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Rolf
Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 4123 Location: NRW/Germany
Expire: 2015-12-26
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:12 pm Post subject: My first computer (1970) |
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Rolf wrote:
Hi,
here 2 images and something to smile. This was my first computer I worked with. I was a student and to finance my study I worked at the IT department of a large company.
This computer was a UNIVAC 1050-III of the Sperry Rand Corporation. The central processing unit (2nd image) have had 8 KByte !!!! internal memory.
You can see the memory block below on the right side.
The company employed at that time approx 8000 people and millions of Deutsch Marks sales etc. The IT department was able to write invoices, the complete accounting department, salery accounting ec.
Programming language was not Fortran, Cobol, PL1 or something like this, it was a strange mnemonic code with unbelievable instructions.
The IT department had a chain printer. With a special programm it was possible to change the speed of the chain and in combination with a nice printing programm the printer was able to make "music" when he printed a picture.
That was the best programm we used when outside visitors have had a look into our department. It was a great time.
_________________ Rolf |
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LucisPictor
Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 17633 Location: Oberhessen, Germany / Maidstone ('95-'96)
Expire: 2013-12-03
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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LucisPictor wrote:
Great, Rolf!
Fascinating pictures.
My first own computer was this one:
Source: http://www.henseleit.de/bilder/800px-Commodore64.jpg
And the first I have ever used was this one:
Source: http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/apple_IIe.jpg
It seems, I'm a lot younger than you are. _________________ Personal forum activity on pause every now and again (due to job obligations)!
Carsten, former Moderator
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Nesster
Joined: 24 Apr 2008 Posts: 5883 Location: NJ, USA
Expire: 2014-02-20
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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Nesster wrote:
Oh that's cool. I did manage to learn Cobol and Assembler on punch cards... and one of my first jobs entailed programming a MICR reader. But no pics
I was reminded though of another vintage pursuit - all things tube. Vacuum Tube Valley (located in Silicon valley of course) was/is an excellent resource, I think the magazine's long gone... they had a couple of fantastic articles on early vacuum tube computers.
http://www.vacuumtube.com/ _________________ -Jussi
Camera photos
Print Photographica
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Attila
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 57865 Location: Hungary
Expire: 2025-11-18
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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Attila wrote:
Great ! I did start lot more later with ZX Spectrum. _________________ -------------------------------
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Rolf
Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 4123 Location: NRW/Germany
Expire: 2015-12-26
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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Rolf wrote:
Never owned Commodore C64, Sinclair or Atari. Between 1970 and approx. 1980 I worked (but not as an IT man) only with larger computers like IBM 360 etc.
My first own PC was a TRS80 from Tandy Radio Shack with a Z80 CPU in it, operating systems was CP/M. A short time later I founded my first own electronic company and in 1982 we built for our in-house usage our own PC´s based on an IBM clone (Intel 8088, 8086 and then later 80286).
My company was in 1982 one of the first customers of NOVELL here in Germany with a fully working local area network with a lot of PC based on ARCnet.
I have in my desk an old private telephone book with hundred and thousands of telephone-numbers. One of them is a number in Utah of Novell where I called at that time if there were problems we couldn´t solve.
I remember that there was a nice guy on the other side of the line who was very happy that his software had reached good old Germany.
It was an exciting time, every day new technologies, new products, new ideas and so on.
And today ? I´m sitting behind my nicely designed IMAC and take sometimes photos with lenses which were at 1970 already older. Crazy world.
And no, I´m not sentimental
_________________ Rolf |
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Attila
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 57865 Location: Hungary
Expire: 2025-11-18
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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Attila wrote:
That was a great time. _________________ -------------------------------
Items on sale on Ebay
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poilu
Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Posts: 10472 Location: Greece
Expire: 2019-08-29
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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poilu wrote:
great portrait,
no, I don't think that you are sentimental
btw, have you a punched card reader on your imac |
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hinnerker
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 Posts: 929 Location: Germany near Kiel
Expire: 2015-08-09
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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hinnerker wrote:
Rolf wrote: |
Never owned Commodore C64, Sinclair or Atari. Between 1970 and approx. 1980 I worked (but not as an IT man) only with larger computers like IBM 360 etc.
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This sounds very familiar to me...
Did have study the "Programmierte Unterweisung" (programable instructions) for the IBM 360... and have seen lots of girl keypunching the cards for it..
Quote: |
My first own PC was a TRS80 from Tandy Radio Shack with a Z80 CPU in it, operating systems was CP/M. A short time later I founded my first own electronic company and in 1982 we built for our in-house usage our own PC´s based on an IBM clone (Intel 8088, 8086 and then later 80286).
My company was in 1982 one of the first customers of NOVELL here in Germany with a fully working local area network with a lot of PC based on ARCnet. |
My first privat computer was a tape storing Sharp MZ xxx (dont remeber that exactly) with Z80 CPU... later on Atari Mega line..
Quote: |
It was an exciting time, every day new technologies, new products, new ideas and so on.
And today ? I´m sitting behind my nicely designed IMAC and take sometimes photos with lenses which were at 1970 already older. Crazy world.
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Shows, that lots of things are timeless. Especially lenses and computer technologie..
Cheers
Henry _________________ some light-painting lens stuff..
... and an EOS 5D MKII
www.digicamclub.de |
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cooltouch
Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:17 am Post subject: |
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cooltouch wrote:
I too still own my first computer, which I bought in 1985. It is a PC XT clone with a 4.77Mhz 8088, 640kb of RAM and a 20MB hard drive. Shortly after I bought it, I also bought the 8087 math coprocessor chip for it. Hercules graphics card and monochrome monitor.
I have written often for publication and to me getting a computer that I could use for word processing was a god-send. I was very productive on that computer. Wrote a few books and countless articles with it, using WordPerfect v4.2.
About a year after I bought it, I installed a 1200 baud modem, and discovered the world of online computing. BBSes. I was sucked in rather quickly, and really haven't looked back since. _________________ Michael
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Last edited by cooltouch on Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:26 am; edited 2 times in total |
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shauttra
Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 778 Location: Latvia
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:03 am Post subject: |
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shauttra wrote:
i rememmber my first computer, it was russian BK 0100 (attached to TV), program language Focal or Basic-86. It was funny! _________________ Mto-1000, Tair-3, Auto Exaktar 135mm 2,8, Samyang 14mm 2.8,
Jupiter 37A, Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135/3.5,
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http://shauttra.blogspot.com |
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Rolf
Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 4123 Location: NRW/Germany
Expire: 2015-12-26
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:04 am Post subject: |
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Rolf wrote:
When we have had enough experiences with our in-house systems i decided to start with an additional new business modell for our company.
In 1985 we rented a very prestigious store in our town and a short time later we opened the first computer store there and tried out this business.
At that time the IMB AT (80286) was new few weeks on the market and for such a system the customer has to paid with monitor and printer sometimes more than 10.000 Deutsch Marks.
There was nothing with cash & carry or moving the PC over the counter or saying to the customer, if you have problems with your PC you have 1 year bring-in guarantee.
It was a real investment for the customer and therefore it was necessary to make the business in a more dignified ambiance (greetings to Apple )
The PC was shipped with a technician to the customer including a first training of several hours.
But the business changed rapidly and more and more the low-cost box-pusher came on the market. Prices down, service down and insufficient quality.
We decided to stop this business experiment and concentrated on our primary business. At that time one or two other competitors started with their business, one of them was VOBIS - in the 90´s one of the largest computer dealer here in Germany until they made some wrong bsiness decisions.
Here 2 images of our computer shop at that time
_________________ Rolf |
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cooltouch
Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:32 am Post subject: |
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cooltouch wrote:
Oh yeah, brings back memories. Hehe, the old monitor, 5-1/4" floppies, that old XT-style keyboard -- with the function keys arranged vertically on the left, where God intended them to be. I still don't like, and have never gotten used to, the horizontal row of function keys.
Oh, and I remember very well the screen shot in the first pic -- the famous Autocad image of the Space Shuttle. _________________ Michael
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Rolf
Joined: 02 May 2009 Posts: 4123 Location: NRW/Germany
Expire: 2015-12-26
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:47 am Post subject: |
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Rolf wrote:
Hi Michael,
as I can read you are an "old" expert of those things too. That is now 25 years ago - unbelievable !! Good to see that I´m here not the technical grandfather alone
Yes - it was the famous Autocad image of the Space Shuttle. One of the companies out of that time still existing. The monitor was one of the best you could buy it here in Germany with a VGA resolution. If I remember correct the price was above 3.000,00 Deutsch Marks.
On the desk beside the monitor is a plotter. Due to the fact that we have had a lot of customers with technical background it was necessary to demonstrate how they could plot their drawings.
_________________ Rolf |
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cooltouch
Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:57 am Post subject: |
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cooltouch wrote:
Rolf wrote: |
On the desk beside the monitor is a plotter. Due to the fact that we have had a lot of customers with technical background it was necessary to demonstrate how they could plot their drawings.
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Oh yeah, you had one of those flat plotters, yes? We used the HP models that had the pens you put in a carousel. I used to enjoy watching the plotter grab for pens out of the carousel. In fact, I have two HP pen plotters out in my storage shed. I remember they were fiendishly expensive back in the 80s, but I'll bet they have no value now. Too bad, they did a good job for the sort of graphics work I had to do.
Here's one of the few pics I have of my old XT-clone computer -- and with me sitting at it. Circa 1989.
Taken with a Pentax LX and a 50mm f/1.4 SMCP lens. Tri-X, I think. _________________ Michael
My Gear List: http://michaelmcbroom.com/photo/gear.html
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My Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/11308754@N08/albums
My Music: https://soundcloud.com/michaelmcbroom/albums
My Blog: http://michaelmcbroom.com/blogistan/ |
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Farside
Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 6557 Location: Ireland
Expire: 2013-12-27
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Farside wrote:
My first brush with anything like punched media was paper tape in '69 or 70 - dead easy to read in its native format. Some years later I was aghast to find my local college was still teaching about punched cards, when they'd long since died out in commercial use. What a pointless waste of teaching time that was.
I still have (and am still using) the keyboard from my first IBM AT machine - a Model M from about 1986, still going strong. No modern keyboard is anything like it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard _________________ Dave - Moderator
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Scheimpflug
Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 1888 Location: New Zealand / USA
Expire: 2011-11-18
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:54 am Post subject: |
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Scheimpflug wrote:
I have a still-sealed box of brand new 8" floppies back home. I've been saving it, waiting for the day they skyrocket in value. |
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greg
Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 683
Expire: 2012-12-03
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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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greg wrote:
Personal: Timex Sinclair purchased at the neighborhood drug store - one kb of memory if I remember correctly. Could use assembly to program.
Professional: #5 Crossbar and #1 ESS at New York Telco. |
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Jieffe
Joined: 04 Nov 2007 Posts: 754 Location: Belgium
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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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Jieffe wrote:
cooltouch wrote: |
I too still own my first computer, which I bought in 1985. It is a PC XT clone with a 4.77Mhz 8088, 640kb of RAM and a 20MB hard drive. Shortly after I bought it, I also bought the 8087 math coprocessor chip for it. Hercules graphics card and monochrome monitor.
I have written often for publication and to me getting a computer that I could use for word processing was a god-send. I was very productive on that computer. Wrote a few books and countless articles with it, using WordPerfect v4.2.
About a year after I bought it, I installed a 1200 baud modem, and discovered the world of online computing. BBSes. I was sucked in rather quickly, and really haven't looked back since. |
Sounds just like the beginning of my experience with computers (but I got a 14400 bauds modem, haha) !
Wordperfect 5 was THE tool for mathematical formulas (I worked in the chemical department of a university in the 80's during my civil service) |
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