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Location:
Land of Oz
Registered:
June 2004
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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Mon, 17 January 2005 11:24
 
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Hi,
I paid $88AUD for an Intel MDS-225 system just before Christmas.
This beast comes in three pieces - the main unit with 8-inch single drive 250k byte floppy and 12inch B&W monitor (a mere 49kg), the 4-slot expansion chasis (a sprightly 17kg) and the superlative twin double-density 8-inch floppy diskette array (500k byte per floppy and 26kg).
This light and portable system was the ducks-nuts back in 1976 when it cost 28,000USD to buy.
This baby runs an 8-bit 8080 processor that screams along at 2Mhz. It has 64K of RAM, which is it's maximum - unless you want to get into bank switching stuff.
One of my most minimal systems is a Motorola MEK6800D2 kit. The 6800 series processor runs at 640khz and has 128 bytes of RAM, but I doubled it to 256bytes of RAM. It has only a hex keypad for input and the output is 6 7-segment LED displays. I can hook up a cassette unit for mass storage (well... until I hit the 256byte RAM limit anyway) at 300bps transfer rate. This baby was made in the late 70's and sold, in kit form, for $400AUD.
I have an old IMSAI system that has address and data switches - in binary - and you gotta set up the address switches, then set up the data switches and then hit the "load" switch. Then onto the next address and data stuff. No boot ROM in this old beast.
None of this poofy GUI or pretty graphical stuff for me. Hell, I've taken the mouse off the PC's at home. I tell the family if you want respect from me you gotta use the keyboard to navigate around the system.
The best thing about Win95 and later is I can open multiple DOS sessions..... 
seeyuzz
(Old man) river
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| | Subject | Poster | Date |
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The Good ol' days of computers
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SilverGhost | Mon, 17 January 2005 07:17 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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skellator | Mon, 17 January 2005 07:29 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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SilverGhost | Mon, 17 January 2005 07:31 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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Apollo | Mon, 17 January 2005 07:56 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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davedrifts | Mon, 17 January 2005 08:08 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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jackel | Mon, 17 January 2005 10:13 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Mon, 17 January 2005 11:24 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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rob_RA40 | Tue, 18 January 2005 21:32 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Tue, 18 January 2005 21:44 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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clubagreenie | Mon, 17 January 2005 12:09 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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styler | Tue, 18 January 2005 12:04 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Tue, 18 January 2005 21:36 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Tue, 18 January 2005 21:11 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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clubagreenie | Wed, 19 January 2005 11:35 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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rthy | Wed, 19 January 2005 11:51 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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BlackMR2 | Fri, 21 January 2005 07:52 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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rob_RA40 | Tue, 18 January 2005 22:03 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Tue, 18 January 2005 22:12 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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ra23mad | Sat, 22 January 2005 00:16 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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Apollo | Sat, 22 January 2005 13:02 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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megan | Sat, 22 January 2005 12:28 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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Hodgie | Sat, 22 January 2005 12:44 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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eviltwin | Sat, 22 January 2005 14:17 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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river | Sun, 23 January 2005 06:21 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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BlackMR2 | Sun, 23 January 2005 16:11 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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RobST162 | Sun, 23 January 2005 21:51 |
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Re: The Good ol' days of computers
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BlackMR2 | Mon, 24 January 2005 07:58 |
