2. Computers

My Vintage Computer Collection (Pre IBM !!)_

My collection of computers that I used in the Eighties !! (and STILL own)
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During my education (electronic engineering) we could use the schools' computer (Digital PDP-8), but wow, when this KIM-1 came out, I jumped on it. <br /> I could finally play with a 'computer' at home!! Only 1024 BYTES of RAM, hexadecimal 7 segment display and a rudimentary keyboard.<br /> It had a 6502 CPU.
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During my education (electronic engineering) we could use the schools' computer (Digital PDP-8), but wow, when this KIM-1 came out, I jumped on it.
I could finally play with a 'computer' at home!! Only 1024 BYTES of RAM, hexadecimal 7 segment display and a rudimentary keyboard.
It had a 6502 CPU.

kim1

  • During my education (electronic engineering) we could use the schools' computer (Digital PDP-8), but wow, when this KIM-1 came out, I jumped on it. <br /> I could finally play with a 'computer' at home!! Only 1024 BYTES of RAM, hexadecimal 7 segment display and a rudimentary keyboard.<br /> It had a 6502 CPU.
  • A famous microprocessor devellopment kit: the KIM-1 (1978).<br /> It's considered the 'granddaddy' of microprocessor systems.<br /> Built around the MOS 6502 CPU (1 Mhz)<br /> A 'whopping' 1024 bytes of RAM, and a HEX keypad.<br /> Mine is neatly enclosed by a nice plexiglass box, and it now works as a clock!!<br /> You could connect a Cassette tape recorder to save and restore the programs...<br /> I still have the tapes!!!
  • After the KIM-1 there was the Synertek SYM-1 (originally called the VIM-1, but due to a courtcase<br /> in 1978 it was changed into SYM-1)<br /> Compared to the KIM-1 it had the same CPU as the KIM-1 but more sophistication and features.<br /> <br /> <br /> Released : 1978<br /> Price : US $239<br /> CPU : Synertek 6502 @1MHz<br /> RAM : 1K, 4K max on-board<br /> Ports : Two edge-card 8-bit ports<br /> Display : 6-digit LED<br /> Storage : TTY, audio cassette<br /> OS : "Monitor" in ROM
  • Here another 6502 based Single Board Computer: The Rockwell AIM-65.<br /> Introduced in 1977.<br /> <br /> Really nice design, and there was a REAL keyboard not a hexadecimal keypad, and an optional thermal printer!!<br /> I have it in a special blue plastic enclosure.
  • This is my Motorola MEK6800D2 development kit:<br /> <br /> <br /> The Specs: <br /> <br /> Introduced: 1976<br /> CPU: Motorola 6800<br /> display: 6 x 7-segment LED<br /> CPU speed: 1 Mhz<br /> Mem: 1024 bytes<br /> OS: Hexidecimal
  • The Osborne-1, stripped naked.<br /> You can clearly see that the design it's just a bunch of mechanical unstability, without the case around it.... <br /> IMHO: Flimsy design!! (but with the casing around it, it's OK of course!!)<br /> Andy Kays' KAYPRO (that came out a year later) was a MUCH better and sturdier design: <br /> steel casing, and NINE inch GREEN monitor.
  • My (first) KAYPRO-II seen from the front.<br /> <br /> This Z80 2 Mhz system was running the famous CP/M operating system, developed in 1973 (!!!) by Dr. Gary Kildall, of Digital Research Inc. (DRI).<br /> <br /> Kildall was the inventor of a programming language called: PLM, He implemented it on the 8080 Intel Microprocessor, and created a (character based) Operating System, called: CP/M, the first personal computer operating system for microcomputers, and at that time because the standard OS for many microcomputers, like Kaypro, Osborne, Superbrain etc.<br /> <br /> Horror story:<br /> <br /> In a chapter devoted to Kildall in Evans' 'They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators', Evans related how Paterson "[took] 'a ride on' Kildall's operating system, appropriated the 'look and feel' of [Kildall's] CP/M operating system, and copied much of his operating system interface from CP/M."<br /> <br /> The story of how Bill Gates came to acquire an operating system is well known. In 1980, Kildall's Digital Research provided the operating system for a wide range of microcomputers, and was established as the industry standard. IBM had approached Microsoft, then a tiny software company in the Seattle area, to provide a BASIC run-time for its first micro, the IBM PC. Gates 'smelled' BIG business: He offered to provide IBM an operating system too, even though he didn't have one at the time. This required a hasty purchase.<br /> <br /> Microsoft turned to Tim Paterson, whose garage operation 'Seattle Computer Products' (SCP) was selling a CP/M clone called 86-DOS. This had been developed under the code name QDOS (for "quick and dirty operating system"), and SCP sold it alongside an add-in CPU card. Microsoft turned this into the hugely successful DOS franchise.<br /> <br /> (The oft-told story of Kildall spurning IBM to fly his plane is deeply misleading. It was IBM's distribution and OVERpricing of CP/M (6 fold the price of MS-DOS: (IBM offered PC-DOS (Microsoft) for 40 US$ and CP/M-86 for 240 US$, so obviously DRI lost the battle and Bill won the marketshare, and the rest is history!!), which in the end was one of three operating systems offered with the first IBM PC, that ensured MS-DOS captured the market.)<br /> <br /> Later, Kildall created GEM, the FIRST graphical operating system. even before Apple did that!!!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Here's some info on CP/M:<br /> <br /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/d_dri_refs.html">http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/d_dri_refs.html</a><br /> <br /> And here;s a 3 part Youtube video on Gary Kildall:<br /> part 1: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VipwFeJ1KMU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VipwFeJ1KMU</a><br /> part 2: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxksoOqk-U&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxksoOqk-U&feature=related</a><br /> part 3: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqfwIvjDlAA&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqfwIvjDlAA&feature=related</a>
  • Yeah!! The REAL stuff.
  • This is my KAYPRO-10.<br /> It had 64 KILObyte memory, and a 10 MEGAbyte harddisk, which was really a 'wow-factor' in those days (1983)..
  • Sturdy casing. One time my KAYPRO dropped from a bellboy-cart in a hotel in Pusan, Korea. The casing took the blow (small indentation) but when I switched it on, it fired up OK and it still worked!!<br /> It's an undestructable beast!!
  • The original Kaypro-II from 1982..<br /> It is STILL is awesome design.<br /> <br /> With one interesting flaw:<br /> Andy Kay wanted to rush this model to the market, and the developpers couldn't find a proper VDU controller chip in time. Well, said the hardware design-team: let's make the VDU controller using discrete hardware (bunch of standard TTL IC's), and write the screencontrol code in the FIRMWARE!! And so they did!!<br /> Using a Z80 mnemonic debugger on the code in the 4k EPROM, you can clearly see how a character is printed on the screen, and it is sloooowwww!!!!<br /> For instance CLS (Clear Screen) is performed in a quite rudimentary way:<br /> by filling the screenmemory with $20 (space) characters!!<br /> VERY fast terminal programs were simply TOO fast for this hardware/firmware solution.
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  • The original advertisement from 1982...
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  • The KayPro-4...
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  • The KAYPRO-10 in action. It had a 10 MEGAbyte HARDDISK!!<br /> For that time it was AWESOME!!<br /> It had a nice menu, so that you just typed a numberkey, and the corresponding menu-entry would start.<br /> That was sophistication in the early eighties.<br /> What a contrast with today (2012) where you just yell to your iPhone 4s, and get what you want...
  • Sideview of my Kaypro 10.<br /> Bulky stuff!!
  • Yes, ladies and gentleman: those were the days, no 'Windows' graphical interface and no mouse, but just straight on 25 lines of 80 characters, using cursor- and control-keys which was all we had!! <br /> Just knowing all the commands by heart, and type them in..<br /> Loved it!! (and STILL do!!)
  • The Bondwell-14 (1984). <br /> The Bondwell-12 was a "luggable" portable computer with a built-in 9 inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, equipped with 128 kB of internal memory, CP/M 3.0 and two double-sided, double density, 5.25 inch floppy disk drives (360 kiB).<br /> I got it second hand, and I wanted it because it was running CP/M 3.0. But I didn't like the orange display, I prefer green. <br /> Well, I sold it to another guy.
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