How-To Geek

i don't even know if i was born then

@Lighthouse, I wish I could remember the specs on our first computer, one of those IBM PC AT's. I think it had 128 KB of RAM, HDD....not sure, I'd have to guess it was 10 MB maybe....and a blazing 2400 baud modem to go with the 3-5 cent a minute charges for local phone calls......Oh, and the 13" monitor that could show all 8 colors (or was it 16 by then)....w00t!!!

pipo, he said 10 years before the 386....which pretty much predates the x86 class as we know it.

whs, how often did you have to change the vacuum tube on that behemoth? Did you have problems with moths getting stuck in the gears of that one too?

I think the 386 came out around 1986
I started on a Z80 chip

started with 88, then 86, then 186, 286,386 and 486. After that Pentium

@Budohorseman, the vacuum tubes were a problem indeed. But not the moths. But once we had a problem with mice that were chewing on the wires. They had made a nest in the machine wich was installed in the basement of the university.
Speaking of basement - in the mid 60's I travelled a lot in the eastern block for business. There I saw a few russian computers of the times. They always had to be installed in the basement. They had a drum storage and the damn drum vibrated so much, that it would have torn the building apart. Those things weighed many tons I remember.

@Pipo, that was all machine language. We did not even have an assembler. It was stuff our Math Professor gave us as exercises.

We had vacuum tubes in our TV and our radio

Only by a decade or so...it's on display at the Smithsonian.

and i thought my dad's stories were old... ^_^