Byte Magazine has come and gone, but traces of its existence are still online. Its founder, Wayne Green, was hailed as a visionary. He was definitely a “do it yourself” type of man who had the knack of being able to know what was coming up in the realm of technology. Read on to discover […]
One of the more iconic machines in computing history is headed for the auction block soon. On October 9th, 2012 Christie’s will be including an Apple 1 in its sale. Only around 200 Apple 1’s were designed and hand built by Steve Wozniak, partner of Steve Jobs at Apple, and probably fewer than fifty are […]
The MOS KIM-1 was a single board computer created by MOS Technology in 1976. The acronym KIM stood for Keyboard Input Monitor, which I’m sure their marketing department spent a good few seconds coming up with. The MOS-1 was developed out of MOS Technologies need to build a processor that couldn’t be plugged into existing […]
[phpbaysidebar title=”Commodore Pet” keywords=”commodore pet” exclude=”book” num=”3″ siteid=”1″ category=”74945″ sort=”CurrentPriceHighest” minprice=”50″ id=”3″] The Commodore PET was Commodore’s first fully featured computer for the home computer market. Introduced to the world in 1977 the Commodore PET soon became a best seller in the North American educational markets and spawned a whole host of products based on […]
The MITS Altair 8800 was a computer sold in 1975 through popular hobbyist magazines like Radio-Electronics, and Popular Electronics. MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) had hoped to sell a couple of hundred to hobbyists and enthusiasts and were shocked when their niche hobby computer sold thousands in the very first month. The Altair 8800 […]
The Rockwell AIM 65 was a development computer introduced to the market back in 1976. The AIM acronym stood for Advanced Interactive Microcomputer and the 65 denoted the first two numbers of the 6502 MOS Technology microprocessor that the Rockwell AIM 65 was based upon. Rockwell were well known for their defense contracts in helping […]
continue reading
The first Apple Macintosh was a personal computer released in 1984. In 1983 Apple had released a business computer called the Lisa with a graphical user interface, and mouse, which was a far cry from other computers at the time which mostly used MS-DOS. The Lisa was never really meant as a personal computer and […]
continue reading
The Osborne 1 or OCC-1 was the first portable computer to get to market and become a commercial success. Released in 1981 by the Osborne Computer Corporation the unit weighed in at a hefty 23.5lb and cost a whopping $1795. Housed in a sewing machine sized box, the unit comprised of a small 5 inch […]
continue reading
In 1977 Steve Leininger left his Silicon Valley job to work for Texas based Tandy Corp. He built the prototype Tandy TRS-80 for less than $150,000 as a test project for his boss. John Roach, Tandy’s product manager, had gotten the company president, Charles Tandy to agree to 3500 units after demonstrating the prototype model. […]
continue reading
For just a few dollars more than the cost of adding a separate hard drive to an existing computer you could buy the Kaypro 10. A full featured transportable computer, built by Non-Linear Systems in Solana Beach CA. The Kaypro 10 followed the Kaypro II and is similar to it and the Kaypro 4 in […]
As you may already know Heathkit was known for their kit projects and the Heathkit H8 was no exception. You could buy it in kit for and assemble it yourself for $379.00 or you could buy it pre-assembled for $475.00. While $379.00 may sound like a good deal you would only get the chassis and […]
This portable computer is the Commodore SX-64 and is known as the first portable with a color screen. It was released in 1984 to compete with the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable but it didn’t do a very good job of it. Sales were poor and it was discontinued by 1986. The SX-64 used a […]
The Osborne Computer Corporation offered the Osborne Vixen computer in 1984, just as they were about to go bankrupt. This machine was not officially released by Osborne, but by a consultant named Fred Coury. It was a natural development from the earlier Osborne 1 and was also named “Osborne 4” by some. It was created […]
The Osborne Computer Corporation some original and successful computers. The Osborne Executive came right after their “Osborne 1” model. The Osborne Executive was the source of some improvements over the earlier model, with a larger screen, more memory, and the like. It was designed portable, but in those days that meant “luggable”, as in “luggage”. […]
The kit computers available in the later part of the seventies, such as the RCA Cosmac VIP, were great tools for those who wanted to learn programing without having to pay a pretty penny. The RCA Cosmac VIP was one of the more expensive of the bunch. But for the extra money, the learner got […]
Compaq portables have been with us for a long time. The very first one was created back in 1982. It was not released until 1983. If you carried it around, it would have been good exercise. It weighed from 28 up to 34 pounds. Compare that with those netbooks today that weigh a pound and […]
The Dauphin DTR-1 was a very unique computer of its day. It was tiny. It was created by IBM and sold for a pretty penny. The most different accessory that came with the computer was the pen ( stylus ). The pen would do what the finger now does for smartphones; select menus and move […]
Tandy is no longer with us, but some of their computers are. The Tandy 200 is also sometimes referred to as the TRS-80 Model 200 even though Tandy had dropped the TRS prefix by that time. This was a computer designed with a little better specifications than its predecessor, the Tandy Model 100. The improvements […]
The Otrona Attache was similar to those “one hit wonder” musical bands you have heard about. It was laid out well and got the nickname of “BMW of portables”. It was one of the smallest portable computers of its day. It was also one of the most expensive. Read on to discover more on the […]
