A 5MB hard drive in 1956

SeanW · 05-03-2015 12:53pm

kingtiger wrote: »

it was probably 2nd hand, it had a 286 CPU

don't think that could run Win 95

No, you needed at least a 386 just to run Windows 3.11 (a 286 would run Windows 3.1) I think Windows 95 required a 486.

kingtiger · 05-03-2015 1:03pm

SeanW wrote: »

No, you needed at least a 386 just to run Windows 3.11 (a 286 would run Windows 3.1) I think Windows 95 required a 486.

aye my memory is a little foggy on the 286, but you could use a 386 for 95 (although not recommended by MS)

I still remember upgrading my first CPU from a 486 DX 33 to a DX4 100, oh the excitement of seeing it being recognized in the BIOS screen

I also put in an extra 4MBs to make it 8MBs at the same time, but still had to make floppy boot disks to load the drivers \ TSRs \ etc into high memory, just to play a game of Doom 2

Agricola · 05-03-2015 1:24pm

Remember a friend of mine in college bought a 128mb usb stick for €50 back in 2001. It was the shít, had to get one myself!

Duggy747 · 05-03-2015 1:36pm

I bought a 128mb MP3 Player / USB stick back in college in 2004 foor about €40, I was living the dream of being in the future.

Alun · 05-03-2015 1:44pm

kingtiger wrote: »

I also put in an extra 4MBs to make it 8MBs at the same time, but still had to make floppy boot disks to load the drivers \ TSRs \ etc into high memory, just to play a game of Doom 2

That brings back fond memories .. I was a ninja QEMM386 guru back in the day

I remember even trying to minimize the space taken up by environment variables, especially PATH, before loading TSR's and device drivers to be able to squeeze that one last one into high memory. Those were the days!

The Corinthian · 05-03-2015 1:46pm

jimgoose wrote: »

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ in 1984, with a trouser-flapping 48kB core memory and no mass-storage bar an audio tape interface that positively howled along at (IIRC) 16KB per-100 seconds.

EDIT: Y'know, it occurs to me that aside from confounding young Java-heads with the UltraSPARC delay-slot in assembler, I've never had more fun with a computer than playing around with that little thing way back in the day.

I won a category prize in the Young Scientists with a database/statistical analysis program I wrote for the Speccy. Ahhh... back in the day.

Capt'n Midnight · 05-03-2015 8:48pm

SeanW wrote: »

To give ye an idea just how crappy computer were back then, two large American railroads (the New York Central and the Pennsylvania) merged in '68 to form the Penn Central. It went bankrupt in 1970. One of the dozens of issues that doomed them was an ill planned all-at-once merger of operations, including their computer systems, which were totally incompatible and based on different architectures, even though both were supplied by the same company (IBM).

Nothing has changed. Massive IT projects still have something like an 80% failure rate.

SeanW wrote: »

No, you needed at least a 386 just to run Windows 3.11

win /d:t turns off the 386 extended stuff so you can run win 3.11 on an 8088

Bipolar Joe · 05-03-2015 10:26pm

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

How do you get it online ? I didnt know you get them online

My first computer in 99 was Acer 286,4mb of ram with dos 5.0 , i made my confirmation that year and spent 50 pounds of it upgrading it too windows 3.1 good times .

This dude was a big help getting mine going:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOE7KrrCpE

The BBS's are a bit flaky these days, but Cottonwood is still around once in a while, if anyone else is old enough to remember that.

The C64 was my first computer. Technically it was my Dads, but I used it for awesome stuff like computer games and learning how to crack them from smart people.

The_Chap · 05-03-2015 11:05pm

Spent more time than I remember modifying autoexec.bat and config.sys

Himem.sys anyone?

Ruu · 05-03-2015 11:12pm

A lot of the old DOS games you needed to edit config.sys to run emm386.exe (expanded memory) and himem.sys (extended memory), I think.

Graham · 05-03-2015 11:40pm

Alun wrote: »

1200 Baud? Luxury

My first online experience was with BIX (Byte Information Exchange), a bulletin board in the US run by Byte magazine.

Fidonet at 300baud followed by Prestel at 1200/75 then Cix and Compuserve. All connected to a BBC model B with a 5MB Winchester Drive

sentient_6 · 05-03-2015 11:46pm

Speaking of progress, SanDisk announced a 200GB micro sd card last weekend at the Mobile World Congress in Spain.

AllGunsBlazing · 05-03-2015 11:49pm

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

The C64 was my first computer. Technically it was my Dads, but I used it for awesome stuff like computer games and learning how to crack them from smart people.

Had a C64 in our house as well. Would be interesting to see the sales figures for Commodore in Ireland back in the 80's. Never got a foothold in the UK but seemed very popular here. Every school computer lab seemed to be made up of C64's.

silverharp · 06-03-2015 12:06am

I was reading recently that the IBM / Cray super computer back in the 80's would have struggled to run Windows today.

The_Valeyard · 06-03-2015 12:08am

silverharp wrote: »

I was reading recently that the IBM / Cray super computer back in the 80's would have struggled to run Windows today.

To be fair, many computers struggle to run Windows 8 today. :P :P

silverharp · 06-03-2015 12:49am

The_Valeyard wrote: »

To be fair, many computers struggle to run Windows 8 today. :P :P

if it cost 10 million dollars I'd want my money back :pac:

dasdog · 06-03-2015 1:16am

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

Had a C64 in our house as well. Would be interesting to see the sales figures for Commodore in Ireland back in the 80's. Never got a foothold in the UK but seemed very popular here. Every school computer lab seemed to be made up of C64's.

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think. I vaguely remember hearing a deal was struck with the dept of education and the manufacturer. The Spectrum being made in Dundee would have outstripped C64 sales in the UK and was a cheaper machine so I would have thought more popular in 80's Ireland too. Both great machines but that Commodore SID chip was amazing. Kindergarten for electro music producers of the 90's before Atari ST further education

Firefox11 · 06-03-2015 1:23am

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

KB? We've come so far since then

But essentially the basic design of the HDD has changed little in almost 60 years! A spinning platter with a seek arm with read/write head.

But SSD Drives are the death knell of the humble hard drive so it has not long left.

Graham · 06-03-2015 1:24am

dasdog wrote: »

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think.

It wasn't designed as a games machine like most of its immediate competitors but I can't think of a better machine of the time for learning, or playing Elite

The_Valeyard · 06-03-2015 1:43am

Firefox11 wrote: »

But essentially the basic design of the HDD has changed little in almost 60 years! A spinning platter with a seek arm with read/write head.

But SSD Drives are the death knell of the humble hard drive so it has not long left.

The one thing I hate about the SSD is that most bios is not set up to understand the fecking things. You run your setup tests and it will give you a 0145 / 0146 error since there is no fecking spinning platter on the SSDs!!!

*rant over.

AllGunsBlazing · 06-03-2015 2:22am

dasdog wrote: »

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think. I vaguely remember hearing a deal was struck with the dept of education and the manufacturer.

In the UK, but I never saw a Micro in the flesh over here. A mate of mine did have a Spectrum though. The keyboard was rank and the general build quality felt flimsy in comparison to my tank like Commodore.;)

But credit where its due - the ZX was a huge influence in the bedroom program scene of the time.

mikemac1 · 06-03-2015 6:45am

Commodore 64 FTW!

You could buy a tape for 3 or 4 punts. What's a game nowadays, 50 or 60 euro?

But it wasn't all cheap. Daley Thomspon took people off the dole queues to manufacture joystick. Many a joystick was broken by his game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AR0e4q1EYM

The_Chap · 06-03-2015 8:00am

mikemac1 wrote: »

Commodore 64 FTW!

You could buy a tape for 3 or 4 punts. What's a game nowadays, 50 or 60 euro?

But it wasn't all cheap. Daley Thomspon took people off the dole queues to manufacture joystick. Many a joystick was broken by his game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AR0e4q1EYM

And many embarrassing moments when your parents walked in on you trying to do the 100m!

The Corinthian · 06-03-2015 8:06am

dasdog wrote: »

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think.

The BBC kept on shilling it on the telly. It was the Rasberry Pi of the eighties.

mikemac1 wrote: »

Daley Thomspon took people off the dole queues to manufacture joystick. Many a joystick was broken by his game

I'd swear that development of that game was secretly sponsored by Kempston Micro Electronics. Made them a fortune in replacement joysticks bought.

Graham · 06-03-2015 9:17am

The Corinthian wrote: »

The BBC kept on shilling it on the telly. It was the Rasberry Pi of the eighties.

The BBC ran a 10 part TV series as part of the BBC Computer Literacy Project and at £400 (iirc) in the early 80's (roughly €1500 in todays money) I'm not sure I'd describe it as the Raspberry Pi of its time

It was also a stratospheric step up from the ZX81 with 16k RAM Pack :pac:

The Corinthian · 06-03-2015 9:27am

Graham wrote: »

The BBC ran a 10 part TV series as part of the BBC Computer Literacy Project and at £400 (iirc) in the early 80's (roughly €1500 in todays money) I'm not sure I'd describe it as the Raspberry Pi of its time

Price-wise, you're right, but it was in that it was touted as an educational / serious computer and was the one of choice on any and all BBC programs that used a computer in demonstration. It appeared to be policy for the BBC to shill it, much like the Rasberry Pi is today.

jimgoose · 06-03-2015 9:33am

dasdog wrote: »

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think. I vaguely remember hearing a deal was struck with the dept of education and the manufacturer. The Spectrum being made in Dundee would have outstripped C64 sales in the UK and was a cheaper machine so I would have thought more popular in 80's Ireland too. Both great machines but that Commodore SID chip was amazing. Kindergarten for electro music producers of the 90's before Atari ST further education

The BBC Micro Model B was a proper bit of kit in its day. But ISTR the CBM64 retailed for about £300 back then, which was about the same as the BBC. Come to think of it that wasn't cheap! :pac:

The VIC-II graphics chip and proper three-channel sound in the CBM was a mighty job, though.

Capt'n Midnight · 06-03-2015 10:01am

dasdog wrote: »

The awful BBC micro was the choice for schools I think. I vaguely remember hearing a deal was struck with the dept of education and the manufacturer. The Spectrum being made in Dundee would have outstripped C64 sales in the UK and was a cheaper machine so I would have thought more popular in 80's Ireland too. Both great machines but that Commodore SID chip was amazing. Kindergarten for electro music producers of the 90's before Atari ST further education

It was expensive but it wasn't awful.
For science it had analog to digital ports, something I miss on PC's
sound was painfully complicated
tape recorder loaded programs in blocks so you only needed to rewind a block , every other machine you had to reload the tape from scratch

spectrum didn't have a real keyboard , you could touch type on a beeb
Yeah the ST was a great machine with superb analog but wasn't that later ? And of course it had a GUI that predated Apple and Windows by ages.

anyway the guys who designed the BBC micro went on to design the ARM cpu. So 50 Billion shipped (probably closer to 60 Billion now) and used by 2/3rd's of the worlds population on a daily basis in things like smartphones and tablets.

jimgoose · 06-03-2015 10:05am

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It was expensive but it wasn't awful.
For science it had analog to digital ports, something I miss on PC's
sound was painfully complicated
tape recorder loaded programs in blocks so you only needed to rewind a block , every other machine you had to reload the tape from scratch

spectrum didn't have a real keyboard , you could touch type on a beeb
Yeah the ST was a great machine with superb analog but wasn't that later ? And of course it had a GUI that predated Apple and Windows by ages.

anyway the guys who designed the BBC micro went on to design the ARM cpu. So 50 Billion shipped (probably closer to 60 Billion now) and used by 2/3rd's of the worlds population on a daily basis in things like smartphones and tablets.

The Spec got a half-decent keyboard in 1986, at the beginning of the Amstrad era but even the mighty +2/+3 was too little too late. 'Twas the dawn of the 16-bit, like the Atari ST, CBM Amiga, and the lesser-known but beefy Acorn/BBC Archimedes.

Graham · 06-03-2015 10:10am

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It was expensive but it wasn't awful.
For science it had analog to digital ports, something I miss on PC's
sound was painfully complicated
tape recorder loaded programs in blocks so you only needed to rewind a block , every other machine you had to reload the tape from scratch

I remember getting a few bits of software on an EPROM too

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Yeah the ST was a great machine with superb analog but wasn't that later ? And of course it had a GUI that predated Apple and Windows by ages.

Mid to late 80s and the GUI was GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) which was also popular on IBM PCs for running Ventura desktop publishing software. GEM was arguable a better GUI than early windows and for a while I'm sure GEM had a greater marketshare than Windows.

A 5MB hard drive in 1956

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