Dang, a venerable PC jr!! My first PC was the TRS-80 (shop teacher got us one to play with) and then Freshman Year I had a job with an engineering company playing with the first IBM AT (advanced technology dontchaknow :) ) I wanna say that was the first 286?
Your TRS80 was sold in the '70's. Do you still have it? Wow! the PC Jr. is still pretty cool. It is almost the first. According to Google: "The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities."
That's wild. In my neighborhoods, we knew there had to be that one kid who had the GI Joe aircraft carrier. That same kid had this computer back then. Not every neighborhood had such a kid.
A lot like the Altair! The Heathkit was cheaper and more for hobbyist, no expansion etc. Motorola proc versus Intel (the venerable 8080). There was this window for kit/hobbyist computers before the Apple II hit and then the Commodore & Tandy (TRS-80) and then all hell broke loose after the IBM PC a few years later.
You're so right about that one neighborhood kid. Later on a few doors the other direction my friend Bond got the first Atari and my parents would have to call his parents to get me to come home for dinner.
Atari was just fire when it came out. I don't think most people really grasp how wild that was for young brains and eyes and hands!
In the very early days, just seeing something you made on a screen was impressive. It's tough to explain this to folks who grew up with programs that are easy to use, and I think that's really happening nowadays with LLMs and such.
Agree, and like you said to me another time it's wild (and lucky) we're getting to live through a third (4th, 5th depending on how you count) tech revolution rn
Very cool! Loved Heathkits, and Radio Shack!
My first computers in the mid 80's
https://pau1.substack.com/p/first-computers
Dang, a venerable PC jr!! My first PC was the TRS-80 (shop teacher got us one to play with) and then Freshman Year I had a job with an engineering company playing with the first IBM AT (advanced technology dontchaknow :) ) I wanna say that was the first 286?
Your TRS80 was sold in the '70's. Do you still have it? Wow! the PC Jr. is still pretty cool. It is almost the first. According to Google: "The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities."
The TRS-80 was my shop teachers, but still have the first computer I bought and it still boots up! Classic Mac 512ke and I painted it green:
https://newsletter.wirepine.com/p/52-a-bicycle-for-the-mind
I must have seen that, just forgot Β―\_(γ)_/Β―... Cool machine for a lifelong Microsoft employee :)
That's wild. In my neighborhoods, we knew there had to be that one kid who had the GI Joe aircraft carrier. That same kid had this computer back then. Not every neighborhood had such a kid.
This looks a lot like the Altair, right?
A lot like the Altair! The Heathkit was cheaper and more for hobbyist, no expansion etc. Motorola proc versus Intel (the venerable 8080). There was this window for kit/hobbyist computers before the Apple II hit and then the Commodore & Tandy (TRS-80) and then all hell broke loose after the IBM PC a few years later.
You're so right about that one neighborhood kid. Later on a few doors the other direction my friend Bond got the first Atari and my parents would have to call his parents to get me to come home for dinner.
Atari was just fire when it came out. I don't think most people really grasp how wild that was for young brains and eyes and hands!
In the very early days, just seeing something you made on a screen was impressive. It's tough to explain this to folks who grew up with programs that are easy to use, and I think that's really happening nowadays with LLMs and such.
Agree, and like you said to me another time it's wild (and lucky) we're getting to live through a third (4th, 5th depending on how you count) tech revolution rn
It's about like living through 3 industrial revolutions in a row, and we're just now getting warmed up.