December 19th, 1978: My birthday, and a Commodore PET 2001
is delivered to the school (8K model). Much BASIC
programming is done...
1979: Various Apple ][s, TRS-80s and Nascoms appear. I
also build an Acorn System One for the school electronics
lab.
February 1980: My first computer, a Compukit UK101 (clone
of the OSI Superboard II). Only 4K, in 2114 chips.
1981-1985: University computers, the Prime P750 (Primos,
Software Tools) and PDP-11/44 (Seventh Edition Unix).
1984: Vectrex, bought from Hamleys, London.
1986: First job, programming PC presentation graphics in
assembler, BASIC and C.
1987: Atari 520ST, purchased on Tottenhan Court Road in
London. Very cheap, non-working unit, which I fixed by
reseating the chips.
1989: New job with INMOS and the transputer.
1990: First "PC", a 25MHz 386SX motherboard and no case.
1992: First "classic", an Apple ][. Closely followed by
many other classics, once people got to know that I would
take any old junk off their hands. Things like PDP-11s,
PERQs, Suns, MicroVaxen, BBCs, Dragons, Vectrexes,
Whitechapels.
1995: A new PC! Junked 80486 motherboard. IDE disks,
really modern stuff!
1998: House full. Change of policy: only collect *small*
classic computers...
1999: Another new PC -- Pentium I, 133MHz, ATX.
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball_at_uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
Received on Thu Nov 16 2000 - 12:06:28 GMT