > > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Computers in the Stone Age > To: "[hidden email] List" <[hidden email]> > Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 4:59 PM > >> Someone wrote: >>> Desktop computers did not come into being until the > advent of the IBM PC in the 1980s. > > Nah. Heathkit H89 came out in 1979. > “All-in-One” desktop computer. Z-80 processor. CP/M OS > addressed 64 KB and used 39 kb of that total. two 5” > floppy drives (dual sided 800k) as an option. Later, > somebody came up with a card that plugged into the 5” > drive slot and gave 128K of silicon hard drive. Now THAT was > advanced for its era. Booting from that was faster than > lightning, for its time. > > And do not forget the Ohio Scientific Instruments OSI > Challenger 4P…. > > Lew > > > > > Lew Phelps N6LEW > Pasadena, CA DM04wd > Elecraft K3-10 > Yaesu FT-7800 > [hidden email] > www.n6lew.us > > Sent from my Mac Pro 256-Array Supercomputer (9.42 > teraflops) > > > > > On May 28, 2014, at 11:19 AM, Kevin Cozens <[hidden email]> > wrote: > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by w8fn
Yes, And I still have it with a couple of C64's. I also had it copied to a
floppy that would run on it with the Commodore external floppy drive. My friend Tom, K2TA (SK) had it running on a PC with an emulator program. Was a great program a lot of fun and training aid. Was pretty sophisticated for its time.. Any early game program for hams. 73, Bob K2TK ex KN2TKR (1956) & K2TKR , On 5/28/2014 8:06 PM, Randy Farmer wrote: > And does anybody remember the Doctor DX cartridge for the Commodore 64 from > AEA? That was an amazing piece of work. I used one to train for a trip to J6 > for CQWW CW in 1991. > > 73... > Randy, W8FN > On 5/28/2014 2:44 PM, Charlie T, K3ICH wrote: ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Edward A. Dauer
No your history is not correct. The apple II was available by at least '78 using apple DOS. A few years later MSDOS was created out of desperation by MS when IBM ( for the upcoming IBM PC) wouldn't buy their languages ( MS' only product) unless it came with an operating system, something MS didn't produce. Gates wad able to buy a barely legal clone of CP/M, the most popular op system at the time, and they produced it for IBM as PCDOS. They then marketed it for themselves as MSDOS.
Brian KB1VBF Sent from my iPad > On May 28, 2014, at 12:52 PM, "Dauer, Edward" <[hidden email]> wrote: > > One of the interesting pieces of that history, from a retail consumer > user's (layman's) point of view, is that the Apple II (I owned a II+ in > the late 1970s) used MS-DOS as its operating system before Apple developed > its own. As I recall, the OS was not resident in the early hardware - to > use it you first loaded DOS in through a 5" floppy, then used another 5" > floppy for data. (My memory is imperfect, but I believe that was > correct.) The original IBM PC also had 5" floppy drives. One was for the > App (such as WordStar) and the other for the data files. The 3" disk was > a much later development, and a great leap forward. The IBM PC, which I > bought in 1982 plus or minus a couple of years, cost me $5,000 in the > dollars of the day. > > > The most significant development, which some folks today don't remember or > never knew, is that e-mail and the Internet began as separate systems. > E-mail used ordinary phone lines in its earliest days. I remember well > sitting in airport boarding lounges with a set of alligator clips and a > screwdriver which I used to remove the cap from the modular telephone > jacks so I could dial up other members of our e-mail network. I don't > recall the year, but I do remember that when e-mail was merged with the > Internet the whole world changed. > > The idea of controlling my radio equipment with my computer in the 70s > never occurred to me . . . . > > Do I have that history right? > > Ted, KN1CBR > > >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 06:39:23 -0500 >> From: Jim Rogers <[hidden email]> >> To: [hidden email], [hidden email] >> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft's linux utilities - somewhat OT, or >> maybe not >> Message-ID: <[hidden email]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed >> >> Actually Don, the Apple II preceded the IBM PC and had a very strong >> following. As the owner of a consulting firm that placed some Apple IIs >> doing some difficult, at that time, interfacing to main frames we >> welcomed the appearance of the IBM PC when it came on the scene. We had >> the second IBM PC in Birmingham and after a couple of days of evaluation >> recompiled our software and the rest was history. >> >> 73s Jim, W4ATK >>> On 5/27/2014 9:31 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote: >>> And those computers Tom Watson was speaking of took a large controlled >>> environment room just for the various pieces. It was certainly not a >>> desktop computer. >>> Desktop computers did not come into being until the advent of the IBM >>> PC in the 1980s. I bought my daughter a new IBM PC with 2 floppy >>> drives and 64k of ram for her to use in her college classes. It was >>> later upgraded with a 5 MB hard drive which replaced one of the floppy >>> drives (3.5 inch floppys). >>> >>> We have come a long way since that time. That system cost $2500 at >>> the time, now I can buy a computer with a LOT more capability for less >>> than $300. >>> >>> 73, >>> Don W3FPR >>> >>>> On 5/27/2014 9:43 PM, Fred Jensen wrote: >>>> At sometime in the 50's, the President of IBM is alleged to have >>>> said, "The worldwide market for computers is probably about twelve." >>>> Apparently he didn't know Doug. >>>> >>>> 73, >>>> >>>> Fred K6DGW >>>> - Northern California Contest Club >>>> - CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014 >>>> - www.cqp.org >>>> >>>>> On 5/27/2014 1:29 PM, Doug Person via Elecraft wrote: >>>>> >>>>> I probably have 15 working computers. > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Jack Brindle-2
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 9:45 PM, Jack Brindle <[hidden email]> wrote:
> ... the MITS facility in New Mexico... ============ I bought a copy of Micro-Soft Basic ($400!) and called the New Mexico number to get some help on a new function in one of the subsequent releases. They had no help desk; my call was answered by Bill Gates himself. Tony KT0NY ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Grant Youngman
Finally, some sanity in this thread! I had colorFORTH on a TRS-80 Color
Computer (chiclets keyboard). Wrote a RTTY send/receive program during evenings in the hotel over a 3 day weekend exhibiting at a motorcycle show in Cincinnati as a way to learn FORTH. When I hear the Linux fanboys bragging about the control they have, I have to smile. Eric KE6US On 5/28/2014 5:57 PM, GRANT YOUNGMAN wrote: > Enough of these pointless operating systems. You should be running figFORTH on PHIMON like I do on my 1976 Digital Group Z-80 (32MB, dual PHI-decks) :) :) > > Grant NQ5T > > > On May 28, 2014, at 2:05 PM, [hidden email] wrote: > >> I still have a working IMSAI 8800 with three SA-800 drives and an H19 terminal. I can boot CP/M and run Wordstar, several Basics, a Pascal and a C compiler. Plus, most of the CP/M-UG and SIG/M-UG disks. I also have an Altair 8800 and an Altair 8800 "Turnkey" (no front panel), along with several other S-100 cards. The Altair ran one of the first bulletin boards in the country (Ward Christensen CBBS) for AMRAD. I also have my first 5-slot IBM PC, and many versions of DOS. >> >> The Commodore 64 also had a Z80 card, which allowed you to run CP/M. >> >> How about a nice game of chess? >> 73, Terry, WB4JFI >> >> >> >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> Message delivered to [hidden email] > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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I broke down earlier this year and sold my "loaded" Altair 8800 on eBay.
64k static RAM, tape interface (had a Tarbell disk interface but sold it years ago), PROM burner, parallel interface card. Used it to develop a ham radio repeater controller in 1980, 32 parallel line signals drove op amps, switches, dialer. I got what I paid for it. The market is hot now. Monty K2DLJ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by w8fn
Yes! Dr. DX is in my top 5 list of all-time great software.
Mike NF4L On May 28, 2014, at 8:06 PM, Randy Farmer <[hidden email]> wrote: > And does anybody remember the Doctor DX cartridge for the Commodore 64 from AEA? That was an amazing piece of work. I used one to train for a trip to J6 for CQWW CW in 1991. > > 73... > Randy, W8FN > On 5/28/2014 2:44 PM, Charlie T, K3ICH wrote: >> Don't forget how revolutionary the Commodore VIC-20 was with all of 3.2 K of RAM. We (Microlog) made a plug in called the AIR-1 for the VIC that allowed CW & RTTY communications. I wrote a complete production test program in BASIC that required no other test equipment but plugging in the AIR-1 and running the tape loaded test program. It checked the CW copy, aligned the AFSK generator and verified CW & PTT keying, all in that 3.2 K of RAM with neat graphic indicators on the screen for the production testers. > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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My first MS-DOS, actually PC-DOS, machine was IBM Convertible, the first IBM laptop machine, with 2 2DD 3.5" FDD drives and LCD display without backlight.
I bought the machine when I was in US for my business trip. I worked with it when I was out of office. The machine was actually made by a Japanese manufacturer with IBM logo. 73 de JH3SIF, Keith 2014/05/29 20:19、Mike Reublin <[hidden email]> のメール： > Yes! Dr. DX is in my top 5 list of all-time great software. > > Mike NF4L > > On May 28, 2014, at 8:06 PM, Randy Farmer <[hidden email]> wrote: > >> And does anybody remember the Doctor DX cartridge for the Commodore 64 from AEA? That was an amazing piece of work. I used one to train for a trip to J6 for CQWW CW in 1991. >> >> 73... >> Randy, W8FN >> On 5/28/2014 2:44 PM, Charlie T, K3ICH wrote: >>> Don't forget how revolutionary the Commodore VIC-20 was with all of 3.2 K of RAM. We (Microlog) made a plug in called the AIR-1 for the VIC that allowed CW & RTTY communications. I wrote a complete production test program in BASIC that required no other test equipment but plugging in the AIR-1 and running the tape loaded test program. It checked the CW copy, aligned the AFSK generator and verified CW & PTT keying, all in that 3.2 K of RAM with neat graphic indicators on the screen for the production testers. >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:[hidden email] >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> Message delivered to [hidden email] > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Mike Reublin
Neither Gates or Allen had bupkus to do with producing PC-DOS.
They bought it from Seattle Computer Products in 1981 and modified it to suit IBM. They were forced to purchase something off the shelf because they were way behind producing their own. The name PC-DOS came from IBM who licensed "MS-DOS". Another little factoid. If Gary Kildall of Digital Research had been able to come to an agreement with IBM when they came calling (before going to MS), we'd have run CP/M on the first IBM PC's. People who know say a lot of the internals of MS-DOS look an awful lot like CP/M. Hmmmm. -- R. Kevin Stover AC0H ARRL FISTS #11993 SKCC #215 NAQCC #3441 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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Administrator
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Folks - lets end this OT thread at this time. Its a little too far afield from
our regular list content and is overloading the in-boxes of a large number of Elecraft readers. 36 posts in a 24 hour period on a Non-Elecraft topic is -way- over the limit. Please self limit your postings to OT threads. In the future, in the interest of keeping list traffic focused primarily on Elecraft products and issues for the majproty of our readers, please -strongly- resist the urge to reply to an OT topic once it has gone to 5 posts. Once it hits ten posts do not reply at all (go off list if you feel the urge to continue.) Also, please do not try to always get the 'last word'. If we see a lot of OT threads hitting the ten posting hard limit we'll be forced to reduce this to 5 posts as a -hard- limit. In general, a few OT posts on not Elecraft ham radio topics are welcomed, but longer non-Elecraft threads should be conducted elsewhere. The majority of the subscribers prefer to see the vast majority of traffic on this reflector more directly Elecraft product related. (Questions, reports on use, problems, product announcements etc. ) 73, Eric List moderator elecraft.com On 5/29/2014 5:13 AM, Kevin Stover wrote: > Neither Gates or Allen had bupkus to do with producing PC-DOS. > They bought it from Seattle Computer Products in 1981 and modified it to suit > IBM. > They were forced to purchase something off the shelf because they were way > behind producing their own. > The name PC-DOS came from IBM who licensed "MS-DOS". > > Another little factoid. If Gary Kildall of Digital Research had been able to > come to an agreement with IBM when they came calling (before going to MS), > we'd have run CP/M on the first IBM PC's. > > People who know say a lot of the internals of MS-DOS look an awful lot like CP/M. > > Hmmmm. > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Official List Policy: Please limit OT postings and replies
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Administrator
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In reply to this post by Kevin Stover
As evidenced by the very large number of recent OT postings, and by the flood of
complaints to my email box, we are overloading the vast majority of Elecraft list readers, who primarily are interested in directly Elecraft related topics, with OT email. Official New List Policy: In the future, in the interest of keeping list traffic focused primarily on Elecraft products and issues for the majority of our readers, please -strongly- resist the urge to reply to an OT topic once it has gone to 5 posts. Once it hits ten posts do not reply at all (go off list if you feel the urge to continue.) Also, please do not try to always get the 'last word'. If we see a lot of OT threads hitting the ten posting hard limit we'll be forced to reduce this to 5 posts as a -hard- limit. In general, a few OT posts on not Elecraft ham radio topics are welcomed, but longer non-Elecraft threads should be conducted elsewhere. The majority of the subscribers prefer to see the vast majority of traffic on this reflector more directly Elecraft product related. (Questions, reports on use, problems, product announcements etc. ) 73, Eric List moderator elecraft.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Edward A. Dauer
Kind of surprised in the longevity of this topic. But then I guess a
lot of us started out in the "stone age"! First computer (1963) used no electricity as was made by Post and had a bamboo slide (sliderule, of course). Still have it! My first exposure (1965) was in college taking a Fortran course and punching IBM cards at the new computer center that had a CDC3600. A year later I had a student job at the center handling those cards. Next, was running a Silent700 terminal on a mainframe at JPL (1971) and later a dumb terminal on the Univac1108. In 1978 I took a microprocessor design class at CalPoly Pomona and had a 6502 lab learning assembly language - what fun! 1982 I actually worked as a programmer (as it was) with a IBM pc, dual-floppy, 128Kb running DOS and writing A-Basic for a small bush Alaska phone company. I had no experience and had only the reference books and manual, so I self-taught myself and produced a program for the company to download CO data from each village and process it into a report on subscriber usage. My first personal computer was the Commodore 64 (1985) and I ran only one program that displayed ham satellite data. That one croaked after a couple years when I plugged the 5-pin DIN in crooked and let the blue screen out! 1996 I joined the "information highway" with a PacBell P100 16Mb, win95. I added memory to reach 40Mb and it still sits on a dusty shelf. Since then its been a trail of Dell computers with win2000, winXP, Vista (ugh), and win8. I even have an ancient IBM Thinkpad P90 with win95 still in use (runs two DOS-based programs). I still use the TI-35 calculator I bought in early 1980's. And I'm not a computer guy. My background is microwave engineering and two-way radio repair. 73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com "Kits made by KL7UW" Dubus Mag business: [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Computers in the Stone Age
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In reply to this post by Lewis Phelps
The IBM 5100, definitely a desktop (check out the pictures of these), which did basic and APL was out in 1975.
W3OU Steve -----Original Message----- From: Lewis Phelps <[hidden email]> To: [hidden email] List <[hidden email]> Sent: Thu, May 29, 2014 5:08 pm Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Computers in the Stone Age > Someone wrote: >> Desktop computers did not come into being until the advent of the IBM PC in the 1980s. Nah. Heathkit H89 came out in 1979. “All-in-One” desktop computer. Z-80 processor. CP/M OS addressed 64 KB and used 39 kb of that total. two 5” floppy drives (dual sided 800k) as an option. Later, somebody came up with a card that plugged into the 5” drive slot and gave 128K of silicon hard drive. Now THAT was advanced for its era. Booting from that was faster than lightning, for its time. And do not forget the Ohio Scientific Instruments OSI Challenger 4P…. Lew Lew Phelps N6LEW Pasadena, CA DM04wd Elecraft K3-10 Yaesu FT-7800 [hidden email] www.n6lew.us Sent from my Mac Pro 256-Array Supercomputer (9.42 teraflops) On May 28, 2014, at 11:19 AM, Kevin Cozens <[hidden email]> wrote: ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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