The Personal Computer History Thread

Ok, I begin, let's see, back in 1983 my 1st computer was this:



CPU:
SC61860, 0.576 MHz
RAM:
2 KB
(davon 1486 Byte frei)
ROM:
24 KB
OS:
Basic, Calculator
DISPLAY:
16x1, 2 Farben
LCD monochrom


Next machine was the Sinclair ZX81 with a 64K Memory Expansion, after the 1486K of the Sharp a programmer's paradise:



Introduced:March 1981
Price:US $149.95 assembled or US $99.95 in kit form
How many?500,000 in first 12 months
Weight:12 ounces
CPU:NEC Z-80A, 3.25MHz
RAM:1K, 64K max
Display:22 X 32 text hooks to TV
Ports:memory, cassette
Peripherals:Sinclair thermal printer
OS:ROM BASIC


At this time I allready played Synthesizers a few years (Roland SH5, Yamaha DX7 and others) and the next Computer was this, just half of the Sinclair's RAM, but my 1st Music Computer:




MSX1 Standard definition and remarks

• CPU Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
• RAM at least 8kB. (Most of machines had 64kB built in.)
• 32kB BASIC/BIOS (MSX BASIC version 1.0) "MSX BASIC is an extended version of Microsoft Standard BASIC Version 4.5, and includes support for graphic, music, and various peripherials attached to MSX Personal Computers. Generally, MSX-BASIC is designed to follow GW-BASIC, which is one of the standard BASICs running on 16-bit computers. During the creation of MSX-BASIC, a major effort was made to make the system as flexible and expandable as possible." (1985)
• Video Display Processor: Texas Instruments TMS-9918/TMS-9928/TMS-9929
• Video RAM 16kB
• General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator. 8 octaves and 3 sound channels.
• Connector for tape/data recorder. Transfer speed: 1200 or 2400 baud in MSX-BASIC (FSK format). The speed can be altered though, with some POKEing or easily in Machine Language programs.
• Centronics interface (8-bit; small one, 14 pin).
• At least one joystick/mouse/paddle/trackball/graphic tablet connector. Most computers have two. The connnector is a normal 9-pin D-connector, male.
• Expansion port (at least one). Usually two are available, but in MSX1 computers with special functions only one is a standard MSX expansion port (cartridge slot) and the other one is a brand-specific port, for brand-specific extensions.
• At least 70 keys (including five function keys with ten programmable functions and four arrow keys).

This computer had built in a quite good Yamaha music module (4 operator FM-Synthesizer, MIDI interface and connector for optional keyboard, same module as in the DX5). All original software for this music module was available as ROM cartridges.

At work I came in touch with one of the 1st IBM-8086-PC clones, a Commodore PC10, no Hard Disk, only two 5 1/4 Zoll floppy diskdrives, one for the DOS and one for the programm, I worked allready with dBase and Word on this machine.

At home I bought ca. 1987 a Commodore PC20, still a 8086, but with a 10MB harddisk, no soundcard, monochrome grafics and 640k RAM.

In 1992 I bought a 2nd hand 386-PC and a soundcard, the famous Soundblaster. It had VGA-Color and removable HD-Devices and on one of the HD-Units I installed in 1994 my first Linux from Slackware with Kernel 0.99

In 1995 a Pentium I multimedia-machine from Gateway with an Ensoniq Soundcard, I installed a dual-boot system, running Win3.1 and several Linux installations from SuSE, RedHat and Debian.

Since 2001 I'm using a Millenium II Laptop from Gericom with a builtin Maestro2 sound device. At the moment there is installed Debian-Linux (a mix of woody/sarge/sid), SuSE 9.2 - Linux, both with Kernel 2.6.8 and WIN98SE, About making homestudio-music with this machine I'll open another thread.

Now let's hear about your personal computer history.

 

first computer i actually owned was a gateway... specs were like
200 mhz pentium something
2 gb hd
shitty graphics card
very little ram

than the next one was another gateway
550 mhz, 64 ram, shitty graphix card ( i bought a geforce 2 for it later on though and that was considered good)

and than I made my own computer after a while started getting into that stuff
it was
2100+ amd athlon XP
geforce fx 5200 pci 256 MB graphix card
msi motherboard kt-333 ultra
80 gb western digital 7200 RPM hd
512 MB's of PC2700 DDR ram

but than my computer got ill and my mobo shorted an my RAM and my processor was damaged too
so now I gots

amd athlon xp 2400+
512 GB pc2700 RAM
new MSI mobo with SATA/RAID
two 80 gb wd 7200 RPM hds on RAID
geforce fx 5200 pci 256 MB graphix card