1979: Several of us went to Montana to see the solar eclipse
in February. A friend's father brought his brand new TRS-80
(Model I, Level I, 4K). We didn't get much sleep.
1980: The first machine I owned was a Heathkit 6800 processor
trainer. Not the fancy one that was expandable to include BASIC
and disks, but a short-lived low-end version with half the memory
in a cardboard box. It's good thing it worked the first time; I
probably couldn't have fixed it. I still have it, it still works.
Also about this time I started doing data entry for an accounting
firm running on a Burroughs B800. I eventually managed to scrounge
a full-screen editor and a COBOL compiler.
The high school got a good deal on Commodore PETs (buy 5 get 1
free, IIRC), so there were a bunch of them around. The chess club
had a TRS-80 Model I, which eventually sprouted Level II BASIC, an
expansion module, and diskette drives.
1981: Did some futzing about with a Billings microcomputer owned
by a company for which a friend work. It was my first encounter with
CP/M.
Went to college, where the main student machines were a Burroughs
B6800 and a VAX 11/780.
Started using the university's homebrew 8" CP/M machines.
Taught BASIC programming labs for EE; this was timeshared on a
pair of PDP-8s (one /e and one /m; one had core and one didn't.
You could tell which was which in the spring and fall when the
thunderstorms roared through).
1982: Started working for Dept. of Climatology using the VAX and
some of the university's homebrew 8" CP/M machines. I first
encountered an Osborne I here. Also did some work with the
Apple II in here.
1983: Someone asked me to translate a FORTRAN model to run on his
brand new TRS-80 Model 16. The only programming language available
for the Model 16 at the time was COBOL. Fortunately, summer
intervened before I got too far along.
Spent the summer in California at the Naval Weapons Center. Here's
where I met the PDP-11 and did some work with the DG Eclipse (which
ran rings around the VAX-11/780 for certain small jobs). Started
writing VMS device drivers. Encountered the VAX-11/730; heard
rumors about MicroVAX I.
1984: Back from summer job, got hired on to do VMS work. The
company did lots of stuff for DEC , so lots more PDP-11 and VAX
work. They also had lost of CP/M machines: a couple of DigiLogs,
some Televideo TS-802s, and some TS-803s.
About this time I bought my first 'pc' PC, a surplus 8" CP/M
machine from the university. I now have several of them.
A few years later I put together an 11/03 from spare parts
hanging around at work.
Eventually it dawned on me that the PDP-8 was an elegant
architecture and I picked up a surplus PDP-8/e from the
university.
About 1990 or so I picked up a surplus PDP-11/34 from
Evans & Sutherland.
--
Roger Ivie
rivie_at_teraglobal.com
Not speaking for TeraGlobal Communications Corporation
Received on Wed Nov 15 2000 - 10:37:54 GMT