imsai 2

From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay_at_cs.umn.edu>
Date: Tue Aug 17 11:15:26 1999

> Thanks to someone on the list, I saw the url for the people making a "new"
> imsai.
>
> I couldn't help but wonder: Will the fact that you can buy a new one for
> $995.00 finally curb the pricing on places like ebay for the vintage ones do
> you think?
>
> Jay West
>

I'm waiting to see if they follow historical precedents and collect money
for a year or so before shipping anything... I'm also waiting to see what
operating system it will run, when and which languages will be available,
and exactly how much has to be added to make a usable system. I seem to recall
when I read it yesterday, that it only comes with a pathetic amount of ram..
It would be nice if it could at least run cp/m, have Basic, FORTRAN, and Pascal
available, and have a usable bitmap graphics display. I'm also waiting
to see how the floppy and hard drive interfaces work out.

This sure seems to cost a lot for a box with no floppy or hard drive interfaces
as standard, no operating system or programing languages as standard, etc,
etc. I admit that I am intrigued by the possibilities though. If i could
buy a new paper tape reader/punch for it, i could overlook much of this...

I guess what I'm really saying is, I'm waiting to see how nostalgic the
computer will be, versis how modernistic it will be...

-Lawrence LeMay
Received on Tue Aug 17 1999 - 11:15:26 BST