J
Jeanh
Guest
Here is a portable computer from 1983 (I used to work with one of these). It had a whopping 128 kilobytes of RAM and a 9" monochrome screen (but no battery; worked from AC only):
It was officially called a portable, but "luggable" was considered a more appropriate term by many. Anyhow, it was possible to assemble it in the form of a suitcase, and at a mere 28 pounds, it was a breeze to carry:
Oh, and did I mention that this beauty was sold for the bargain price of a mere $3,590?
But it was a capable computer indeed. You could even play a game of combat flight simulation, like Sopwith Camel, in glorious monochrome:
Better yet, Sopwith 2 allowed to players to play against each other over a serial data connection! (Much cheaper than a genuine 2 Mbit/s local area network, with network interface cards costing upwards of $1,000.)
Oh, but these were glorious days, compared to the way I worked just a few years prior: punch cards, a 110 bps teletype machine (no screen, just impact printing on a roll of paper) connecting to a mainframe across town, or if it was my lucky day, a free VT-100 workstation connecting to the same.
Saving computer programs on audio cassettes...
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It was officially called a portable, but "luggable" was considered a more appropriate term by many. Anyhow, it was possible to assemble it in the form of a suitcase, and at a mere 28 pounds, it was a breeze to carry:
Oh, and did I mention that this beauty was sold for the bargain price of a mere $3,590?
But it was a capable computer indeed. You could even play a game of combat flight simulation, like Sopwith Camel, in glorious monochrome:
Better yet, Sopwith 2 allowed to players to play against each other over a serial data connection! (Much cheaper than a genuine 2 Mbit/s local area network, with network interface cards costing upwards of $1,000.)
Oh, but these were glorious days, compared to the way I worked just a few years prior: punch cards, a 110 bps teletype machine (no screen, just impact printing on a roll of paper) connecting to a mainframe across town, or if it was my lucky day, a free VT-100 workstation connecting to the same.
Saving computer programs on audio cassettes...
- Using a 1.44 MB floppy disk or a 700 MB Blank Compact Disk to store valuable information:
)- Our childhood games: Dave, Mario, Road Rash, Contra, Captain Claw!
- Encyclopedia
- Highlights of my favorite match
- When I started using a computer, you had to build your own computer, then manually teach it how to be programmed, before you could program it. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
- Before thumb drives, this was portable storage:
- Early computers had printers, but no monitors. You'd type something in, print results, look at the paper, type in changes, then print it again.
- Computer memory used to be made out of magnetic beads strung on wires, flipped either to the right or to the left. They would forget data if a train went by or an earthquake shook the ground. This was called "core" memory and it's where we get the term "core dump."