https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/blog-3 daily 0.75 2023-11-02 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/blog-3/rise-of-rubber-railroad monthly 0.5 2023-11-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/d7d9b2ef-34bd-4d9e-aab5-9da0a5e5ff30/2023-10-11_18-04-24.jpg Blog - Rise of the Rubber Railroad - “The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc” But the most interesting part of this article to me was its description of “The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc”. This company was founded to promote a conveyor belt system that would have transported coal and other materials from the Ohio River to the Great Lakes and iron ore in reverse. It would run from Lorain, OH to East Liverpool (that’s over 130 miles). And it was to transport up to 55,000;000 tons of bulk material a year. The system would have consisted of a two-directional main line and one-way spurs to Cleveland and Youngstown. This proposal in 1949 was made by a group of businessmen who believed that conveyor belts were the future of transportation. The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc. was opposed by the railroads, who argued that the system would “put them out of business”. The project was widely debated and hugely controversial and was eventually defeated by the railroads in the Ohio legislature and was never built. The project was described because it was an example of the growing importance of conveyor belts in the transportation industry in the late 1940s. Despite its political failure, the Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc. is a significant example of the early development of conveyor belt technology. The project's proponents were ahead of their time in seeing the potential of conveyor belts to revolutionize transportation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/96682420-08df-4714-b3a7-fc1462966d4f/IMG-0870.jpg Blog - Rise of the Rubber Railroad - Fortune Magazine Cover - April 1951 For many years, I’ve had a Fortune magazine cover from 4 years before I was born hanging on my office wall. Why not? I’ve made my modest “fortune” from belt conveyors and the cover highlights a great painting of a belt conveyor. The more interesting reason is the article inside under the heading “Technology”. The article "Rise of the Rubber Railroad" in the April 1951 issue of Fortune magazine discusses the growing importance of conveyor belts in the transportation industry. The article begins by noting that conveyor belts are already widely used in mines and factories, but they are now beginning to be used to transport materials over long distances as well. Well it makes sense that someone who founded a company called “Overland Conveyor” in 1996 might be interested in this topic. The article tgoes on to profile some of the companies that are developing and using new conveyor belt technologies such as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; my first employer. The article concludes by stating that “conveyor belts are revolutionizing the transportation industry. Conveyor belts are more efficient, more reliable, and less expensive to operate than other forms of transportation. They are also less damaging to the environment. As a result, conveyor belts are being used to transport a wider range of materials over longer distances than ever before.” Well we can still use that same statement today in 2023. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/b7996baf-1867-45a1-b451-8466f6da0e49/2023-10-11_18-03-45.jpg Blog - Rise of the Rubber Railroad - BELT CONVEYOR LINE IN OHIO IS ADVANCED The project also appeared in the New York Times Feb 22, 1951 . And it got international attention as described in the Lithgow Mercury below. “The proposal was presented by 44-year-old Mr. H. B. Stewart, head of the Akron Canton and Railroad Co.. The belt has the support of steel mill operators and coal shippers since there would be a saving varying from 4 to 13 (shillings) a ton on coal moved 4 to 6 (shillings) a ton on iron ore. And once built, the belt would join the two great inland waterways, the Ohio/Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. Although thousands of conveyor belts are used in a wide variety of industries, the longest built so far was 10 miles long, used in the construction of Shasta dam. The longest in actual operation today is a mere seven miles. Mr. Stewart has investigated both the technical and financial aspects and has obtained backers for his Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines; Inc. He even calculates to have the entire structure paid for (over 90 million pounds) in 20 years. Imagine a giant flattened tube meandering across the Ohio countryside on 22-foot high stilts. Inside the tube are two conveyor belts, runing in opposite directions. In operation the belts move along at a steady 6.8 miles an hour and can be kept running for more than 300 days a year at 3000 to 5;000 tons an hour. Fully loaded, the conveyor can haul as much ore at one time as 21 freight trains. Actually, one long trough shaped belt does not cover the entire distance. Instead, it is planned to use 172 separate belts that will dump the ore on to each other. The longest single belt will be about two miles long. “ https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/blog-3/blog-post-title-one-f4bm5 monthly 0.5 2023-09-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/724993bd-9a42-46c6-a3de-57a9c4f0b4b4/2023-09-20_19-36-04.png Blog - Thomas Robins - The First Belt Conveyor Engineering Book Thomas Robns Jr and the Robins Conveying Belt Company published the first known belt engineering handbook in 1917, “Handbook of Conveyor Practice”. We are proud to say we currently own 4 copies. Included were many innovtions in bulk material handling Robins began developing with Thomas Edison. And many engineering principals were publsihed for the first time including capacity tables and power calculations. It is not clear if they were developed by Robins or others. But also included were several ideas Robins and his team were promoting as the handbook was as much for advertising as engineering. Some machines were described that had never actually been built. We understand this handbook was widely distributed around the world. One story we have heard is that engineers in South Africa were not aware some of these things were only ideas and, thinking they were well used technologies in far away parts of the world, built and used some of these machines for the first time. Starting a trend of mining innovation in South Africa that continues to this day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/c9b945e2-f024-4400-a2c7-5df03d78013b/Thomas_Robins%25252C_Jr._in_1915.jpg Blog - Thomas Robins - Thomas Robins Jr. (September 1, 1868 – November 4, 1957) was an American inventor and manufacturer. In 1891, Robins was a salesman for a conveyor belt company in eastern USA. One of his largest clients was Thomas Edison and his Edison Ore-Milling Company in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. Edison was one of, if not the first to use conveyors for moving hard rock. Conveyor belts at the time were canvas plies with rubber between the plies and did not have top or bottom rubber covers. Edison, whose mine relied on high volume conveyors to process his low grade ore, noticed when the top canvas ply wore through, the rubber between the plies lasted longer than the canvas. He asked his supplier (Robins) to build him a belt that had rubber above the plies (top cover). But Robins company refused. So Robins went to this belt competitor who did build the “special” product. The belt lasted much longer for Edison and Robins got fired. Working for the other belt company, Robins and Edison made many other improvements to belt conveyors including the 3 roll troughing idler. Edison patented a few items that were never commercialized but left many of the innovations with Robins. Based on these inventions, Robins started the Robins Conveying Belt Company and subsequently the Robins New Conveyor Company. His conveyor belt received the grand prize at the Paris Exposition in 1900, and first prizes at the Pan-American Exposition and Saint Louis Exposition.. Robins died on November 4, 1957, at the Nestledown Convalescent Home in Stamford, Connecticut, aged 89. Remnents of his companies continued into the 21st century as Hewitt Robins and Robins Engineers. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/blog-3/blog-post-title-two-amxjz monthly 0.5 2023-09-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/5d9d370f-cbe5-4a4b-b7b8-45b806846583/edison.png Blog - Thomas Edison - Thomas Edison at his Iron Mine, Ogden, New Jersey, 1895 We all know Thomas Edison as one of the greatest inventors of all time including the electric light bulb and all other components of electrical generation and distrbution. All of Edison’s electical inventions were bundled to develop the industry under the company nme “Edison General Electric Company” of which Edison was well placed. But Edison was generally considered a poor businessman and did not get along with his business associates. So in 1892, he sold all his interest for approximately $2 million and the Edison name was removed as we know it today as “General Electric”. Edison returned to a previous venture in iron ore processing. Having high hopes for what he could achieve Edison said: "I'm going to do something now so different and so much bigger than anything I've ever done before people will forget that my name ever was connected with anything electrical." His New Jersey mining operation (Ogden, NJ) was built to address an iron ore shortage. His business strategy was developed around his new rock-crushing technology and an electromagnetic ore separator to extract low-grade ore from crushed boulders. The final product -- a briquette made of powdered iron ore. Completed in 1889, the building was one of the world's largest ore-crushing mills in the world at the time and contained three giant electromagnets intended to process up to 1200 tons of iron ore every day. He signed a 3 year contract to supply Bethlehem Steel in nearby Pennsylvania. But soon after Edison started his operation, high grade ore was discovered around Lake Superior and his product didn't do well commercially. In 1899, Edison closed his mine and left the industry having lost all of the $2 million from General Electric. Edison commented about the financial losses, "it's all gone, but we had a hell of a good time spending it." But Edison realized the potential application of his technologies to the cement industry and formed the Edison Portland Cement Company that same year. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695446982799-H28CAHRYLMT0R9HLXZHN/US861819-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447558620-836YY4BJI79AWL0RXXSR/US471268-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447558710-KVL1BKNDPIVMO85IGIN3/US474592-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447559534-2O1DJCD4EDAPHVUZPQO0/US602064-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447559712-7YWKWND13154SM21OP6W/US667201-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447560487-NG1JCLOOPJ3C2J47S5KE/US671315-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447560707-QIJS6WC1PUZ11P2EBJ5K/US861819-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1695447561464-YCU9N86YJIMLKR8XDFEN/US1041756-drawings-page-1.png Blog - Thomas Edison https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/blog-3/npaivqwki3ovkyqj5kdlyioqrypgnx monthly 0.5 2023-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/415eb01b-2db0-4cb7-bc6b-e8eb55315a9e/30007663107_4-2126242317.jpg Blog - Herbert Hoover - De Re Metallica De Re Metallica is a classic treatise (first ever published) on mining written in the 16th century by Georgius Agricola. The book covers all aspects of mining, from prospecting to smelting. It is illustrated with hundreds of woodcuts depicting mining equipment and processes. De Re Metallica was the most comprehensive and authoritative work on mining published in its time. It was used as a textbook by mining engineers for centuries. Hoover's translation of De Re Metallica is considered to be one of the most important works on mining ever published. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/2d25c670-c1e2-4f68-9019-2f3af2f4d3a4/30007663107-79595422.jpg Blog - Herbert Hoover - Hoover's Translation of De Re Metallica Our copy (1 of 1200 Published) in photo Hoover and his wife began translating De Re Metallica in 1906. They worked on the translation for six years, and it was published in 1912. Hoover's translation is considered to be one of the most accurate and comprehensive translations of De Re Metallica ever published. Hoover's translation of De Re Metallica is a valuable resource for mining engineers, historians, and anyone interested in the history of mining. It is also a beautiful book, with high-quality printing and illustrations. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/home daily 1.0 2024-08-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/82bcfbd7-a996-4397-9b72-f390376c9f20/IMG-0829.jpg https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/contact-us daily 0.75 2021-02-17 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/people daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613774155471-NX5URR5SOKTNKDWHV4GN/Osborneportrait.gif People - Adam Osborne Adam Osborne was known to frequent the famous Homebrew Computer Club's meetings around 1975. He was best known for creating the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1, released in April 1981. It weighed 24.5 pounds (12 kg), cost US$1795—just over half the cost of a computer from other manufacturers with comparable features—and ran the popular CP/M 2.2 operating system. At its peak, Osborne Computer Corporation shipped 10,000 units of "Osborne 1" per month. For a time, it was a huge success. Osborne deserves credit for being one of the first personal computing pioneers to understand fully that there was a wide market of buyers who were not computing hobbyists: the Osborne 1 included word processing and spreadsheet software. This was amazing in an era when even business minded IBM refused to bundle hardware and software with their PCs, even going to the point of separately selling operating systems, monitors, and even cables for the monitor. It is said that in 1983, Adam Osborne bragged about two advanced new computers his company was developing. These statements destroyed consumer demand for the Osborne 1, and the resulting inventory glut forced Osborne Computer to file for bankruptcy on September 13, 1983. This phenomenon, a pre-announcement of a new product causing a catastrophic collapse in demand for older ones, became known as the Osborne effect, but according to some new sources the real reason for Osborne Computer's bankruptcy was management errors. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613774289590-DKQG4LM9FBPXZBQLIHU1/225px-Steve_Jobs.jpg People - Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the American co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. and the former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, created one of the first commercially successful personal computers. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Computer Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then. Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucas film Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Jobs is currently the Walt Disney Company's largest individual shareholder and a member of its Board of Directors. He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. Jobs' history in business has contributed greatly to the myths of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following. Jobs is currently on a leave of absence from Apple due to health issues. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613774473688-UOH76AXT08V465DJHHXF/2021-02-19_15-40-19.png People - Henry Edward Roberts Ed Roberts (born 1942) was the founder and former president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) which built the Altair 8800, one of the very first hobbyist personal computers. He grew up in Miami, Florida, where he attended the University of Miami and majored in electrical engineering. He joined the Air Force in 1962, and stayed in the service for 10 years, finding enough time along the way to finish his engineering degree at Oklahoma State University As a teenager, he created circuitry for analog and digital computers. A member of the United States Air Force, he earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University, and was assigned to an Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, where in his spare time he established two electronics companies, Reliance Engineering and Reliable Radio and TV. In 1968, he was assigned to the research laboratory division of Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where he met Forrest Mims III. Reunited with a college friend Stan Cagle and an officer Bob Zaller, the four established MITS to sell rocket telemetry systems for hobbyists. In the fall of 1970, the company split up over a disagreement about the direction of the company, as Roberts wanted to start producing calculators, while Cagle and Mims wanted to create an infrared alarm system. Roberts and a friend bought out Cagle and Mims, although Mims would later return to write technical manuals. Roberts wrote a featured article in the November 1971 issue of Popular Electronics about the MITS 816 calculator kit, and the business began to earn a profit. By 1974, however, competing companies were making the kits obsolete, so Roberts created the Altair 8800 and wrote a related article that was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. This article excited a Harvard University undergraduate named Bill Gates, and his good friend Paul Allen, and the duo contacted Roberts to write a BASIC interpreter for the machine. Roberts agreed to hire them, and Gates dropped out of Harvard. Later, Gates and Allen would leave MITS to begin a company called MicroSoft. The article would also inspire the creation of the Homebrew Computer Club by a group of Altair 8800 enthusiasts, and from this club emerged twenty-three computer companies, including Apple Computer (now known as Apple, Inc.). In 1977, MITS was bought by Pertec Computer Corporation for upwards of $6 million, and Roberts entered medical school at Mercer University. He is now a country doctor in Cochran, Georgia. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/accessories daily 0.75 2021-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847903854-US92D97SPXSFKLOB824X/image-asset.jpeg Accessories - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847904056-0T9RWJ5K3RJ19LDYKWHZ/image-asset.jpeg Accessories - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/minicomputers daily 0.75 2021-02-19 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1977-apple-ii daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613769527500-FUVLD3GOT9EUZ1Y68O4I/appleII.png 1977- Apple II - 1977- Apple II 1977- Apple II was the successor to the Apple 1 on which it was largely based. It was the very first commercial success of the Apple Computer Company. Because Steve Wozniak wanted to demonstrate his Breakout game with the new Apple II, he decided to add color, sound and minimum paddle support to the Apple 1's heir. The Apple II came with 4 KB RAM, but it was possible to add 4 KB or 16 KB RAM chips. Thus, the system could have memory in the following sizes: 4K, 8K, 12K,16K, 20K, 24K, 32K, 36K, or a full 48K. This was one of the strong points of the Apple II: from the beginning, it was designed with expansion in mind. The 8 expansion slots were further proof of that - users could expand their system easily, just by plugging cards into the slots. The ROM included the monitor, a 6502 disassembler, 'Sweet 16' a 16-bit CPU emulator and the Integer Basic written by Wozniak in machine language, assembled by hand on paper! Not having to load a language from tape or disk to start programing was also a significant advantage over competitors. Even the innovative plastic case proved to be an important feature to attract customers. Just a few months after the Apple II presentation at the First West Coast Computer Fair in April 1977, Apple received about three hundred orders for the Apple II, over a hundred more than the total number of Apple-1's sold. The Apple II was followed in 1979 by the Apple II+, which brought some enhancements. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613769399779-Y4KDHFK95EBRLOR00YSI/appleII+specs.jpg 1977- Apple II - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/applemenu daily 0.75 2021-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1613769923446-9DODOZZHWQZCLK6K5XBQ/2021-02-19_13-11-10.jpg Apple Menu https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-apple daily 0.75 2021-03-22 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/personal-computer-manufactureres-menu daily 0.75 2021-03-23 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1979-apple-ii-2 daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614201983665-WEZCXRD2Q2XV7MBBJ8RO/appleII%2B+specs.jpg 1979- Apple II+ - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614202049446-EKMFEHNAVBG41O2ASG8V/appleII%2B.png 1979- Apple II+ - 1979- Apple II+ 1979- The Apple II+ was the successor to the Apple II. It was fully compatible with the Apple II. It, however, had new features: - a new ROM holding the AppleSoft Basic (floating point version written by Microsoft), - a new auto-start (stored in ROM) for easier start-up and screen editing, - 48 KB RAM, - text modes were the same as the Apple II, but the graphics modes were enhanced, they're the same as the Apple 2e : 16 colors at low resolution and 6 colors at high resolutions. In fact this 6-colour mode was also available on the Apple II since revision 1 of the motherboard. The Apple II+ was sold in Europe as the Apple IIe uroplus which could display video in European PAL format, and had ESC sequences for European letters. It was followed by the Apple 2e. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1979-apple-ii-bell-and-howell daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614204064502-UOXR385DK53RMO3NQVX3/apple+II%2B+Bell+and+Howell.png 1979- Apple II+ Bell and Howell - 1979- Apple II+ Bell & Howell https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1980-apple-iii daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614201983665-WEZCXRD2Q2XV7MBBJ8RO/appleII%2B+specs.jpg 1980- Apple III - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614204388378-LAZEPIO5LFU7CJ8W3AHQ/apple+III.png 1980- Apple III - 1980- Apple III 1980- The Apple /// was designed to be a business machine. It was partly compatible with the Apple II (thanks to a few options in the operating system). It used a powerful memory management system and worked under SOS (Sophisticated Operating System) which was a great, device -independent, operating system. This OS was the "ancestor" of ProDOS (the "professional" Apple operating system) and some parts of this system were used later in the Lisa and Macintosh OSs. Despite its unique features, the Apple /// had a lot of technical problems, namely, the horrible case design. It caused the internal temperature to get so hot that the motherboard would warp and some of the socketed chips would become unseated. To remedy this, Apple told people to literally pick up the computer several centimeters off the desk and drop it! It was a miserable flop in the marketplace. The Apple /// was followed in december 1983 by the Apple /// plus which had an Apple IIe style keyboard and a new video interface. Four months later, it was discontinued. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1983-apple-iie daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614204796612-OYVY26C4D6IV6ZBLBZO1/apple+IIe+specs.png 1983- Apple IIe - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614204769040-UUR3F7AT5JOV9N3DA5KY/apple+IIe.png 1983- Apple IIe - 1983- Apple IIe 1983- After having sold more than 750,000 Apple II and II+ systems, making it one of the best-selling brands in the global computing market, Apple released an updated version of the II+, the Apple IIe ('e' standing for enhanced). It also met with very great success and was widely used in schools (still in use nowadays in some places!). While retaining the previous model's capabilities and software library, the enhanced version featured a revised logic board, keyboard and case design. Since its launch back in 1977, the Apple had been revised 13 times, but never so drastically as with this model. The IIe used only 1/4 as many integrated circuits as the II+. Its keyboard featured 4 cursor keys and a lockable lid. It was originally delivered with DOS 3.3 (the Apple II operating system) and later with PRODOS. The Apple IIe borrowed some features from the Apple III, 80-column text and lowercase support. The Apple IIe was replaced with the enhanced Apple IIe in 1985, which had 128k RAM, 32k ROM, improved support for 80-column text and lowercase characters, and was powered by the 65C02 CPU, the same as the Apple IIc one. Finally in 1987, Apple released the Apple IIe Platinum, also called Extended Keyboard IIe, which had a new keyboard and other minor hardware changes. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1983-lisa-ii daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614204961888-YWDK7VEVG4R3FQD229VJ/lisa+II.png 1983- Lisa II - 1983- Lisa II 1983- In 1979, Apple had seen a need to complete the Apple II series. After a visit to the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) where he saw lots of new technologies (Ethernet network, GUI, OOP & Laser Printers), Steve Jobs (then chairman of Apple) decided to launch a graphical computer. After lots of work (and two rejected prototypes along the way), the Lisa was revealed in January 1983. Lisa was the original code-name. Supposedly, the Lisa was named after Steve Jobs' eldest daughter, Lisa Nicole. The Lisa project cost over $50 million and was the result of more than 200 person-years of research and development. It was supposed to be the Next Big Thing. It was not however the first personal computer to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Several Xerox systems developped in Palo Alto, utilized the STAR operating system. STAR contained a very innovative icon-based interface as well as a built-in word processor and calculator. Contrary to the "legend", Lisa was not the ancestor of the Macintosh. Lisa and Macintosh were two distinct projects. The original Lisa couldn't use Macintosh programs and Macintosh couldn't run Lisa software. The LISA OS (Office System) was a true preemptive multitasking operating system. But, because of its very high price ($9,999.99 USD in 1983!) and because of competition with the Macintosh, the Lisa was one of Apple's biggest flops (alongside the Apple 3 and the Newton!). A new version of the Lisa was presented in January 1984, the Lisa 2. It had virtually same features but used a 3.5" 800 KB floppy drive instead of the old 5.25" "twiggy" floppy drives. Three versions of the Lisa 2 were successively released: - Lisa 2 basic version which had rather less memory (512 KB instead of 1 MB) and storage capability than the first Lisa, - Lisa 2/5, the nearest to the Lisa 1 at approx. half the original price, was sold with a 5 MB 'Profile' hard disk unit, - Lisa 2/10, which offered up to 10 MB of storage on an internal hard-disk. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1984-apple-iic daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614205173128-D2VPLU8A35H4ZCDXET2C/apple+IIc.png 1984- Apple IIc - 1984- Apple IIc 1984- The Apple IIc was the compact (the "c" stands for compact) version of the Apple IIe. It had the same basic characteristics as the Apple IIe but included a lot of features which were optional on the IIe: floppy disk drive, 80-column display, color display, 128 KB RAM. But unlike the Apple IIe, it had no expansion slots, so it was hard to add features to this computer. It ran either with DOS 3.3 or with ProDos and had the first version of QuickDraw in ROM. The Apple IIc was originally designed to be a portable version of the Apple II, but it wasn't a stand alone system, it had no batteries and no LCD screen (Apple would soon release these items), it could also be used with a small 9" monochrome green screen which plugged into the unit. The Apple IIc was mainly used as a desktop computer. The original Apple //c shipped with a floppy disk called "The Apple At Play" which included, among other programs, a nifty application showing how the speaker could be driven to make polyphonic music. The "Music Recital" program played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in C, K545. A video demonstrating this (for nostalgia purposes) is posted in the movie section. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614205190112-DOXAC5BODLILPOS0PRFK/apple+IIc+specs.png 1984- Apple IIc - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/misc-components daily 0.75 2021-02-24 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1984-macintosh-128-m0001 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225250009-ENY8DRO34W1PDCBEAZGR/mac+128+m00012021-02-24_20-50-18.png 1984- Macintosh 128 M0001 - 1984- Macintosh 128 M0001 1984- With their II and III series getting rather long in the tooth, and the Lisa being rather pricey, Apple had to do something to get back into the small-business market. They did. The Macintosh can be considered the very first commercially successful computer to use a GUI (Graphical User Interface). It was, however, not the first GUI based computer, the first GUI based computer ever sold was the Xerox Star 8010 in 1981. It was launched a while after the Lisa and was a very attractive alternative to PC compatibles and their old MS-DOS, and text-based applications. After uncertain beginnings, it met with great success despite having no hard disk, single-sided floppy disks, no expansion slot and very little memory! It was replaced later by the Macintosh 512 (the same but with 512 KB RAM) then later, by the Macintosh Plus. The Macintosh 128 and Macintosh 512 were non-upgradeable, non-expandable in almost all departments, but especially with regard to memory. The 128 and 512 had memory chips soldered directly to the main logic board. The original System file was designated 'Macintosh System 1.0'. Apple went as far as System 7 before changing the name to 'Mac OS'. The System/Finder suite was designated 'Macintosh System Software 0.0.'. It wasn't until System 6 that the System file version and System Software designation coincided. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225298654-YSIUTF1Y8S802PAP6B7U/mac+128+m0001+specs.png 1984- Macintosh 128 M0001 - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1984-macintosh-128-m0001-1 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225508742-2YYZR9QSSMR1L9YJ2H7J/apple+IIGS.png 1986- Apple IIGS - 1986- Apple IIGS 1986- The Apple IIGS was designed in response to the Amiga 1000 and Atari 520ST computers & could be considered a cross between the Macintosh & Apple II (naturally, it can't use Macintosh programs). It was (and still is) a quantum leap for the Apple II line. Sales were strong initially and the IIGS even outsold the black and white Macintosh units that were its contemporary. Sadly, Apple wanted Macintosh to be its future. The total number of advertisements and commercials for the IIGS could probably be counted on one hand. If the computer had been introduced a year or two earlier, things might have been different. The Apple IIGS disappeared from the market in 1992. In one final gasp, the Apple II supporters at Apple designed the Apple IIGS Plus, code named "Mark Twain". It had an 8Mhz 65C816, a built in SuperDrive, 2MB on the motherboard, and a hard drive. Prototypes leaked out and a user group that has one and wrote a series of articles about it. Apple management vetoed this unit. The chip in the Apple IIGS was a brilliant move by Apple, but it drew a lawsuit from Apple Records, the Beatles' record label. Apple never again put a synthesizer chip in any computer. Even today, the Macintosh does not have hardware synthesizers. The Macintosh works around this by using software-based synthesis. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225539113-W2XTE451DCUP5CUHVJZU/apple+IIGS+specs.png 1986- Apple IIGS - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1986-macintosh-plus daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225718393-RYDTLWO3BEAEUIUXAPM4/macintosh+plus+specs.png 1986- Macintosh Plus - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225703050-WYIYF9QQRA2DY7SBX7QM/macointosh+plus.png 1986- Macintosh Plus - 1986- Macintosh Plus The Macintosh Plus was the first real improvement on the Macintosh 128 (The Macintosh 512 was only a Mac 128 with 512 KB RAM). It had a lot of new features: the extended ROM held the new version of Mac OS, enhanced graphics libraries, drivers for hard-disk and external floppy-disk units, a SCSI bus, AppleTalk networking and the new file manager: HFS (Hierarchical File System). The new floppy-disk unit could use double-sided 800 KB disks (only one-sided 400 KB for the 128). It had an enhanced keyboard with a numeric keypad and last, but not least, it had a SCSI 1 (1.5 MB/s) interface. This computer would be succeeded in 1988 by the new Macintosh series: the Macintosh SE and the Macintosh II. However, it stayed in Apple's product line longer than any other Macintosh machine, almost five years, and was on sale until 1990. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1987-macintosh-se daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225868438-5Z1727RN55NF59SHUNTF/macintosh+SE+specs.png 1987- Macintosh SE - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614225851591-BYZKL3HIVLIYYFR1JTY3/macintosh+SE.png 1987- Macintosh SE - 1987- Macintosh SE The Apple Macintosh SE was launched in 1987 at same time as the Macintosh II. It was an enhanced version of the Macintosh 128 and the Macintosh Plus. It had almost the same specifications as the latter, and unlike the Mac plus, it had an extension slot (which was not compatible with the NUBUS slots of the Macintosh II). A little trivia: the ROM used only 89 KB of the available 256 KB. So to fill the chip, Apple put the photos of the development team into the ROM. To see these photos, press the debug button then type: G 41D89A. The Mac 128, the 512k, the 512KE (same but with an 800K floppy drive), and the SE have the signatures of their developers molded as engravings on the inside of the case at the rear. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/acorn-electron daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614226290305-WNJZD51T9F0HSK0AC8GS/acorn+specs.png 1983- Acorn Electron - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614226236083-Y62O9NSYOPS66AE2DZKG/acorn.png 1983- Acorn Electron - 1983- Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron is basically a cut-down version of the Acorn BBC-B with which it is partly compatible. After the success of the BBC, Acorn and founder Chris Cury wanted a product to compete with "under £200" computers and especially with the Sinclair Spectrum, its main threat. But sadly, Acorn failed to meet the demand for the new system, mainly because of production problems related to the large custom ULA at the heart of the Electron. The next year (1984), Acorn decided to anticipate all these problems and focused on producing the Electron in vast numbers. But unfortunately, public demand and enthusiasm were on the wane, and despite an extensive £4-million advertising campaign, a third of the Electrons that were built never made it to the shelves, leaving behind large stockpiles of components that had been paid for but were never used. Compared to the BBC and its flexible connectivity, the Electron was quite basic with only one expansion port to play around with. Fortunately, Acorn quickly released the Plus 1 expansion offering two ROM cartridge slots, a parallel / centronics interface and a joystick connector. The built-in Acorn Electron BASIC, largely derived from the famous BBC BASIC, was impressive with innovative features such as the ability to define real procedures with DEF PROC and ENDPROC, or the handling of error events (in 1983 !). There was even an OLD statement which would recover a program erased by NEW. A complete assembler language was also stored in the 32K ROM. The graphics capabilities were also quite impressive for a computer of this category. Text mode of up to 80 columns and a high resolution of up to 640 x 256 pixels with 2 colors. The custom ULA developed especially for the Electron handled the video display, sound and I/O communications! This was the real heart of the Electron. The mechanical keyboard was very good. BASIC statements were printed on most of the keys, allowing users to type them in one go. A small amber LED placed on the left part of the keyboard indicated if you were in lowercase or uppercase mode. Despite being more powerful than the ZX Spectrum, the Electron didn't sell well and suffered from a lack of certain software. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/albert daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614226512878-2APRILA55L4LDW3H9I62/albert.png Albert - Albert The Albert Computer Company in Thousand Oaks, California saw a good thing and tried to ride the wave, and make it better. Unfortunately for them, they probably did too good of a job and that got them a little too much attention. Apple Computer, Inc. came down hard on them and it didn’t last long. Their goal out the door was to offer a complete system for just a little over what the basic Apple //e cost. While a bare-bones Apple //e included just upper/lower case and 64K, over what the Apple II Plus shipped with, the Albert Computer included that and a whole host of other things. With a feature set that includes serial and parallel ports, an A to D converter, useful to scientists and hardware hobbyists. Enhanced graphics modes and Analog RGB support right out of the box, and an AppleWorks-featureset like package, all for just $1,595.00, they clearly were aiming for the heart of the consumer. For just $50 more you could even get a battery backup option that integrated with the computer. If you were using the A to D capabilities for an alarm system, you would not be unprotected during a power outage. Albert Computer said theirs was not a copy, but an improvement. The courts on the other hand, were not convinced and they ended up retreating. Despite their soft-boot method, perhaps they were just a few years too early as Video Technology (Laser Computer) managed to finally figure out how to do it and launch a product a year later. No extra cards to buy! With the most commonly needed cards inbuilt, purchase decisions were easy. Just pick your choice of printer and head for home! Voice Recognition? Albert’s got it! Your wish is my command. Just say it and it’s done. As long as your name isn’t Dave .. they claimed that it even could be configured to work with only certain voices. Turn on the lights, turn off the TV. Digitized audio in 1983, for the masses? Surely, you can’t be serious. Right? If anyone ever told you back then, that you’d be playing with 5 second pieces of sound from various movies you’d probably have laughed, and imagined yourself still laughing about it years into the future. Well? … think about some of those system alert sounds, ring tones and such that we’ve been hearing for many years now. I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley. The Albert Computer has inbuilt graphics features that it took Apple another two years to offer with the Apple IIgs. Instead of the 16 color option that the Apple II has, the Albert Computer offered 256 colors and color worked across text and graphics modes combined. Something that no other Apple II offered until the IIgs, and that isn’t quite the same. Sounds great doesn’t it? ..and probably looks great too, if only .. but wait. The Albert Computer also included an RGB interface. Similar to the inbuilt graphics display capabilities of the Apple ///, the standard configuration included Analog RGB support for a 140 x 192 pixel display. The Apple //e has double high-res, at 280 x 192, and at a premium price as the Apple Extended 80 Column RGB card and AppleColor 100 monitor were a pretty penny back in the day. The other unique feature included with the Albert Computer was a graphics digitizer tablet, much like a CAD (Computer Assisted Design) operator would use, but included with the base package, again ready to go when you get home. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/altos-serie-5 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614226907732-JO4M9H3JC865BSHYALM6/altos+specs.png Altos Serie 5 - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614226852954-09SAEJD2GKS65BQIEZPT/altos+serie+5.png Altos Serie 5 - Altos Serie 5 The Serie 5 was a multi-user system. It could support from 1 to 3 users. It had a 5 MB Winchester hard-drive and could be upgraded with a 10 MB hard-drive (for the Serie 5D only). It could use CP/M, MP/M II or Oasis as its operating system. The serie 5 was quite similar to the Altos ACS-8000 which was a bit more powerful. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1988-amstrad-ppc-640 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227188174-C313SMODQ2FPNXN48C9Z/amstrad+specs.png 1988- Amstrad PPC 640 - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227174240-9NHBLGTTR4UCS93LWSDG/amstrad.png 1988- Amstrad PPC 640 - 1988- Amstrad PPC 640 1988- With the Amstrad PPC-512 and 640, Amstrad wanted to make the cheapest portable PC compatible computer, in the same way as the Amstrad PC1512 was for desktop computers. But, despite its pleasant form, this computer suffered due to its poor 9" LCD screen. It had one or two 3.5" 720 KB floppy drives and some versions could also be found with a 10 or 20 MB internal hard disk. If you were tired of the poor LCD screen, you could connect a monochrome or CGA monitor to the PPC at home. The Amstrad CPC series monitors could be used too. The differences between the PPC-512 and PPC-640 were a different colour case, a built-in modem (v21, v22, v22 bis and v23 protocols) and 640 KB RAM for the PPC-640. Both versions could run with 10 C size batteries (1 hour battery life), or with an external AC adaptor. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1984-att-pc-6300 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227425606-WZ3FBIKSG1SURFAPQCX0/att.png 1984- ATT PC 6300 - 1984- ATT PC 6300 The PC 6300 was in fact an Olivetti M24 sold under the ATT brand. Launched a few months after the presentation of six new UNIX super-micro and mini ATT computers (march 1984), the PC 6300 was the first ATT system to be IBM PC compatible. It represented the low-end system of the ATT products. But the PC-6300 (and the Olivetti M24) was an excellent PC compatible system, twice faster than the IBM PC XT computer thanks to a real 16 bit CPU, the Intel 8086, which ran at 8Mhz as opposed to the 8088 of the IBM PC running at 4,7Mhz. The standard graphic possibilities were also better than those of the IBM PC. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227393454-N9URRN7YOZFSGJLVJ6IC/att+specs.png 1984- ATT PC 6300 - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1988-cambridge-z88 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227730939-L0B1OX8LP3H2014VL23C/cambrdige+specs.png 1988- Cambridge Z88 - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614227776885-7P2YCG2UFUWVLNZHQYLU/cambridge+z88.png 1988- Cambridge Z88 - 1988- Cambridge Z88 Amstrad bought the rights to use the Sinclair name on computer products. However, while Sir Clive Sinclair (the creator of the ZX 80, ZX 81, ZX Spectrum and QL) retained ownership of Sinclair Research, he couldn't use the Sinclair name. Sir Sinclair therefore created a new company called Cambridge Research, with the intention of realizing an old project, the Pandora Project. The result of this work was the Z88 (it was achieved in 1988). Sir Sinclair at the time thought it was a revolution and said that this computer would be one of the best commercial successes. Actually it was Clive Sinclair's last contribution to the computer world! This small machine was quite powerful; its operating system could exceed the 64 KB limitation of the Z80 with a good memory manager. It could also divide the memory into 16 KB pages, so the RAM could be expanded up to 3 MB thanks to 2 expansion ports. RAM cartridges of 32 KB and 128 KB were available. It had a built-in EPROM programmer available on the 3rd expansion port, so data could be saved directly on 128 KB EPROMs. The ROM contained a lot of software: Pipedream (spreadsheet, word processor and database), the Z80 version of the BBC Basic (the Basic of the BBC or Electron), a diary, a calendar, a clock, a conversion tool, a VT 52 terminal emulator, Filer (the file manager of the Operating System) and a utility to transfer data to a PC compatible via a RS232 link. This transfer utility exported text and spreadsheet files into Wordstar or Lotus 1-2-3 formats. It's probably worth pointing out that BBC basic built into the Z88 also contains a machine code editor, which allows you to embed Z80 assembly language into your Z88 BBC Basic programs! This feature was used quite often for the 'extra speed' portions of programs. Of course, having the assembly language embedded inside your source code meant that the code was very portable, and all loaded in one go - no messy 'support files' for your application. Jan M.L. Bosmans reported to us that the BBC Basic in the Z88, although very powerful, lacks an essential feature: there is neither an editor nor debugger! This means that mistakes in a line can only be corrected by typing the whole line again. While it's true that the BBC basic had no editor built in, but one of the first 'type in programs' in the BASIC section of the manual was a program you could enter (and save to battery backed memory) that provided a line editor feature! It was just a few lines of BBC Basic, and worked very well. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1988-cambridge-z88-1 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614228114305-HAP0L5XEA13E0AYGY4L1/coleco+specs.png 1983- Coleco Adam - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614228061175-UC8RNJHK8V86L573HJH3/coleco+adam.png 1983- Coleco Adam - 1983- Coleco Adam 1983- The ADAM is available in two models, the complete system and Expansion Module #3. When the memory console of Expansion Module #3 is connected to the ColecoVision, the two models are essentially identical in function. The unit pictured here is the expasion module #3 (it is shorter than the complete unit). The expansion module #3 uses part of the Colecovision hardware, thus the memory unit doesn't have any cartridge slot, and isn't delivered with any controllers nor TV switch box. The whole system is made of the daisywheel printer, the memory unit and the keyboard. The power supply is built-in the printer! The Smart Basic isn't in ROM and has to be loaded from a tape, however there's a little word processor in ROM, this word processor prints the text to the printer at the same time the user types on the keyboard, but can also be used as a classic wordprocessor. The Adam had a pretty short life, only two years! Despite this there is still a community of Adam fans who still use their system. Nowadays, most Adam users use a 320k 5 1/4 inch disk drive, an external 2400 baud modem, and a 20, 30 or 40 megabyte IDE harddisk. Adams often have memory expanders up to 2 MB in size (which is usually used as a RAM disk), and also a parallel printer (like a bubble jet)! https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/193-columbia-vp daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614228245393-KQRQY0YR51AMDASGWP9V/columbia+vp.png 1983- Columbia VP - 1983- Columbia VP The Columbia VP was a Compaq Portable like IBM PC compatible. Besides, it was said that Compaq designed the electronic part of the VP. It was the last computer made by Columbia, the company which made the MPC, first true copy of the IBM-PC. Columbia built a very rugged but heavy case which supported a 9" monochrome monitor, larger than the Compaq. All other features were the same as the Compaq. When the system was launched, the main argument of Columbia was the large number of software bundled with it. Among them: MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Perfect series (Writer, Filer, Speller, Calc), MS-BASIC, Macro assembler, Home accountant and Space Commander game. It seems that several versions of the VP were built: 1600/1, 1600/4, 2110, 2220, VP-Plus, but we have no information about them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614228293722-HHG0QP4PE4PD77VJV90X/columbia+vp+specs.png 1983- Columbia VP - Build it. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/analog-computers-2 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1957-geniac daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614229603563-XPRERE7GJELCLPYJ399U/geniac+in+box+2.png 1957- Geniac - 1957- Geniac GENIAC was an educational toy built as a "computer" designed and marketed by Edmund C. Berkeley from 1955 through the sixties. Widely advertised in science and electronics magazines. The Geeks must have Christmas gift. Priced at $19.95 in 1957 GENIAC was far ahead of its time. It basically was a collection of configurable ("hard- wire programmable") N-pole by N-throw rotary switches, which could be set up and cascaded to perform logical functions. The reason I say "N-pole" is that the switches were made of drilled masonite disks that you might wire as a many-pole two-throw, or single-pole multi-throw, depending on what logical function you were implementing. The kit came with a pretty good tutorial, which, as I look at it, is still useful today. The projects started with basic logic circuits and progressed to such things as a NIM machine and TIC-TAC-TOE machine. Back in 1955 the idea of making a machine that could play even the simple game of tic-tac-toe was just amazing. The "output" device was a set of lamps that would light in response to the "input data" (switch positions) and "program" (how they were wired) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614229751665-KH1VPEJS751IIGO7SPFL/geniac+2.png 1957- Geniac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614229751103-N7FYSNKRF6NDL7XBAIIQ/geniac+3.png 1957- Geniac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614229750950-1LT8QOLIPF78MS9FRGYH/geniac+in+box.png 1957- Geniac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614229751654-Y01ZX2DFZBCTZUK6RM4O/geniac.png 1957- Geniac https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1959-brainiac daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230217552-LGDT8DWQ4CU921ZXVNLV/brainiac+54.png 1959- Brainiac - 1959- Brainiac The Brainiac was the last of several similar machines designed and sold by Berkeley: * GENIAC = Genius Almost-Automatic Computer * TINYAC = Tiny Almost-Automatic Computer * WEENYAC = Weeny Almost-Automatic Computer (only 60 made) * BRAINIAC = Brain-Imitating Almost-Automatic Computer https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230285643-1VTM5VYXWSIOVUG5WTI3/brainiac+2.png 1959- Brainiac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230286362-X0KG1BGRGCZTE9ISWWUK/brainiac+4.png 1959- Brainiac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230286128-3VYR7L741MGQ37PW3MUF/brainiac.png 1959- Brainiac https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230286454-Q1U0UUYZTG8AT4E3B5XK/rainiac+3.png 1959- Brainiac https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1959-calculo daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230651276-GMARK3CY6CK3Q6OZKMSJ/calculo.png 1959- Calculo - 1959- Calculo 1959- The low cost Calculo Analog Computer was designed as by Science Material Center, Inc. as a basic introduction to the general method of operating analog computers. It has an accuracy in multiplication and division of about 5%, though it could be increased somewhat by means of certain tricks offered by the manufacturer. With such accuracy the purpose of the computer was not to serve as an accurate computing device, but rather as an estimating machine. The Calculo Analog Computer is capable of the following calculations: - Multiplication - Division - Roots - Powers - Calculation of a compound interest - Trigonometric formulas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230616085-IR2C286S4N5H6TMBUXZJ/calculo+2.png 1959- Calculo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230615660-40FH2Z146K1MOOUGKLMX/calculo+3.png 1959- Calculo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230616342-IUDHPZUONBD0ZVQ1SO2C/calculo+4.png 1959- Calculo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614230616219-7VH27T05ONEA8GGYOQR2/calculo.png 1959- Calculo https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1960-edmond daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231164646-25MNKBL7ND3AMG0TF2D5/edmond.png 1960- Edmond - 1960- Edmond 1960- https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231126639-Y27B2FMWHBVJJ1CLHS5B/edmond+2.png 1960- Edmond https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231126153-8TL7RBF39QNSS3XATLZM/edmond+4.png 1960- Edmond https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231124534-CKE7ANVDZFQMXZN3CW0K/edmond+5.png 1960- Edmond https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231125536-7BZMRAUGGPSSZE15BXCS/edmoond+3.png 1960- Edmond https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1960-heathkit-ec1 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231651094-SM7E39MB0UPQF8JV85DU/EC1.png 1960- Heathkit EC-1 - 1960- Heathkit EC-1 From 1950 to 1965, electronic analogue vacuum-tube computers were used to design, test and run civilian and military equipment like aircraft, ships or rockets. The first systems were very expensive. However, components cost (especially vacuum tubes) was steadily decreasing. In 1960, Heath Company launched the Heathkit EC-1, the first analogue computer (almost) anyone could afford. It was sold in kit or pre-assembled forms and was quickly and widely used in industry and universities. Unlike our modern binary computers which accept only two values as entry (0 or 1), an analogue computer represents input and output data's in voltage levels. So, any positive or negative value could be read directly from the built-in meter. An external oscilloscope could be also used as a display device, as well as a grapher for printed results. In spite of its apparent simplicity, the EC-1 could solve a multitude of complex mechanical and mathematical problems thanks to nine DC operational amplifiers, three initial condition power supplies, potentiometers, relay contacts, high precision resistors and capacitors, and a built-in oscillator for repetitive operation (from 0.1 to 15 operations per second). The computer was described by Heathkit as "Excellent teaching aid for a course in computer electronics - Vividly illustrates the electronic analogies to mathematical problems - Handles problems as complex as fluid flow, damped harmonic motion, and flight of a projectile in a viscous medium" Computer problems could be 'programmed' by inserting several patch cords into the problem-board sockets and thus linking in chain several built-in components together. The EC-1 and other analogue computers were used until 1965, when first affordable digital computers became available. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231673045-60T2UEQE34NDXRBDCG1X/ec1+2.png 1960- Heathkit EC-1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231673563-A4H6P93J29A3TGY3C4K9/ec1+3.png 1960- Heathkit EC-1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231673100-10AJ790OB2UZUROFZNA5/ec1+4.png 1960- Heathkit EC-1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231673348-5FKULMRPK2UI913VIV0F/ec1+5.png 1960- Heathkit EC-1 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1961-ge-ef-140 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614231989171-FZ68TNYNDB44GMD1HJUW/ge+ef140.png 1961- GE- EF 140 - 1961- GE EF-140 1961- The GE Project 4 Model No. EF-140 was General Electric's "new concept in introducing transistor lectronics to America's youth". Original price was $29.29. This was a build it yourself kit, no soldering required. It used 4 "D" size batteries. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232015144-QW470A1C3V0CYHAPV9MS/ge+ef140+2.png 1961- GE- EF 140 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232014619-89Q2JDE016A8KIYVOD36/ge+ef140+3.png 1961- GE- EF 140 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1961-minivac-601 daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232283105-DY7MZOINKQYS5KQXJJUS/minivac+601.png 1961- Minivac 601 - 1961- Minivac 601 1961- The Minivac 601 digital computer kit from Scientific Development Corporation (SDC), Watertown, Massachusetts, was sold for $85.00 in 1961 The Advertisement stated that the Minivac 601 was created as a private project by Dr. Claude E. Shannon, Donner Professor of Science at MIT, and was developed by the SDC staff. . Minivac 601 was an educational aid for helping to learn how binary arithmetic and computer assembler languages worked. Although it gained past acceptance amongst educational institutions and home hobbyists, large corporations were unwilling to buy it as a device to help their employees learn more about how computers worked. The firm selling the product repainted the device from red and blue to gunmetal-grey, changed the tolerance on some of the switches (at a very nominal cost) and renamed the device the Minivac 6010. They also increased its price to $479. All of these changes made the device acceptable to corporations as a legitimate learning device and not as just a toy. Hundreds of Minivac 6010's sold to businesses at $479. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232302415-ZI7HKBX6EV2K6NHJTEDW/minivac+5.png 1961- Minivac 601 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232300906-2DMJ4FF7H8HZDKX2T4EK/minivac.jpg 1961- Minivac 601 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614232302248-YWD7FCQ7VFRO4VP8TACD/minivac-601-flyer.jpg 1961- Minivac 601 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-analog-computers daily 0.75 2021-02-25 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/videos daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/science-kits daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1963-automatic-teaching-computer-lit-from-the-library-of-science daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614813804830-R8LU9PG9RES4E91020SI/automatic+teaching.png 1963- Automatic Teaching Computer Lit from the Library of Science - 1963 Automatic Teaching Computer Kit from the Library of Science https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1964-digicomp-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614813804830-R8LU9PG9RES4E91020SI/automatic+teaching.png 1964- Digi-Comp 1 - 1964- Digi-Comp 1 1964- DIGI COMP 1 is a mechanical equivalent of an electronic digital computer. With DIGI COMP 1 one can PLAY GAMES, SOLVE RIDDLES, and DO ARITHMETIC in the same way as on a large digital computer. DIGI COMP 1 is the first real BINARY COMPUTER, which works MECHANICALLY the same way as giant electronic digital computers, which work electrically. DIGI COMP can be considered as a small version of an actual computer. In fact, with the addition of many more parts, DIGI COMP could solve very large problems just as an electronic digital computer does. The main difference is that since DIGI COMP is mechanical it would be much slower and larger than an electronic computer. In or around 1967 E.S.R Inc came up with DIGI-COMP II, which as it's predecessor DIGI-COMP 1 was also mechanical. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814247705-UOZ7J2RMPIJC4MQ1ZJLZ/digi+comp1+2.png 1964- Digi-Comp 1 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1970-scientific-kit-for-computer-and-electronics daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814373292-AQFBADRX9JSE7GK0PMTD/scientififc+kit.png 1970- Scientific Kit for Computer and Electronics - 1970- Scientific Kit for Computer and Electronics 1970's- Made in Israel https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1970-scientific-kit-for-computer-and-electronics-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814483137-7GLO0SSOSQFXM6J31MRT/sf-5000.png 1971- Science Fair SF-5000 - 1971- Science Fair SF-5000 1971- The Radio Shack Science Fair SF-5000 is a rebadged "Kosmos Logikus", an educational "mechanical computer" from 1971. It works by making connections on a patch panel between 10 multi-position slide switches and light up indicators. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1970-scientific-kit-for-computer-and-electronics-1-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814606418-VIRBGIW4PP9IK9372IXY/72+logix+600.png 1972- Logix 0-600 - 1972- Logix 0-600 1972- The Logix 0-600 computer toy is programmed by physically wiring on the plastic breadboard-like face. A series of 10 multi-pole switches, the computer has 10 light bulbs for output. It came with various tissue paper output sheets which one cut out and placed over the light bulbs. I had to assemble the computer which took a great deal of time but was quite enjoyable as I recall. The computer is shown here programmed for the classic "Cross the River" (Farmer-Wolf-Goat-Cabbage) problem. Item number 0-600 dated 1972. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1970-scientific-kit-for-computer-and-electronics-1-1-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814762996-MVW0Z6NKX4HFGNPNFHV7/73+logix+600.png 1973- Logix 0-600 - 1973- Logix 0-600 1973- Logix 0-600 Electronic Computer is a working model of the real thing. It includes fascinating programs such as playing games against an opponent, matching wits against the computer, predicting the weather, solving mysteries, laws of sets, computerized telephone call routing, diagnosing illness, music and may more. Logix 0-600 Electronic Computer is a fun filled science kit for anyone age 12 to adult. Logix 0-600 Electronic Computer was made under exclusive license from Frankh'Sche Verlag Stuttgart West Germany by Logix Enterprises, Montreal Canada and Malone, New York. Copyright 1973. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1977-science-fair-digital-computer-kit daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614814890714-9K4T7X7BKO9VBLBC1GM5/science+fair.png 1977- Science Fair Digital Computer Kit - 1977- Science Fair Digital Computer Kit 1977- The Science Fair digital computer kit was manufactured in Japan and sold in US by Radio Shack Co. The kit consists of a "programming" board with spring-clip, solderless connectors to set up 100 experiments. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/trainerssingle-board-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1969-dec-h500-logic-trainer daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614818044455-8R9JD6LS278GACG58M5X/dec+h-500.png 1969- DEC H-500 Logic Trainer - 1969- DEC H-500 Logic Trainer https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1972-honeywellbull-jr01 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614818003181-JUHO83N68LDGVOPF8RYW/honeywell.png 1972- Honeywell-Bull Jr01 - 1972- Honeywell-Bull Jr01 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-heathkit-et-3400 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817960983-Y0YEJIWWYV34GSE527WY/et-3400.png 1976- Heathkit- ET 3400 - 1976- Heathkit- ET 3400 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-heathkit-et3100 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817870413-U5I7PHL17DNJJT4D1ZZT/et-3100.png 1976- Heathkit- ET-3100 - 1976- Heathkit- ET-3100 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-heathkit-et3200 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817831967-FYZPLDMWPCVC1NN17LPX/et-3200.png 1976- Heathkit- ET-3200 - 1976- Heathkit- ET-3200 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-heathkit-et3300 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817795520-OLOAOZEG2KLTW67FVVEJ/et-3300.png 1976- Heathkit- ET-3300 - 1976- Heathkit- ET-3300 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-science-fair-microcomputer-trainer daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817753318-C4T3A581UHNMP9MKT68B/science+fair.png 1976- Science Fair- Microcomputer Trainer - 1976- Science Fair- Microcomputer Trainer 1976- Microcomputer Trainer had a set of about 30 commands (15 simple, plus some 'extended'), which were entered through the keyboard. The keyboard suffered badly from switch bounce; increment would sometimes be registered twice, causing much annoyance. The CPU (or rather MCU - Micro Computer Unit) is a Texas Instruments TMS1100. This was an expanded version of their flagship "computer-on-a-chip"; the TMS1000, which was used in their "Speak and Spell" toy. According to the MCT manual, the clock speed was 400 kHz but this is higher than the specification for the chip! (Were Science Fair guilty of over-clocking!?!). Presumably the monitor was burnt into ROM. There was no bulk storage: programs were lost when power was removed, so had to written down manually. The manual contains instructions for the built-in games and example programs (complete with flowcharts). Some of the example programs are quite complicated. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1977-intel-sdk85 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817666712-SB3S2HJFZZVS9UJUC6ZH/intel+sdk+85.png 1977- Intel SDK-85 - 1977- Intel SDK-85 Each time Intel launched a new microprocessor, they provided simultaneously a System Development Kit (SDK) allowing computer company engineers as well as university students to introduce them to the new processor concepts and features. The SDK-85 was a complete 8085A (5 for 'first 5 Volt microprocessor') microcomputer system on a single board including ROM and RAM memory, a 24 key hexadecimal keyboard, a 6 digit LED display, I/O connections and an expansion area allowing memory and I/O expansions as well as hardware experiments. A 2 KB monitor software provided the same commands as the SDK-86 board. User could enter and read program results through either the buit-in keyboard/display or using a serial Teletype through the built-in serial TTY interface. A 38 lines parallel interface was also available. A large set of manuals were delivered with the board: MCS-85 (processor) and SDK-85 (board) user manuals, 8085 Assembly Language Programming Manual, full circuit schematics of the PCB, a full dump of the ROM monitor program, programming examples and application notes. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1978-signetics-50 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817579986-QUULOERKPGB23KXT7L8U/signetics+50.png 1978- Signetics 50 - 1978- Signetics 50 The Instructor 50 was a small system designed to teach the use and programmation of the Signetics 2650 CPU. But it was also a real micro-computer with a tape interface to save and load programs, and a S-100 compatible expansion bus. It actually belonged to a second generation training computers: unlike its predecessors, it wasn't just a raw electronic board, but offered a real plastic case, S-100 bus, tape-interface, etc.... The built-in display was only a eight-digit, seven-segment LED display... When turned on it displays "HELLO". The keyboard was made of an hexadecimal keypad (16 keys) and function keypad (12 keys). Interaction is also made through 8 parallel I/O switches and their corresponding LEDs. The only software built-in the system was the monitor (called User System Executive or USE), used to program the Instructor 50. Of course, programmation was made in hexadecimal through a simplistic assembler. The 2 KB ROM was used to store the monitor. RAM was 640 bytes, but 128 bytes were used by the monitor, leaving 512 bytes for programmation. But having 14 address lines, the 2650 CPU was capable of addressing 32K bytes ! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817600768-SMSK5S6U057WPDO03W96/signetics+50+2.png 1978- Signetics 50 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1979-hp-5036a daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817482761-8FNJRZW6P82PL1G946RV/hp+5036A.png 1979- HP 5036A - 1979- HP 5036A This Microprocessor Lab was designed by Hewlett Packard to be a learning tool for acquiring the basics of microprocessor operations. It was also used to help students, technicians and engineers understand how to repair faulty microprocessor-based systems. Mounted in a brief case, the HP 5036A provided both the hardware and software basics and vital troubleshooting information needed to solve hardware problems. The board held a 8085A CPU, 2 KB ROM and 1 KB RAM. Displays for the Address/Register/Data were 6 digit, 7-segment LED displays. Output port had 8 LED's, one for each line. Address bus had 16 LED's, one per line. Status lines had 6 LED's; one per line. I/O's 8-bit latched output port with LED indicators, and 8-bit input port with DIP switch. Several DIP switch were used to disconnect MPU data lines from data bus, select test loop program or run a program in test mode. Twelve user-programmable fault jumpers on circuit board simulated various hardware faults. The HP 5036A shipped with a very complete 450+ page course book, which covered both hardware and software in detail in separate chapters containing summaries, hands-on experiments and quizzes. Once these chapters were completed, the course built up to a series of troubleshooting experiments employing recommended troubleshooting instruments (HP 5024A Logic Troubleshooting Kit, HP 5006A Signature Analyzer...) that challenge the user and reinforce microprocessor operating concepts. The book also contained information on the use of oscilloscopes, signature analyzers, logic analyzers, and logic probes for troubleshooting microprocessor-based products. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817515768-EVZ96K5KN4AUFOQL1O56/hp+5036A+2.png 1979- HP 5036A https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1981-intersil-concept48 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817426304-KGH7V3YRC9JVW94ERLFR/intersil.png 1981- Intersil Concept-48 - 1981- Intersil Concept-48 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1981-micro-professor-mpfi daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817379357-8JSKSH2PK5YQMLTCE3CV/mpf+I.png 1981- Micro Professor MPF-I - 1981- Micro Professor MPF-I 1981- Microprofessor I (MPF 1), by Multitech, who changed their company name to Acer in 1987, was their first branded computer product and probably one of the world's longest selling computers. The MPF I, specifically designed to teach the fundamentals of machine code, is a simple and easy to use training system for the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. The MPF 1 does not look like a computer. It is enclosed in a vacuum formed plastic book case usually used to store a copy of language textbook and two audio cassettes as well as a training manual. When closed, the MPF 1 can be placed on a bookshelf for easy storage and looks just like a book. On the February 24, 1993, Flite Electronics International Limited in Southampton, England, at that time, an international distributor for Acer, purchased the copyright to the MPF1's training manuals, as well as its firmware and hardware intellectual property rights from Acer. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1982-ces-edlab-650 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817326544-SABFBG2UIK67ZYBUAO7M/ces+ed-lab+650.png 1982- CES Ed-Lab 650 - 1982- CES Ed-Lab 650 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1982-micro-professor-mpfii daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817196380-8WKQI9DT5I3VXBLM61E9/mpf+II.png 1982- Micro Professor MPF-II - 1982- Micro Professor MPF-II After the MPF-1 educational systems, Multitech (which eventually became Acer in 1987) conceived the MPF-II computer (MPFstands for Micro-ProFessor) a more advanced computer supposed to be compatible with the Apple 2. The MPF-II must be the only computer delivered with two keyboards! The first one is located directly onto the system case. It has very small calculator type keys and is really painful to work with. In fact it is the same used with MPF-1 Plus and MPF-1/65educational computers. Knowing that it wouldn't be enough for the more ambitious MPF-II, Multitech chosed to deliver a larger keyboard with rubber keys, same type used on popular computers of that time like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Even though it was better than the first one, it wasn't still very convenient. There is even a special key labeled with the Multitech logo which function is... nothing. Indeed, nothing happen when you press it! The main interest of the MPF-II is that it is supposed to be compatible Apple II. In fact only its Basic is compatible with the Applesoft Basic. Thus it is not possible to directly use Apple Software on a MPF-II, even though later, special ROMs modified by enthusiasts were available to turn the MPF-II into a full Apple II compatible system... Some extensions were available: - up to 2 disk drives with their controller (5.25", Single Sided - Double Density, 250 KB non formated), - Multitech thermal printer using special thermal paper (10 cm wide). 150 lines per minute, 120 caracters per second, - Dot matrix printer - joysticks, tape recorder, multi-printer interface. Several optional software provided the MPF-II with Assembly, Pascal, Logo and Forth programming languages. When it came out in 1982, the MPF-II had excellent reviews since for a reasonable price you had color, high resolution and 64 KB RAM. This offer had nearly no competition... until the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 got more popular with their large software offer. The MPF-1/65 also From Multitech is very similar to the MPF-II and might be based on it, or vice versa. The MPF-II had a successor, the MPF III, also partially compatible with the Apple IIe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817266099-CR1Q1IIUNSHPL6UOVXFO/mpf+II+2.png 1982- Micro Professor MPF-II https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1982-motorola-mek6802d5 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817025680-USBOP1SNZ170BIT5GJN3/motorola+mek+6802.png 1982- Motorola MEK-6802-D5 - 1982- Motorola MEK-6802-D5 1982 This is an educational / training kit for the 6802 CPU, but can also be used as a CPU board in a Motorola EXORciser development system. It has an hexadecimal keyboard and a 6 digits LED screen. The memory size is of 256 bytes plus an optional 1k. The first 128 bytes is in the MC6802 processor and is for user programs. This can be disabled with a wire link if the additional buffers are installed at the edge connector. The other 128 bytes is the MC6810 which was used for the stack and system variables. The two 2114 1k x 4 static RAM chips weren't included in the original kit but were to be bought as an option. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614817107283-1FMUV5P7UZK0M7Y9NN1M/motorola+mek+6802+2.png 1982- Motorola MEK-6802-D5 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1985-computer-logic-lab-nsi daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614816947890-67FAX6B7HNXMIZV7AZ8D/logic+lab.png 1985- Computer Logic Lab- NSI - 1985- Computer Logic Lab- NSI https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1985-multitech-mpfi88 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614816884713-PZHXO7R1EYWYGBCQKQPU/multitech+mpf+i-88.png 1985- Multitech MPF-I/88 - 1985- Multitech MPF-I/88 The MPF-I/88 is the most evoluated system of the MPF learning tools computers specifically designed for use in the teaching of microprocessors, microelectronics, and control technology. The MPF-I/88 main purpose is to teach the Intel 8088 microprocessor. Unlike its small brothers (MPF-1B, MPF-1 Plus and Microkit 09), the MPF-I/88 offers a real full-stroke keyboard and a nice 2-lines LCD display. In fact the system can manage virtual screen of 24 lines. It is then possible to scroll the display up & down by pressing ALT+A/Z. Next to the LCD display are a RESET button and two small lights labeled HOLD and AUDIO. HOLD indicates when the CPU execute the HLT instruction which holds the system. AUDIO is lit when audio signal is passing through the tape interface. Monitor, Assembler and Disassembler are built-in the system. There are 192 symbols and characters, designed on a 5x7 pixels grid. Three ROM slots can be found on the motherboard. Only one is used when you buy the computer, but you can use different ROM chipsets if you want, for a maximum of 48 KB (3 x 16 KB). When the computer is turned on you can create/edit/run programs with the Assembler, or you can set break points to analyse memory and registers content all along the execution process. You can of course also load/save your programs through the tape interface https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614816833396-6VYFJTJHW3ROS53CUZD9/multitech+mpf+i-88+2.png 1985- Multitech MPF-I/88 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/nida-model-500 daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1614816606533-YVJICH5MMMZUWDIJ2F1Z/nida.png Nida Model 500 - Nida Model 500 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/cost-list daily 0.75 2021-03-04 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/books-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/advertisements-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/magazines-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/games-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1961-minivac-601-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615147877643-OH03LU7U6YTGD1OIW7RN/dr+mim.png 1961- Dr Nim - 1961- Dr Nim 1961- Dr. NIM was a game manufactured by E.S.R., Inc. in the mid-1960s. It consisted of a plastic computer and a set of marbles. The machine would play a person at the game of Nim. The machine was powered by the action of the marbles falling through the machine. A classic game played commonly with 15 sticks. Two players have the choice of taking one, two, or three sticks from the pile at each turn. The player who gets the last stick loses. Dr. Nim plays the same game, only with marbles. Either player can start, and Dr. Nim rarely loses! Another example of computer programming logic realized in plastic. Dr. Nim is also capable of playing a number of variations on the game, and is equally difficult to beat in all of them. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1962-think-a-dot daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148026477-NH2L20CPJ0DHHHAWSIDK/thinkadot.JPG 1962- Think a Dot - 1962- Think a Dot The Think-a-Dot was a mathematical toy made by E.S.R., Inc. during the 1960s that demonstrated group theory. It had eight coloured disks on its front, and three holes on its top - left, right, and center - through which a ball bearing could be dropped. Each disk would display either a yellow or blue face, depending on whether the mechanism behind it was tipped to the right or the left. The Think-a-Dot thus had 28=256 internal states. When the ball fell to the bottom it would exit either to a hole on the left or the right of the device. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1962-think-a-dot-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148106401-BM2Z6IGXBSH3SQYWEWO8/fleet.jpg 1969- Fleet Electronic Handicapper - 1969- Fleet Electronic Handicapper https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1970-bugs-and-loops daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148173007-TBTLCCGVGFZXREK1YX5X/bugs+and+loops.png 1970- Bugs and Loops - 1970- Bugs and Loops https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1976-manhunt daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148260082-ONOFMW9LGI0TXITGR1DO/manhunt.JPG 1976- Manhunt - 1976- Manhunt In Manhunt the players are police detectives attempting to determine who committed a crime. To do this, they must travel around the board to collect clues about the criminal. They then feed these clues into the crime computer in order to narrow down the list of suspects. The first player to correctly identify the culprit is the winner. At the start of the game, the players decide which type of crime they will investigate; either murder, robbery or swindle. They then select a "Scanner Card" from the list and place it into the "Clue Scanner". The card and scanner will be used to reveal the specific clues pertaining to the crime. Movement around the board is performed using the "crime computer". A lever on the computer is held down causing dials to spin. When the lever is released, the dials stop. The dial is now pointing to the number of spaces the detective is allowed to move. Detectives must first move to the "Scene of the Crime" and thereafter may move to either the "Crime Lab", the "Stake Out" or interview a "Witness". When they do so, they take the "Probe" and insert it into the corresponding row on the Crime Scanner. There are four holes in each row. Under one of the holes is a corresponding hole in the Scanner Card. The Probe will show nothing in the hole corresponding to the one in the Card and a red dot in the other three holes. The player then looks up the result of the readout in the "Detective Handbook". For example, the first Scene of the Crime row for Robbery corresponds to "Bank Robbery", "Jewel Theft", "Safe Cracked" and "Burglary". If the third hole in the scanner showed nothing on the probe then the player knows the Robbery was a Safe Crack. As the player visits each of the eight locations on the board (two for each of the locations) they gain additional information about the crime. They can then look up the suspect profiles in the Detective Handbook to use the information to narrow down the list of possible culprits. To continue the example above, for Robbery the suspect "Ida Hoe" is a Bank Robber, Jewel Thief and Safe Cracker but "Luke Sharp" is a Bank Robber, Jewel Thief and Burglar. Since this robbery is a safe crack, Luke Sharp can be eliminated as a suspect. When a player thinks they have determined who the culprit is they turn the Scanner Card over and read the correct suspect's name off the back of the card. If they are correct they are the winner. If they are incorrect they are eliminated from the game and play continues until the culprit is determined. Manhunt is a very interesting game. It is a logic problem, though a fairly simple one as the answer will always be revealed through a process of elimination. The mechanics of the game, with the Crime Computer, Clue Scanner and Probe, Clue Cards, Readout Books and Detective Handbooks is actually more complex than the game itself. The use of the Crime Computer to determine movement is interesting but the results are fairly easy to influence by flipping the activation switch correctly. Still, the game has a very interesting flavor and the steps the players have to go through actually correspond to those that a detective investigating a real crime would perform. While too easy for many people it would be quite good for younger players. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1978-boris-is-king-first-chess-computer daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148348487-EIF8OVFE6TK6U2FQX9JP/boris.gif 1978- Boris is King- First Chess Computer - 1978- Boris is King- First Chess Computer It is one of the first chess computers for general public. The electronic components are contained on the left side in an elegant walnut case, on the right, there is a space where is stored the adapter and the chessmen provided with the machine. To play, you must enter the moves via a keyboard. It does not have real levels; to select the level of play, you have to program the timer (from 0 to 99 hours, 99 minutes, 99 seconds) which determines time allocated to "Boris" his moves calculation. The information about the game are provided via a window of 8 high quality red led’s digits (displayed on a single line). For example, this window is necessary to enter the moves, to see the machine responses, to see «Boris» compute his moves (the various moves are flashing in the display), to adjust the internal timer, to setup an arbitrary position (arranged one line at the time) by using specific "Boris" characters and, obviously, to give his commentary on the game… There is another very interesting function of this window; if you recall the board (with the rank button) while "Boris" is computing, you can see him moving the pieces around, trying the effects of various moves (see the video). An innovative "marketing" characteristic for the time; occasionally "Boris" makes comments on your moves, such as for example: "Boris plays Black" (when the unit is powering), "Have you played before?", "Spot me a queen", "Are you rated?", "Is this has trap?", "I need help", "May I cheat?", "Illegal move", etc. These comments are generated in a random way and do not have obviously any bond with the played moves... Here an over flight of the "Boris" functionalities on the back of his instruction manual. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1978-fidelity-electronic-backgammon-challenger daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148425026-OJRO6DXO0Q7INA97YTV4/backgammon.png 1978- Fidelity Electronic Backgammon Challenger - 1978- Fidelity Electronic Backgammon Challenger https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1978-fidelity-electronic-checkers-challenger daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148486989-U5BQ60H049DOND9ZTDJG/check.png 1978- Fidelity Electronic Checkers Challenger - 1978- Fidelity Electronic Checkers Challenger Vintage Checker Challenger game by Fidelity Electronics. It's you against the computer. Comes with orig box and ac adapter, instructions and bonus book secrets of the experts. No checkers included but can use any kind. Game moves are manually entered into the key pad so needs no special checkers like some do. Tested and works, no cracks or damage. 2 levels of play, basic or advanced. Copy right 1978 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1979-fidelity-electronic-bridge-challenger daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148544119-12H2TMUQDDMI1FDWNLVZ/bridge.jpg 1979- Fidelity Electronic Bridge Challenger - 1979- Fidelity Electronic Bridge Challenger https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1979-fidelity-electronic-chess-challenger-7 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148657387-2WFI4QT77M95BSEIQN5C/chess-7.jpg 1979- Fidelity Electronic Chess Challenger 7 - 1979- Fidelity Electronic Chess Challenger 7 Computer name: Chess Challenger 7 Manufacturer: Fidelity Electronics Dates from: 1979 Dimensions: 30 x 20 x 2.6 cm. Processor: Z80A, 4 MHz. Programmer(s): Ron Nelson Rating: beginners / occasional players (Elo 1311) Other details: Moves typed in with keys Board not connected to computer In the first two games Chess Challenger had a won game, but the games petered out into a draw. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1981-bits-and-chips daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615148731246-LEC12SE8PFXT146S5LEO/bits.jpg 1981- Bits and Chips - 1981- Bits and Chips This game is from 1981 from the Alfran Corporation. It is complete minus the instruction sheet. The game in brief : The idea of the game is to use a combination of skill and good fortune to acquire computer hardware. Program bugs and program loops make the job difficult. The use of program logic can work in your favor. The winner is the player who acquired the most computer hardware and used it to make the most money. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/people-3 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150047097-KAN0EH4XN0Z8HI9VFW35/kay.png People - Alan Kay Alan Kay, a Disney Fellow and Vice President of Research and Development for the Walt Disney Company, is best known for the idea of personal computing, the concept of the intimate laptop computer, and the inventions of the now ubiquitous overlapping-window interface and modern object-oriented programming. His deep interest in children was the catalyst for these ideas, and it continues to inspire him. Kay was one of the founders of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he led one of the groups that in concert developed those ideas into modern workstations (and the forerunner of the Macintosh), the Smalltalk computer language, the overlapping-window interface, desktop publishing, the Ethernet, laser printing, and network "client servers". Kay has received many awards, including ACM's Softwware Systems Award and the J-D Warnier Prix D'Informatique. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150099357-5D0LTXEPV2P04PKHY29Q/bricklin.png People - Dan Bricklin Dan Bricklin is currently president of Software Garden, Inc., a small developer of software applications that he founded in 1985. Throughout his career, Mr. Bricklin has created innovative, cutting-edge products. Bricklin is best known for codeveloping VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet, while he was a student at the Harvard Business School. VisiCalc is widely credited for fueling the rapid growth of the personal computer industry. In late 1995, Dan founded Trellix Corporation, a provider of website publishing technology. In early 2003, Trellix was acquired by Interland, Inc., a supplier of web hosting solutions for small and medium sized businesses. Dan served as Interland's CTO through early 2004 when he returned to Software Garden to do software product development and consulting. From 1985 through 1989, Mr. Bricklin served as president of Software Garden, Inc., where he developed a variety of software programs, including Dan Bricklin's Demo Program. The program, used for prototyping and simulating other pieces of software, won the 1986 and 1987 Software Publishers Association Award for Best Programming Tool. In 1990, Mr. Bricklin cofounded Slate Corporation to develop application software for pen computers. Mr. Bricklin also founded Software Arts, where he served as chairman of the board and executive vice president from 1979 until 1985. Prior to forming Software Arts, he had been a market researcher for Prime Computer Inc., a senior systems programmer for FasFax Corporation, and a senior software engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation. At Digital, he was project leader of the WPS-8 word processing software, where he helped to specify and develop one of the first standalone word processing systems. Mr. Bricklin is a founding trustee of the Massachusetts Software and Internet Council and has served on the boards of the Software Publishers Association and the Boston Computer Society. Mr. Bricklin has received many honors for his contributions to the computer industry, including the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Entrepreneur Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Software Publishers Association. Along with VisiCalc co-creator Bob Frankston, he received the 2001 Washington Award from the Western Society of Engineers. Mr. Bricklin holds a BS in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Newbury College, and was elected to be a member of the National Academy of Engineering. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150122918-NXBJ30N3DHBU481LQ6J2/kildall.png People - Gary Kildall Before the development of the IBM PC and the dominance of MS-DOS, almost all personal computers ran on CP/M, Kildall's operating system. In 1980 Kildall rejected an offer from IBM to license his operating system to run the new IBM PC. Instead, IBM bought a simple operating system from Bill Gates for $50,000, ensuring Microsoft's future prosperity. On July 6 1994, Gary Kildall was killed in a brawl at a biker bar in Monterey. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150247966-2DIRXO73UA9MWQG6VV7E/backus.png People - John Backus FORTRAN is the most successful and oldest computer language still in active use. The project began in 1954 under John Backus of IBM and the first customer’s program, which stopped with an error because of a missing comma, ran on April 20, 1957. This manual was written about 6 months before FORTRAN I was released. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150297698-PFOCUSBXESKOJTFXIRA9/torvalds.png People - Linus Torvalds FORTRAN is the most successful and oldest computer language still Linus Torvalds created the Linux kernel and oversaw open source development of the widely-used Linux operating system. Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland. Torvalds enrolled at the University of Helsinki in 1988, graduating with a master's degree in computer science. His M.Sc. thesis was titled Linux: A Portable Operating System. An avid computer programmer, Linus authored many gaming applications in his early years. After purchasing a personal computer with an Intel 386 CPU, he began using Minix, an Unix-inspired operating system created by Andrew Tannenbaum for use as a teaching tool. Torvalds started work on a new kernel, later to be named "Linux", in the fall of 1991 and after forming a team of volunteers to work on this new kernel, released V1.0 in the spring of 1994. In 1996, Torvalds accepted an invitation to visit the California headquarters of Transmeta, a start-up company in the first stages of designing an energy saving central processing unit (CPU). Torvalds then accepted a position at Transmeta and moved to California with his family. Along with his work for Transmeta, Torvalds continued to oversee kernel development for Linux. In 2003, Torvalds left Transmeta to focus exclusively on the Linux kernel, backed by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a consortium formed by high-tech companies, which included IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, AMD, RedHat, Novell and many others. The purpose of the consortium was to promote Linux development. OSDL merged with The Free Standards Group in January 2007 to become The Linux Foundation. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150346556-S20LLFEETJG2H10VB5SV/andreessen.png People - Marc Andreessen Marc Andreessen is the young co-founder and vice-president of technology of Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape was founded by Andreessen and computer scientist-entrepreneur Jim Clark to develop and market an enhanced version of NCSA Mosaic, the first Internet browser, which Andreessen had helped write when he was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. By following the unlikely strategy of giving away the browser for free, Netscape has been able to make a lot of money. This was done by first by establishing Netscape’s browser (called Netscape Navigator) as the Internet standard, and then selling other kinds of network software for Internet and corporate use. Netscape’s initial public offering (IPO), the most successful in Wall Street history, made Andreessen an instant multi-millionaire. As a stellar example of today’s information age entrepreneur, Andreessen has achieved a kind of celebrity status, and has made the cover of Time Magazine as the pre-eminent "super geek" of his generation. Since its founding, Netscape has achieved a dominant share of the markets for Internet and intranet software at the same time that it has fueled the astronomical growth of the Word Wide Web and fundamentally shifted the software industry to a cross-platform, Internet-based standard. Since the end of 1995 Netscape’s share of Internet and corporate markets has come to be increasingly challenged by competitors, most notably software giant Microsoft. In one of the classic corporate campaigns in recent history, Microsoft has committed its massive resources to recapturing the Internet from Netscape. In the midst of Netscape’s struggles for market share and survival, Marc Andreessen calmly continues in his role as long-term strategist and visionary while under close scrutiny by the business community and the media. At the same time, he lives a relatively quiet and modest life with his fiancée, Elizabeth Horn, in Mountain View, California. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150469492-AZZF8YKFUG313IGDWKY5/berners.png People - Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee graduated from the Queen's College at Oxford University, England, 1976. Whilst there he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television.He spent two years with Plessey Telecommunications Ltd (Poole, Dorset, UK) a major UK Telecom equipment manufacturer, working on distributed transaction systems, message relays, and bar code technology. In 1978 Tim left Plessey to join D.G Nash Ltd (Ferndown, Dorset, UK), where he wrote among other things typesetting software for intelligent printers, and a multitasking operating system. A year and a half spent as an independent consultant included a six month stint (Jun-Dec 1980)as consultant software engineer at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Whilst there, he wrote for his own private use his first program for storing information including using random associations. Named "Enquire", and never published, this program formed the conceptual basis for the future development of the World Wide Web. From 1981 until 1984, Tim worked at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd, with technical design responsibility. Work here included real time control firmware, graphics and communications software, and a generic macro language. In 1984, he took up a fellowship at CERN, to work on distributed real-time systems for scientific data acquisition and system control. Among other things, he worked on FASTBUS system software and designed a heterogeneous remote procedure call system. In 1989, he proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World Wide Web. Based on the earlier "Enquire" work, it was designed to allow people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents. He wrote the first World Wide Web server, "httpd", and the first client, "WorldWideWeb" a what-you-see-is-what-you-get hypertext browser/editor which ran in the NeXTStep environment. This work was started in October 1990, and the program "WorldWideWeb" first made available within CERN in December, and on the Internet at large in the summer of 1991. Through 1991 and 1993, Tim continued working on the design of the Web, coordinating feedback from users across the Internet. His initial specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined and discussed in larger circles as the Web technology spread. In 1994, Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since that time he has served as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium which coordinates Web development worldwide, with teams at MIT, at INRIA in France, and at Keio University in Japan. The Consortium takes as its goal to lead the Web to its full potential, ensuring its stability through rapid evolution and revolutionary transformations of its usage. The Consortium may be found at http://www.w3.org/. In 1999, he became the first holder of the 3Com Founders chair at LCS, and is now a Senior Research Scientist within the Lab. The Lab merged with the AI lab to became "CSAIL", the Computer Science and Artificail Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615150676986-ZJLEW04QDY0PN171POLJ/Gates.png People - William Henry "Bill" Gates III Bill Gates (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, the world's third richest person (as of February 8, 2008), and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. Gates was the richest person in the world for 15 consecutive years. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008, he remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/products daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1981-bits-and-chips-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615149658900-VZYBBZS821Z0PTG4MTPW/mosaic.png 1995- Mosaic In A Box - 1995- Mosaic In A Box Mosaic is the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web. It was also a client for earlier protocols such as FTP, Usenet, and Gopher. Its clean, easily understood user interface, reliability, Windows port and simple installation all contributed to making it the application that opened up the Web to the general public. Mosaic was also the first browser to display images inline with text instead of displaying images in a separate window. While often described as the first graphical web browser, Mosaic was preceded by the lesser-known Erwise and ViolaWWW. Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign beginning in late 1992. NCSA released the browser in 1993, and officially discontinued development and support on January 7, 1997. However, it can still be downloaded from NCSA. Fifteen years after its introduction, the most popular contemporary browsers, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, retain many of the characteristics of the original Mosaic graphical user interface (GUI) and interactive experience. Netscape Navigator was later developed by many of the original Mosaic authors; however, it intentionally shared no code with Mosaic. Netscape Navigator's code descendant was Mozilla. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/people-mainframes daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503345015-QVU6VJ05MLMZGWHSL4GZ/hopper.png People - Grace Murray Hopper Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper was a remarkable woman who grandly rose to the challenges of programming the first computers. During her lifetime as a leader in the field of software development concepts, she contributed to the transition from primitive programming techniques to the use of sophisticated compilers. She believed that "we've always done it that way" was not necessarily a good reason to continue to do so. Grace Brewster Murray was born on December 9, 1906 in New York City. In 1928 she graduated from Vassar College with a BA in mathematics and physics and joined the Vassar faculty. While an instructor at Vassar, she continued her studies in mathematics at Yale University, where she earned an MA in 1930 and a PhD in 1934. She was one of four women in a doctoral program of ten students, and her doctorate in mathematics was a rare accomplishment in its day. In 1930 Grace Murray married Vincent Foster Hopper. (He died in 1945 during World War II, and they had no children.) She remained at Vassar as an associate professor until 1943, when she joined the United States Naval Reserve to assist her country in its wartime challenges. After USNR Midshipman's School-W, she was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University, where she worked at Harvard's Cruft Laboratories on the Mark series of computers. In 1946 Admiral Hopper resigned her leave of absence from Vassar to become a research fellow in engineering and applied physics at Harvard's Computation Laboratory. In 1949 she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a Senior Mathematician. This group was purchased by Remington Rand in 1950, which in turn merged into the Sperry Corporation in 1955. Admiral Hopper took military leave from the Sperry Corporation from 1967 until her retirement in 1971. Throughout her years in academia and industry, Admiral Hopper was a consultant and lecturer for the United States Naval Reserve. After a seven-month retirement, she returned to active duty in the Navy in 1967 as a leader in the Naval Data Automation Command. Upon her retirement from the Navy in 1986 with the rank of Rear Admiral, she immediately became a senior consultant to Digital Equipment Corporation, and remained there several years, working well into her eighties. She died in her sleep in Arlington, Virginia on January 1, 1992. During her academic, industry, and military tenure, Admiral Hopper's numerous talents were apparent. She had outstanding technical skills, was a whiz at marketing, repeatedly demonstrated her business and political acumen, and never gave up on her good ideas. Grace Hopper was a programmer on the Harvard Mark I and Mark II projects, and was hired by the Eckert and Mauchly Computer Company in 1949 to program the commercial version of the ENIAC. She experimented with the concept of software reusability, and published a paper in 1952 which laid out the general concepts of language translation and compilers. General computer languages were thus enabled, which created an environment that encouraged a significantly larger universe of computer users and applications. Hopper became a Commodore in the U.S. Navy in 1983 (which was converted to an Admiral in 1985), and died in 1992. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503410159-66Z1P50NLMOU0GFC4ERX/hopper-+bug.png People https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503558196-TE0YWWN7Y61S41IO50T6/aiken.png People - Howard H. Aiken Howard Aiken studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later obtained his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 1939. During this time, he encountered differential equations that he could only solve numerically. He envisioned an electro-mechanical computing device that could do much of the tedious work for him. This computer was originally called the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) and later renamed Harvard Mark I. With help from Grace Hopper and funding from IBM, the machine was completed in 1944. In 1947, Aiken completed his work on the Harvard Mark II computer. He continued his work on the Mark III and the Harvard Mark IV. The Mark III used some electronic components and the Mark IV was all-electronic. The Mark III and Mark IV used magnetic drum memory and the Mark IV also had magnetic core memory. Aiken was inspired by Charles Babbage's Difference Engine. In 1947, he is purported to have said, "Only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States." This remark is also attributed to Thomas J. Watson, but was probably said by neither. In 1958, he received the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering Engineers Day Award, in 1964 he received the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award, and in 1970, Aiken received IEEE's Edison Medal 'For a meritorious career of pioneering contributions to the development and application of large-scale digital computers and important contributions to education in the digital computer field.' Howard Aiken was also an Officer in the United States Navy Reserve. He retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and died on March 14, 1973 during a trip to St. Louis, Missouri. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503608633-4UXUASJ88QKVAHO92S52/eckert.png People - J. Presper Eckert John Adam Presper "Pres" Eckert Jr. (April 9, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly he invented the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), presented the first course in computing topics (the Moore School Lectures), founded the first commercial computer company (the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation), and designed the first commercial computer in the U.S., the UNIVAC, which incorporated Eckert's invention of the mercury delay line memory. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503675867-VCFWBFQR6YIASFZCP902/forrester.png People - Jay W. Forrester Graduating with an M.S. degree from MIT in 1945, Jay Forrester worked on a number of analog computer projects for the U.S. Navy. In 1948, when the demands of an aircraft stability analyzer appeard to outstrip the analog computing techniques of the day, Forrester began work on a digital machine, the Whirlwind I. It would advance the state of the computer art in many fundamental ways, including the development of high-speed circuits. The Whirlwind was the first "real-time" computer, made possible by Forrester's development of "coincident-current" magnetic core memory, which remained the dominant memory technology until the 1970's. He is currently involved with the System Dynamics approach to education. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503734795-KYCGRMH7IN3LZMXJDYXS/astanosoft.png People - John Vincent Atanasoff John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist. The 1973 decision of the patent suit Honeywell v. Sperry Rand named him the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer, a special-purpose machine that has come to be called the Atanasoff–Berry Computer. The son of a Bulgarian immigrant who became an electrical engineer, Atanasoff held positions as a teaching professor, a governmental wartime research director, and a corporate research executive before being recognized in the 1970s and 1980s for digital electronic computer research he conducted at Iowa State College in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1996, Torvalds accepted an invitation to visit the California headquarters of Transmeta, a start-up company in the first stages of designing an energy saving central processing unit (CPU). Torvalds then accepted a position at Transmeta and moved to California with his family. Along with his work for Transmeta, Torvalds continued to oversee kernel development for Linux. In 2003, Torvalds left Transmeta to focus exclusively on the Linux kernel, backed by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a consortium formed by high-tech companies, which included IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, AMD, RedHat, Novell and many others. The purpose of the consortium was to promote Linux development. OSDL merged with The Free Standards Group in January 2007 to become The Linux Foundation. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503782520-2WXCPP2XYB2R9J2EJ8HP/maulkly.png People - John William Mauchly John William Mauchly (August 30 1907 – January 8 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States. Together they started the first computer company, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and pioneered fundamental computer concepts including the stored program, subroutines, and programming languages. Their work, as exposed in the widely read First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945) and as taught in the Moore School Lectures (1946) influenced an explosion of computer development in the late 1940s all over the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503829915-VQL5KZ10GH3MP9A5UCEK/zuse.png People - Konrad Zuse Konrad Zuse June 22, 1910 Berlin - December 18, 1995 Hünfeld) was a German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, in 1941 (the program was stored on a punched tape). He received the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring in 1964 for the Z3. Zuse also designed the first high-level programming language, Plankalkül, first published in 1948, although this was a theoretical contribution, since the language was not implemented in his lifetime and did not directly influence early languages. One of the inventors of ALGOL (Rutishauser) wrote: "The very first attempt to devise an algorithmic language was undertaken in 1948 by K. Zuse. His notation was quite general, but the proposal never attained the consideration it deserved." In addition to his technical work, Zuse founded the first computer startup company in 1946. This company built the Z4, which became the second commercial computer leased to ETH Zürich in 1950. Due to World War II, however, Zuse's work went largely unnoticed in the UK and the USA; possibly his first documented influence on a US company was IBM's option on his patents in 1946. In the late 1960s, Zuse suggested the concept of a Calculating Space (a computation-based universe). There is a replica of the Z3, as well as the Z4, in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin in Berlin has an exhibition devoted to Zuse, displaying twelve of his machines, including a replica of the Z1, some original documents, including the specifications of Plankalkül, and several of Zuse's paintings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615503876866-CO4E84F0V3YHGXRXRWAG/cray.png People - Seymour Cray Seymour Roger Cray was a U.S. electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded the company Cray Research which would build many of these machines. Called "the father of super computing," Cray has been credited with creating the supercomputer industry through his efforts. In 1950, Cray joined Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ERA had formed out of a former United States Navy lab that had built code breaking machines, a tradition ERA carried on when such work was available. ERA was introduced to computer technology during one such effort, but in other times had worked on a wide variety of basic engineering as well. Cray quickly came to be regarded as an expert on digital computer technology, especially following his design work on the ERA 1103, the first commercially successful scientific computer. He remained at ERA when it was bought by Remington Rand and then Sperry Corporation in the early 1950s. At the newly formed Sperry-Rand, ERA became the "scientific computing" arm of their UNIVAC division. But when the scientific computing division was phased out in 1957, a number of employees left to form Control Data Corporation (CDC). Cray wanted to follow immediately, but CDC's CEO, William Norris, refused as Cray was in the midst of completing a project for the Navy, with whom Norris was interested in maintaining a good relationship. The project, the Naval Tactical Data System, was completed early the next year, at which point Cray left for CDC as well. By 1960 he had completed the design of the CDC 1604, an improved low-cost ERA 1103 that had impressive performance for its price range. Even as the CDC 1604 was starting to ship to customers in 1960, Cray had already moved on to designing its "replacement", the CDC 6600. Although in terms of hardware the 6600 was not on the leading edge, Cray invested considerable effort into the design of the machine in an attempt to enable it to run as fast as possible. Unlike most high-end projects, Cray realized that there was considerably more to performance than simple processor speed, that I/O bandwidth had to be maximized as well in order to avoid "starving" the processor of data to crunch. As he later noted, Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system. The 6600 was the first commercial supercomputer, outperforming everything then available by a wide margin. While expensive, for those that needed the absolutely fastest computer available there was nothing else on the market that could compete. When other companies (namely IBM) attempted to create machines with similar performance, he increased the challenge by releasing the 5-fold faster CDC 7600. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/mainframe-components daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-bendix daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-control-data daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-cray daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-ferranti daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-ge daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-rca daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-univac daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-ibm daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1957-geniac-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506219383-V0BNR8IEU047R16UPBHG/bendix+logic+board.png 1956- G-15 Logic Circuit - 1956- G-15 Logic Circuit The Bendix G-15 computer was introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It was about 5 by 3 by 3 ft (1.5m by 1m by 1m) and weighed about 950 lb (450 kg). The base system, without peripherals, cost $49,500. A working model cost around $60,000. It could also be rented for $1,485 per month. It was meant for scientific and industrial markets. The series was gradually discontinued when Control Data Corporation took over the Bendix computer division in 1963. The chief designer of the G-15 was Harry Huskey, who had worked with Alan Turing on the ACE in the United Kingdom and on the SWAC in the 1950s. He made most of the design while working as a professor at Berkeley, and other universities. David C. Evans was one of the Bendix engineers on the G-15 project. He would later become famous for his work in computer graphics and for starting up Evans & Sutherland with Ivan Sutherland. The G-15 is sometimes described as the first personal computer, because it had the Intercom interpretive system. The title is disputed by other machines, such as the LINC and the PDP-8, and some maintain that only microcomputers, such as those which appeared in the 1970s, can be called personal computers. Nevertheless, the machine's low acquisition and operating costs, and the fact that it did not require a dedicated operator, meant that organizations could allow users complete access to the machine. Over 400 G-15s were manufactured. About 300 G-15s were installed in the United States and a few were sold in other countries such as Australia and Canada. The machine found a niche in civil engineering, where it was used to solve cut and fill problems. Some have survived and have made their way to computer museums or science and technology museums around the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506239305-908NURTW3361TA6OZHLO/bendix+g15.png 1956- G-15 Logic Circuit https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1961-plug-in-module-b5000 daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506560339-FQO9T66NV747YL6DLMU5/burroughs+plug+in.png 1961- Plug in Module- B5000 - 1961- Plug in Module- B5000 1961- The first member of the series, the B5000, was designed beginning in 1961 by a team under the leadership of Robert (Bob) Barton. It was a unique machine, well ahead of its time. It has been listed by the influential computer architect John Mashey as one of the architectures that he admires the most. "I always thought it was one of the most innovative examples of combined hardware/software design I've seen, and far ahead of its time." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506578605-M1PZ5NUQRKGHXIXV70XT/burroughs+b5000.png 1961- Plug in Module- B5000 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1964-anfst2-circuit-board daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506795029-MLIRKADFOAVGECJLL0KB/an-fst.png 1964- AN/FST-2 Circuit Board - 1964- AN/FST-2 Circuit Board The Burroughs experience with transistor computers was in many respects parallel to that of Sperry Rand. At Burroughs too, early development of transistor computers for the military was not carried over in a timely manner into the large-scale commercial market, but the machine which emerged, the B5000, was a very innovative design. As was the case at Sperry Rand, Burroughs small computers kept the company in the computer business during the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors. The Atlas Guidance Computer The Burroughs Great Valley Research Laboratory at Paoli outside Philadelphia had from its beginning been heavily involved in military projects. It developed the AN/FST-2 data transmitting set for the Air Force's extensive North America air defense system which was deployed during the 1950s. When the system was complete, 134 of these data communications devices had been installed. The Air Force also turned to Burroughs for a transistor ground guidance computer for the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It was officially designated the AN/GSQ-33, but was usually referred to as the Atlas computer. The design was done by Isaac L. Auerbach, a former employee of Eckert-Mauchly who had joined Burroughs in the late 1940s. Work on the project began in April 1955, but problems with the transistors supplied by Philco slowed things down. In a 1992 interview, Auerbach recalled: "We had a major problem there. Philco was going to provide the surface barrier transistors. One of the conditions in the contract was that they could not move the laboratory line where they were manufacturing these until their production line was up running and we approved the quality of the transistors coming off the production line. Philco, without talking to us, set up a production line, cut it over without going parallel, and we got a pile of junk coming in." The problems showed up in testing, and Auerbach called Philco: "Look guys, I don't care what you're planning to do. You set that lab line back up again and you run them on that line, and if you have to, you run the entire production line that we want on that line. I'm not whistling. Here's the project, here's the priority, don't screw around with this". (Oral history interview of Isaac L. Auerbach, October 2-3, 1992, conducted by Bruce H. Bruemmer ,OH 241, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota) Eventually the problems were worked out, and the first machine was installed at the Cape Canaveral missile range in June 1957. Although Atlas missile launches started in September 1957, test patterns were transmitted to the missile in place of actual guidance commands for the first four flights. The first computer-controlled launch was on July 19, 1958. The computer had separate memory areas for instructions (2048 18-bit words) and data (256 24-bit words). The instruction area was increased to 2816 words, beginning with the Model III version, which was first delivered in December 1958. The Atlas guidance computer had no facilities for developing programs, so they were written on the UDEC II, the Datatron, and the 220, using simulator software. Burroughs was still doing Atlas programming on the 220 in 1964. In all, 18 Atlas guidance computers were built at a total project cost of $37 million. The computer was very reliable, and no Atlas launch was ever aborted due to computer failure. During the later phases of the Atlas project, Burroughs also developed a computer used in the Polaris submarine-launched missile system. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1964-ferrite-core-memory-cdc-6600 daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506961823-YVA7CLE8LY25VFKDTB07/cdc+6600.png 1964- Ferrite Core Memory CDC 6600 - 1964- Ferrite Core Memory CDC 6600 1964- Magnetic core memory, or ferrite-core memory (CDC 6600), is an early form of random access computer memory. It uses small magnetic ceramic rings, the cores, through which wires are threaded to store information via the polarity of the magnetic field they contain. Such memory is often just called core memory, or, informally, core. Core relies on the hysteresis of the magnetic material used to make the rings. Only a magnetic field over a certain intensity (generated by the wires through the core) can cause the core to change its magnetic polarity. To select a memory location, one of the X and one of the Y lines are driven with half the current required to cause this change. Only the combined magnetic field generated where the X and Y lines cross is sufficient to change the state; other cores will see only half the needed field, or none at all. By driving the current through the wires in a particular direction, the resulting induced field forces the selected core's magnetic field to point in one direction or the other (north or south). This core was from the CDC 6600, a mainframe computer from Control Data Corporation, first delivered in 1964. It is generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, outperforming its fastest predecessor, IBM 7030 Stretch, by about three times. It remained the world's fastest computer from 1964 to 1969, when it relinquished that status to its successor, the CDC 7600. The system organization of the CDC 6600 was used for the simpler (and slower) CDC 6400, and later a version containing two 6400 processors known as the CDC 6500. These machines were instruction-compatible with the 6600, but ran slower due to a much simpler and more sequential processor design. The entire family is now referred to as the CDC 6000 series. The CDC 7600 was originally to be compatible as well, starting its life as the CDC 6800, but during the design compatibility was dropped in favor of outright performance. The 7600 and 6600 were binary compatible, but the software developed in Sunnyvale was not compatible on the two machines. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615506978927-KQGHDOCGJH2HAMQF5BMB/cdc+6600+2.png 1964- Ferrite Core Memory CDC 6600 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1974-cdc-88391-300mb-disk-pack-removeable-14-media daily 0.75 2021-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507097771-EKFAYHBNWR3O76QE7WB4/cdc+disk+pack.png 1974- CDC 883-91 300MB Disk Pack Removeable 14" Media - 1974- CDC 883-91 300MB Disk Pack Removeable 14" Media https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1974-cdc-88391-300mb-disk-pack-removeable-14-media-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507215893-USP8S8VST5AFOGJ2LLQM/cray+1.png Cray 1 Circuit Board - Cray 1 Circuit Board https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507261382-15S53SODGW52MEV7VA37/cray+1+-2.png Cray 1 Circuit Board https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1950-delay-line-memory daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507405562-ZWLML7JPY1Y6UZBGJIDE/delay+line+memory.png 1950- Delay Line Memory - 1950's- Delay Line Memory Magnetostriction Delay Line Ferranti Electric In, Plainview NY Ser No: 10952 Type No: 5801 National Company Inc 31091 Delay line memory was a form of computer memory used on some of the earliest digital computers. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern random-access memory, delay line memory was serial-access. In the earliest forms of delay line memory, information introduced to the memory in the form of electric pulses was transduced into mechanical waves that propagated relatively slowly through a medium, such as a cylinder filled with a liquid like mercury, a magnetostrictive coil, or a piezoelectric crystal. The propagation medium could support the propagation of hundreds or thousands of pulses at any one time. Upon reaching the other end of the propagation medium, the waves were re-transduced into electric pulses, amplified, shaped, and reintroduced to the propagation medium at the beginning, thus refreshing the memory. Accessing a desired part of the propagation medium's memory contents required waiting for the pulses of interest to reach the end of the medium, a wait typically on the order of microseconds. Use of a delay line for a computer memory was invented by J. Presper Eckert in the mid-1940s for use in computers such as the EDVAC and the UNIVAC I. A later version of the delay line used metal wires as the storage medium. Transducers were built by applying the magnetostrictive effect; small pieces of a magnetostrictive material, typically nickel, were attached to either side of the end of the wire, inside an electromagnet. When bits from the computer entered the magnets the nickel would contract or expand (based on the polarity) and twist the end of the wire. The resulting torsional wave would then move down the wire just as the sound wave did down the mercury column. In most cases the entire wire was made of the same material. Unlike the compressive wave, however, the torsional waves are considerably more resistant to problems caused by mechanical imperfections, so much so that the wires could be wound into a loose coil and pinned to a board. Due to their ability to be coiled, the wire-based systems could be built as "long" as needed, and tended to hold considerably more data per unit; 1k units were typical on a board only 1 foot square. Of course this also meant that the time needed to find a particular bit was somewhat longer as it traveled through the wire, and access times on the order of 500 microseconds were typical. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/ge-225-core-memory-plane daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507578472-VPVV8P1CR9A3ZE79AQ42/ge+225.png GE 225 Core memory Plane - GE 225 Core memory Plane The GE-200 product originated in the early days of the Computer Department in Phoenix AZ. In fact, the GE-200 name has been also used for banking products derived from the first GE computer, the ERMA project, General Electric marketed in the early 60s the GE200 Bank Transit system around a document (check) sorting system. Three variations of the same central processor constitutes that product line sold between 1959 ? and 1966. GE-225 GE 235 GE-215 The GE-225 was derived from the GE-312 and 412 Process control computers, then part of the Computer Department products. It was designed by Arnold Spielberg and Chuck Prosper, ex-RCA engineers who have been working on BIZMAC. It was introduced in 1960. The GE-225 was a 20-bits word binary machine with 3 hardware registers not specially designed for business applications. The instruction of 20-bits contains a 5-bits OP code, 2-bits of address modification and 13-bits of operand address Floating Point is a hardware option. Decimal arithmetic (with 3 6-bits BCD numbers per word , is another option. Real-Time clock, Move command was also an optional feature. Addition was performed in 36 µs. Multiplication in 288 µs and Division in 495µs Technology was solid-state (diodes and transistors). A 8K words system contained 1,000 circuit boards, 10,000 transistors, 20,000 diodes and 186,000 magnetic cores.The power dissipation was 16 KVA. Main memory was offered in 4, 8 and 16K words.Its access time was 18 µs. Peripherals included: Disks (MRADS Mass Random Access Data Storage) 98304 words per unit, thruput 62.5Kcps, up to 32 units. Magnetic Tapes at 200 and 556 bpi operating at 75ips Card reader 400 or 1000 cpm Card punch 100 or 300 cpm Paper Tape reader at 250 or 1000 cps Paper Tape punch 110 cps Line Printer 900 lpm 160 columns Datanet 15 single communication line controller 75 to 1600 bps Datanet 30 communications processor Check sorter 1200 dpm Typewriter 10 cps Up to 11 devices may operate simultaneously, through independent channels connected to the memory by an autonomous "controller selector". Unit record devices operated under processor control. Software includes a compiler of GECOM language (a COBOL dialect with many ALGOL features), TABSOL (a language based on decision tables), WIZ (a Algebraic compiler), FORTRAN II, GAP a translator for IBM 650 and LGP30 and a Report Generator. Charlie Bachmann develops the IDS data base system for the GE-225 before it was ported to GE-400 and GE-600 One of the major initial customers was at Huntsville Arsenal, a NASA predecessor) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507596100-E0MBNG8J54OOHIYLS9OC/ge+225+-+2.png GE 225 Core memory Plane https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1960-rca-16x16-ferrite-core-memory daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507784296-88RJ0FSLLWHBBI4BZCNG/rca+core+memory.png 1960- RCA 16x16 Ferrite Core Memory - 1960- RCA 16x16 Ferrite Core Memory Magnetic Ferrite Core Memory Plane RCA 1904846- 501 #1856 4 Cores 8x8 256 Bytes https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1963-rca-3488-magnetic-card daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507950475-LBK8UMP3MTRNE8LNNOU9/rca+magnetic+card.png 1963- RCA 3488 Magnetic Card - 1963- RCA 3488 Magnetic Card https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615507968100-52N6TRCVAD75JCL7RJR1/rca+3301.png 1963- RCA 3488 Magnetic Card https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/rca-ferrite-core-memory daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615508090967-BO028N95B3J4QZGEEMGW/rca+ferrite+cord+memory.png RCA Ferrite Core Memory - RCA- Ferrite Core Memory https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1951-6-aluminum-memory-reel-with-12in-bronze-tape daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615508205930-JJTYMMLR1RGKPTCYRSZC/univac+6in+tape.png 1951- 6" ALUMINUM MEMORY REEL WITH 1/2in BRONZE TAPE - 1951- 6" ALUMINUM MEMORY REEL WITH 1/2in BRONZE TAPE The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was begun by their company, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".) The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. The fifth machine (built for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 presidential election. With a sample of just 1% of the voting population it correctly predicted that Dwight Eisenhower would win. The UNIVAC I computers were built by Remington Rand's UNIVAC division (successor of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, bought by Rand in 1950). https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/1951-8-aluminum-memory-reel-with-12in-bronze-tape daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1615508310402-WAPLXJ8HEP5XYDXUKLO6/univac+8in+tape.png 1951- 8" ALUMINUM MEMORY REEL WITH 1/2in BRONZE TAPE - 1951- 8" ALUMINUM MEMORY REEL WITH 1/2in BRONZE TAPE 1951- The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was begun by their company, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".) The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. The fifth machine (built for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 presidential election. With a sample of just 1% of the voting population it correctly predicted that Dwight Eisenhower would win. The UNIVAC I computers were built by Remington Rand's UNIVAC division (successor of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, bought by Rand in 1950). https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/learn-more-mainframes daily 0.75 2021-03-12 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/act daily 0.75 2021-03-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616432227901-OSOSYHH44WVULPCJ7LCB/aprocot+f1.png ACT - 1984- Apricot F1 After the launch of the Apricot PC, largely inspired by the Victor S1 which sold well in the UK, ACT developed another computer, the Apricot F1. This new system was marketed equally as a business system and as a home-computer (with its TV video output for example). The design of the F1 is quite innovative with its original shape and infrared keyboard. The main unit is much more deep than large, and the straight line of the whole system was quite stylish for the time. There was no lead or cord between the keyboard and the main unit. All the communication was made through infrared signals. This is quite useful if you want to work from your sofa, four meters away from the main unit but you also must be sure that there is no obstacle between the keyboard and the infrared receivers located on the front of the main unit. The Apricot F1 was however originally shipped with a plastic light-pipe that could be connected between the keyboard and CPU so that obstacles would not block the signal. Another drawback was that the keyboard had to be constantly powered with batteries! This infrared feature is quite rare and the F1 is one of the only computers to be equiped with it, alongside the ACT Apricot Portable and Exelvision EXL-100 and a few others... Just above the quite comprehensive membrane keyboard are four small round buttons used to set the date and time of the internal clock, to change the rate of the keys auto-repeat feature, to lock the keyboard and to reset the computer. Even if the F1 used an 8086 it wasn’t really IBM PC compatible (though minor changes could make it BIOS compatible). The MS-DOS 2.11 used by the system is an Apricot modified version of the "real" MS-DOS. The Apricot F1 was delivered with a nice icon-based graphical interface called "Activity" along with quality bundled sotfware for graphics, communication, wordprocessing and system tools. The same infra-red mouseball pointing device used with the Apricot Portable was available for the F1. As the F1 was not IBM PC compatible and not particularly cheap, it didn't have great success outside its native country (UK). A slightly less expensive version was also released, labelled F1e. It was the same machine but the 720 KB floppy drive was replaced by a single sided 320 KB version. This version was about 300 Euros cheaper than the normal version https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616432328109-N9TR33UUKKBQYPFBARRN/apricot+x1.png ACT - 1984- Apricot XI The Xi was the hard-disk version of the cream-coloured Apricot PC. The keyboard could be clipped to the underside of the machine, and a little cover would slide over the front panel to conceal the floppy drive. A handle then slid out of the front (just under the ridge) that allowed it to be carried very easily. A colour screen was available - a re-packaged 10" Sony Trinitron screen that almost nobody bought because it was so expensive. The mono screens had an anti-glare coating consisting of a very fine nylon mesh stretched over the screen and held in place by the bezel. Anybody who made the mistake of spraying glass cleaner on it would regret it, as the cleaner just clogged up in the pores of the mesh and left a nasty stain on the screen, which could only be removed by dismantling the monitor in order to rinse the mesh in water. Model Xi5 : 256 KB RAM + 5 MB hard-disk + 315k disk-drive Model Xi10 : 256 KB RAM + 10 MB hard-disk + 720k disk-drive Model Xi20 : 512 KB RAM + 20 MB hard-disk + 720k disk-drive Model Xi20s : 1 MB RAM + 20 MB hard-disk + 720k disk-drive There was also a very rare model - coloured pale grey, which had a hard drive of 50 MB or thereabouts. https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/cannon daily 0.75 2021-03-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616432683194-OYYFW2AO9SPDSZGS3LXU/canon+cx1.png Cannon - 1981- CX-1 This business computer has a monitor and two 5.25" drives built-in. The drives had a door lock so the disk could not be removed while a file was open. The CX-1 uses MCX (Media for Canon X series) as its operating system, which is similar to CP/M. The character matrix consists of 5x7 dots for normal characters, and of 7x9 for semi-graphic characters. There was a graphic option in Japan (300 x 260), but it never became available in the US. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616432759392-J9L1QDYOHL0ZQGHBG5WY/cannon+cat.png Cannon - Cat https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-apricot daily 0.75 2021-03-22 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/cromemco daily 0.75 2021-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616436441373-ZZLKJF3XBL8MCWI6T8SP/cromemco+system+1.png Cromemco - 1976- System 1 These computers were built around the S100 bus. The S100 BUS was a standard (also known under the name IEEE 696) for connection on Zilog Z80 or Intel 8080 processors. A lot of S100 cards were available for the Cromenco systems. Four Cromenco systems were available : - System 0: Z80 A + RAM 64 KB + 2 floppy disk drives (390 KB each), - System I: As system 0 + 1 hard disk (5 MB). - System III: Z80 CPU, Dual 8" Persci electrically driven floppy drives, 64 KB RAM. It was S-100 bus, Multiuser, used MP/M operating system. In 1982, Cromemco also introduced the CS-1H system using a dual processor board (Motorola 68000 and Z80) and offering 16 MB of address space. For the moment, we don't know exactly the specific features for the Systems II and IV. These systems ran under Cromix (the Cromenco Unix version). They could run under CP/M and CDOS too (CDOS is a CP/M like operating system). Several languages were developped especially for these computers : Fortran IV or a 16 K Z80 Basic wich was given as "one of the fastest and most capable. Full 14-digit precision". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616436368832-5CV99CPMRUSA9WCHU4KQ/cromemco+c10.png Cromemco - 1982- C-10 The C-10 is Cromemco's only attempt to step in the market of personal and family oriented computers. The goal was to compete with Apple II's and IBM PC's in small businesses as they started getting equipped with computer systems. This standard CP/M based system featured a 12'' screen housing a single motherboard, without extension capabilities (no S-100 bus), a keyboard and floppy drive. The CDOS operating system (a CP/M variant) came with several business software tools (spreadsheet, word processor, BASIC language). https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/about-apricot-1 daily 0.75 2021-03-22 https://www.alspaugh-engineering.com/osborne daily 0.75 2021-03-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616458005531-03FZQGZ5H5AKJDVAPICL/osbourn+1.png Osborne - 1981- Osborne 1 1981- The Osborne 1 is one of the first portable computers but needs external power source. Its name comes from Adam Osborne, the man who made this computer a reality (not quite true, see end of the text). It has a very small built-in screen (8.75 x 6.6 cm, which can display 128 columns!!) and weighs more than 10 Kg. The first models couldn't display more than 52 columns by line, so to access to the 76 other columns, the user had to scroll among the screen thanks to the cursor keys. It works under CP/M and was sold with Digital Research CBASIC (compiled BASIC), SuperCalc (spreadsheet), WordStar (word processor), MailMerge (mailing) and Microsoft's MBasic (MBasic source code was 100% upwards compatible with IBM PC's BASICA, source code only). This machine would be succeeded in 1983 by the Osborne Executive, which featured a larger screen (YAHOO!) and lower-profile disk drives. Despite its interesting characteristics, Osborne Computer Corporation suffered the competition of the first IBM PC compatibles and went bankrupt in 1983. One casualty was a planned portable computer called the Osborne PC (which, interestingly, was an MS-DOS clone). It was never released (even though prototypes exist). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616458094500-GFCAIGEDBIOQF26HDSZ5/osbourn+executive.png Osborne - 1982- Executive 1982- The Executive is the successor of the Osborne 1, from which it keeps the good points and correct its flaws. More memory, bigger screen, more powerful software and... higher price. When closed, the Executive looks like a sewing machine! Once opened, the detachable keyboard is connected to the main unit through a quite short coiled cord. The keyboard can be tilted for a better typing. It has a separated numeric keypad and 4 cursor keys. The layout of these keys is not very convenient. There is "left" & "up" on one row, and "down" & "right" on the other... The front panel of the Executive is divided in four parts. In the center, one can find the built-in amber monitor (13 x 10 cm) bigger than the Osborne 1 one. On the right hand side, there is the fan grid, the Executive logo and the on/off button. The two 5.25" half-height disk drives, are mounted horizontaly just above an empty disk storage space. Different connectors are placed at the bottom of the front panel: two RS232c/serial (for printers and modem), one Centronics and the keyboard connector. Next to them are brightness and contrast control knobs, as well as a reset button. At the back of the system is the handle to carry the system once it is closed. Under this handle is the fan trap door, which you have to open before starting to work. The Executive has of course its own power supply unit, but what is more uncommon, is that it can accept 110v or 220v, the system will convert both. This was useful for people traveling a lot. The built-in monitor was the main flaw of the Osborne 1. This tiny screen was displaying 52 of 132 virtual columns (this was done by scrolling), resulting in 2 mm high characters! The Executive has a wider screen which can really display 80 columns, though some critics said it was still too small. The characters can be displayed in normal mode, half intensity, inverse or blink. Two character sets are available, and independant windows can be defined. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/602d9ad17a160a6611df12e0/1616458186306-S8RYNBW5AWX6GRC9GWX8/osbourn+vixen.png Osborne - 1984- Vixen (OCC4) The VIXEN is bundled with CP/M 2.2, WordStar 3.3, Supercalc 2, MBASIC, a game called Desolation, Osboard Software (for drawing graphics), Media Master (to transfer data to MS DOS disks) and Turnkey to change some system features. The Osborne VIXEN was priced at $1298. An optional 10 MB hard disk could be added with an interface card (the hard disk was $1498, more than the computer !). Curtis A. Ingraham (who worked for Osborne) reports: The Osborne Vixen was in development at the time the company filed bankruptcy. I believe it was never offered for sale. It was developed by a consultant, Fred Coury, as I recall. It was significantly smaller and lighter than the Osborne 1. One of the unique aspects of the electronic design was that all of the diskette drive electronics was integrated onto the main printed circuit board of the computer, thus saving cost and space. The disk electronics for the Vixen was designed by Patrick L. McGuire. (In typical computers of that time, diskette drives came from their manufacturers with a large electronics board on each drive.) The Vixen was a great follow-on product to the Osborne 1. Unfortunately, the IBM PC was released about that time, and customers stopped buying anything but the PC and, later, the Compaq portable. The CP/M computer market disappeared almost overnight. Barry Carlton reports: Your information that the Osborne Vixen was never offered for sale is incorrect. I owned one from about 1985 to 1988, buying it new from Worswick Industries (Dwight Worswick) in San Diego. Osborne went into bankruptcy in 1983, as I recall, but reorganized and went back into operation briefly in about 1984 or 1985. That's when I bought the Vixen (to replace my Osborne 1). I had the Vixen up until I got my first Mac, in 1988. Toward the end, I got a modem, joined CompuServe, and also hooked the machine to a 10 Mb hard drive that was horribly noisy, and as long as the Vixen was deep. "I was president of the First Osborne Group until we made the decision that the need for CP/M support had faded and we had served our purpose. At our peek, FOG had over 17,000 members in more than 40 countries. Their were two incarnations of the Vixen that I''m aware of. One was black with horizontal drives. Very few were produced as it was about to be launched when the first re-org bankruptcy occurred. Osborne survived and launched a slightly modify version. It had the more traditional Osborne look and they returned to vertical drives. There was an external hard drive for it. I kept my Vixens, and had two of them out on the dining room table earlier today. Even the hard drive is still alive and kicking, with a large amount of CP/M software loaded on it. I built a menu system using "super submit" to make it easy to cycle through the options. I found a new home for the Vixens on another vintage computer website where they can be seen again. Ahh.. the memories." 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