Re: Using 8088 computer as a UNIX terminal (over COM1)

From: Bill Vermillion (bv_at_wjv.com)
Date: 09/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 00:05:01 GMT

In article <cj9qpj$1f84$1@f04n12.cac.psu.edu>,
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins <hawk@slytherin.ds.psu.edu> wrote:
>In article <I4oqAF.4F8@wjv.com>, Bill Vermillion <bv@wjv.com> wrote:
>>In article <ch9t7j$14po$1@f04n12.cac.psu.edu>,
>>Dr. Richard E. Hawkins <hawk@slytherin.ds.psu.edu> wrote:
>>>In article <10jg43hl0tv7544@news.supernews.com>,
>>>Martin <nospam@example.org> wrote:
>>
>>>>I'm surprised that you say the Amstrad only supports 720k
>>>>floppies. I'm sure we had one which supported 1.44M disks like
>>>>all other PC compatibles.
>>
>>>Not even close :)

>>>The 1.44 is a later drive, which appeared on Mac first.

>>If the 1.44 first appeard on the Mac, can you explain why I was
>>using them on a Sony CPM machine when were were building what
>>may have been worlds first interactive electronics parts catalog
>>using a Sony LD player in October of 1983, when the Mac didn't ship
>>until January 1984?

>Because it was built by sony :) Also, "first" as in between mac & pc
>clones.

Ah. Sort of like comparing Ford and a Chevy and calling one of
them the best - and ignorning everthing else :-) In later
checking I find that Sony built their 3.5" as early as 1980.
I also remember HP trying to introduce the 3.25" floppy, and it
appears there were at least a couple of other sub 5.25" sizes
that were 'invented'.

>>This 'first' is an oft repeated myth.

>"First" was as compared to IBM. Yeah, that's it.

I'll accept that.

>I'm well aware that the drives existed before apple used them,
>but Apple was the first to use them in any quantity.

Up until the Mac and the 3rd year of the PC [when the Mac came out]
nothing was being sold in any great quantity. I remember when I
got my first computer and it was estimated there were 50,000 in
homes at that time. I was always and early adopter and my Sony
Beta I had a serial number of about 30,000. I'm a true
techno-junkie at heart.

>There may have been a couple of exotic ibm clones that used them
>before the mac shipped, but they were rare.

I don't recall any machines that ran PC-DOS [which is what is was
called then] that had 3.5" drives - but other machines did.

Apple always seemed to push the PR buttons to the fullest. I
remember the time they took the ad in the New York Times when IBM
introduced the PC and it was sort of a 'welcome to the club'.
They were always very good at advertising. [I notice things like
that as I used to work in broadcast at one timer].'.

And of course I guess at $10,000 you could call the Lisa exotic.
I saw one of those a year before the Mac came out. The Apple
people demoed on at our computer club [pretty technical club].

My first impression was it was the screens looked similar to the
Xerox Star that Xerox showed us a year or so before then when
they also talked about a new way to communicate that they called
'ethernet'.

I wish they had groups like that. One other time someone brought
some 5.25" Shugart ST-512 drives. They got a deal and were
selling them for $995 each. And that was a 5MB drive.

If you figure the prices above and look at the inflation rate
something like the Lisa would buy a Mercedes today.

Bill 

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com