My very first PC

[Thick Face Black Heart]

My very first PC. Not exactly my first love, but memorable nonetheless.


<table align="left" border="0" hspace="10"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffbb"> <table border="1" width="100%"><tbody><tr><th>
</th></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="lightyellow"><center>[SIZE=+1]IBM Personal Computer (PC)[/SIZE]</center></td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="lightyellow"> <table bgcolor="lightyellow" border="0"> <tbody><tr><td>Model:</td><td>5150</td></tr> <tr><td>Released:</td><td>September 1981</td></tr> <tr><td>Price:</td><td> US $1,565 ~ $3,000</td></tr> <tr><td>CPU:</td><td>Intel 8088, 4.77MHz</td></tr> <tr><td>RAM:</td><td>16K, 640K max</td></tr> <tr><td>Display:</td><td>80 X 24 text</td></tr> <tr><td>Storage:</td><td>dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives</td></tr> <tr><td>Ports:</td><td>cassette & keyboard only</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td><td>5 internal expansion slots</td></tr> <tr><td>OS:</td><td>PC-DOS v1.0</td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr><th>
</th></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr> <tr><td> <table bgcolor="#ffffbb" border="1" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><th>
</th></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://oldcomputers.net/google-ad5.js"></script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
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[po2wq]

my very 1st pc ...

... throw away oredi ... :o

 

[Alamaking]

My 1st Mac is 7200

 

[Ramseth]

My very first computer was an Atari. Can't even remember it's model name or number. Software (games and utilities) came in cartridges. Power on, it booted straight to BASIC programming mode. Sony Walkman can be used as external memory drive.

Then in Sec. Sch. I was introduced to Apple and IBM PC, DOS C:/ command prompt and 5-1/4 floppy etc. My parents refused to buy me one of those as my Atari was only a few years old and running quite well for Space Invaders, Galaxians and PacMan.

 

[hotbot]

I find it strange that is all you know about computers. :p
Normally, you will write a literature out of something like as if you know a lot

My very first computer was an Atari. Can't even remember it's model name or number. Software (games and utilities) came in cartridges. Power on, it booted straight to BASIC programming mode. Sony Walkman can be used as external memory drive.

Then in Sec. Sch. I was introduced to Apple and IBM PC, DOS C:/ command prompt and 5-1/4 floppy etc. My parents refused to buy me one of those as my Atari was only a few years old and running quite well for Space Invaders, Galaxians and PacMan.

 

[Ramseth]

I find it strange that is all you know about computers. :p
Normally, you will write a literature out of something like as if you know a lot

I don't know much but know that your very first "PC" was a Fisher-Price.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

My very first computer was an Atari. Can't even remember it's model name or number. Software (games and utilities) came in cartridges. Power on, it booted straight to BASIC programming mode. Sony Walkman can be used as external memory drive.

Then in Sec. Sch. I was introduced to Apple and IBM PC, DOS C:/ command prompt and 5-1/4 floppy etc. My parents refused to buy me one of those as my Atari was only a few years old and running quite well for Space Invaders, Galaxians and PacMan.

One of my friends had an Atari. He used to complain he couldn't play all the MS DOS or PC games because of incompatibility. His was more advanced, could use floppy disk, but even the way the floppy is formatted is different from PC format.

Things were expensive back then. Over the years, luckily hardware keeps dropping in price. But somehow software never drops in price. If not for software piracy, many people today will still be computer illiterate.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

I find it strange that is all you know about computers. :p
Normally, you will write a literature out of something like as if you know a lot

How was your PSLE? Worried about results?

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

I don't know much but know that your very first "PC" was a Fisher-Price.

I think hotbot/Krafty still plays with Yankee-Doodle :p

 

[halsey02]

My very first computer was an Atari. Can't even remember it's model name or number. Software (games and utilities) came in cartridges. Power on, it booted straight to BASIC programming mode. Sony Walkman can be used as external memory drive.

Then in Sec. Sch. I was introduced to Apple and IBM PC, DOS C:/ command prompt and 5-1/4 floppy etc. My parents refused to buy me one of those as my Atari was only a few years old and running quite well for Space Invaders, Galaxians and PacMan.

You just jotled my memory, remember that there was a shop that exclusively sells the Atari, Commodores sets plus all the accesories near the Majestic Cinema side, Chinatown Singapore? the side entrance where there was a cut fruits store & where the OG store was?

I couldn't get my parents to buy me the Atari ...hmmm, started working, couldn't afford the IBM's..too expensive.

The first PC I owned was an IBM COMPTABIBLE, with 8" floppy disc drives, running DOS x.x & a small 80 column Olivetti line printer, besides the Microsoft OS, all the softwares on the PC was loaded with COPIES...Sim Lim Square was the haven, so was Holiday Plaza JB & Imbi in KL...

Was eyeing the MacIntosh....but, that was for rich dude!!:p

 

[halsey02]

I don't know much but know that your very first "PC" was a Fisher-Price.

Only the well off could buy their kids Fisher-Price toys, and these people frequent Tangs, Robinsons Stores, Metro..

You mean the HDB shops....the imitation FP made in HK....

 

[hotbot]

is that all you can say?mr handsome!

I don't know much but know that your very first "PC" was a Fisher-Price.

 

[cass888]

is that all you can say?mr handsome!

Of course lah. What you want him to say? That H_o K_um H_ean didn't screw up your life, you did, that your Japanese boss is not the problem, you are, that your wife left you only because it was a mistake to marry you in the first place?

 

[hotbot]

I have a prposal for you, why dun we meet and fight it out?oh, I forgot,you may wan to bring your master lim boon heng with you?

Of course lah. What you want him to say? That H_o K_um H_ean didn't screw up your life, you did, that your Japanese boss is not the problem, you are, that your wife left you only because it was a mistake to marry you in the first place?

 

[Leongsam]

I had one of these in 1978. Radioshack Tandy. They were sold by OG Dept store!

 

[SIFU]

my very 1st PRC; dashuangxi.

she is now dead.

 

[cass888]

I have a prposal for you, why dun we meet and fight it out?oh, I forgot,you may wan to bring your master lim boon heng with you?

Why fight with you? I'm not the loser who blames my demented state on H_o K_um H_ean. I'm not the loser who quit my ST job and blamed H_o K_um H_ean. I'm not the loser who quit my Japanese job because I suck but blamed my Japanese boss. I'm not the loser whose spouse left me because I'm such a loser.

Now you're just the typical Ah Beng. Lose leow wanna fight.

 

[mei mei]

My first PC is Toshiba Satellite A360 with Windows Vista pre-installed

 

[uncleyap]

I had one of these in 1978. Radioshack Tandy. They were sold by OG Dept store!

I remember that but I never owned one.

My 1st computer is this 8 bit single board even more simpler and earlier than Apple I.

http://oldcomputers.net/osi-600.html.

<center>[SIZE=+1]Ohio Scientific[/SIZE]</center> <table bgcolor="lightyellow" border="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><td valign="top">Model:</td><td>Superboard II
( Model 600 )</td></tr> <tr><td>Available:</td><td>1978</td></tr> <tr><td>Price:</td><td>US $279 assembled</td></tr> <tr><td>CPU:</td><td>6502</td></tr> <tr><td>RAM:</td><td>4K static RAM, 8K max</td></tr> <tr><td>Display:</td><td>composite video</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td><td>30 X 30 text</td></tr> <tr><td>Ports:</td><td>video, cassette</td></tr> <tr><td>Storage:</td><td>cassette</td></tr> <tr><td>OS:</td><td>Microsoft BASIC in ROM</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td><td>machine "monitor"</td></tr></tbody></table>

The price came to about a thousand when I sold in Singapore, the USD exchange rate then was much higher and the people here marked up. I built my own power supply unit and RF modulator to connect to a TV 21" as monitor. A Sony cassette tape was the storage.

I had initially 2K RAM 2KROM and expanded to 4KROM (BASIC) with 2KRAM later when I had money (few more hundreds). Initially only a monitor ROM (simpler than debugger) where all commands were ultra simple HEX codes. 6502 CPU 1MHz only has 56 commands, and I remembered all the HEX codes after few weeks of learning. I wrote programs in HEX & binaries. I eventually learned ALL of it's parts and circuits and components and learned what each wire on the 2 layer board was for, and how to program each bit of every registers in every parts. How to scan each key, make music and sound, and video effects, and I wrote games program in HEX & BIN.

This was one computer that I can learn inside-out.

When I came to 16 bit it took me much longer to absorb the whole circuits and design. 32 bit not possible to remember all. In 64 bits I don't go into details any more.:(

 

[uncleyap]

My very first PC. Not exactly my first love, but memorable nonetheless.


<table align="left" border="0" hspace="10"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffbb"> <table border="1" width="100%"><tbody><tr><th>
</th></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="lightyellow"><center>[SIZE=+1]IBM Personal Computer (PC)[/SIZE]</center></td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="lightyellow"> <table bgcolor="lightyellow" border="0"> <tbody><tr><td>Model:</td><td>5150</td></tr> <tr><td>Released:</td><td>September 1981</td></tr> <tr><td>Price:</td><td> US $1,565 ~ $3,000</td></tr> <tr><td>CPU:</td><td>Intel 8088, 4.77MHz</td></tr> <tr><td>RAM:</td><td>16K, 640K max</td></tr> <tr><td>Display:</td><td>80 X 24 text</td></tr> <tr><td>Storage:</td><td>dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives</td></tr> <tr><td>Ports:</td><td>cassette & keyboard only</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td><td>5 internal expansion slots</td></tr> <tr><td>OS:</td><td>PC-DOS v1.0</td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr><th>
</th></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr> <tr><td> <table bgcolor="#ffffbb" border="1" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><th>
</th></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://oldcomputers.net/google-ad5.js"></script>
<script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
</td></tr><tr><th>
</th></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table>

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I used to be servicing & renting out those in the company known as Computerland at Clifford Center (opposite Clifford Pier). There were many Taiwanese clones sold at Funan Center those days. I used to also assemble clones for own use and for friends who requested.

Boards for clones (from ROC) came full of IC sockets and we buy our own chips (CPU RAM ROM Co-PROCESSOR LSI & TTLs) .



At Computerland Singaproe we could buy from Computerland USA franchise HQ & IBM Singapore both, when IBM Singapore was low on stocks we sometimes sold them our stocks! There were lots of upgradings those days, since RAM only came at 16K, lots of original & 3rd party memory expansion boards were there. Seagate later came in to sell harddisks replacing the original (CMI Computer Memory INC) made in AMK SGP 10MB harddisks. CMI had such a high failure rate that Author Anderson (accountant auditor) dumped 100 pieces of CMI (made in SGP) HDD into Hudson River NY in front of NY Times & CNN cameras in a protest ritual. Soon after that CMI closed shop. Eventually that factory in AMK became famiLEE LEEgime's Whore Jinx famous Micropolis HDD company that folded up in great lost!

Seagate best seller those days were the half height 5.25" 20MB ST225. I kept half a dozen of them for a near a decade. I eventually used few of them as rocks to throw at dogs that came and attacked my dog!