Micro Computers 1978 to the present
Transam Triton – A micro computer kit based on the Intel 8080 and the design published in Electronics Today International around 1978. The display & modem (used for the cassette interface) chips had been developed for the French Minetel service which replaced the phone book in France.
- Intel 8080 running at 500KHz
- 64 column by 32 row character display, on a TV set.
- 4 Kbyte of ROM, 2 Kbyte monitor & 2 Kbyte tiny BASIC
- 4 Kbyte of RAM, 1 Kbyte of which was only 7 bits wide for the character display
- Cassette tape interface for storage.
Nascom 1 – Another micro computer kit but based on the Zilog Z80. At first sight not as capable as the Triton, but boy was it fast!. Conway’s game of life I had coded on the Triton had to have idle loops inserted just to make it visible on the Nascom’s TV display.
- Zilog Z80 running at 2 MHz
- 48 column by 16 row character display on a TV set
- 2 Kbyte of EPROM
- 2 Kbyte of RAM, 1 Kbyte of which was used for the display
- Cassette tape interface for storage
Sinclair ZX81 – A complete micro computer with a membrane keyboard.
- Zilog Z80 running at 3.25 MHz
- 32 column by 24 row character display on a TV set
- 8 Kbyte of ROM containing BASIC
- 1 Kbyte of RAM
- Cassette tape interface for storage
Dragon 64 – Produced by Dragon Data Ltd, Port Talbot, Wales, built around the 6809.
- Motorola MC6809E running at 0.89 MHz
- 16 Kbyte ROM containing BASIC by Microsoft
- 64 Kbyte RAM
- RS-232, parallel printer port & video port
- Cassette tape interface for storage
Atari 520STE – Produced by the Atari Corporation, with the Motorola 68000 processor.
- Motorola 68000
- 3.5″ floppy disk drive
- 512Kb of memory
Amiga 500 – Commodore-Amiga Inc. Only had this machine for a short while.
- Motorola 68000
- 3.5″ floppy disk drive
- 512Kb of memory
PC – Intel Pentium 75, came with Windows 95. My first PC and probably the first Intel processor that was more capable the the Motorola 68000’s.
From that first x86 PC there followed an almost constant, as funds allowed, tear down and rebuild until at one point I had three machines on the go.
Apple iMac & Mac Mini Server – Late 2009 & late 2012 Intel Core i7, currently the OS is Mountain Lion, like the man say “It just needs work”! Also the first computer not to be described as ugly by the other half!
Apple Mac Pro – Late 2013, Beautiful hardware but the software needs a little more work, the the main problems are in the networking, wired is OK’ish but the Wi-Fi disconnects & reconnects several times a minute.
Since I wrote the above on the networking of the Mac Pro the situation has improved vastly, Apple has got their act together eventually!
Raspberry Pi – Cracking little computers
“But look around you…
Death and Light are everywhere,
always, and they begin, end, strive, attend,
into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world,
burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty.”
Roger Zelazny “The Lord of Light”