>
> >From The Register: "Intel and HP find oldest working PC"=20
> (http://www.theregister.com/content/67/34933.html)
>
> "Dutch company PHI DATA yesterday received a =80 18,000 prize from Intel,=
> HP=20
> and Dutch IT weekly Computable for still owning and operating a vintage I=
> BM=20
> 5160 (Intel 8088) computer from 1983. PHI Data uses the IBM to test matri=
THat's MODERN!!!
> x=20
> printers. It is now officialy the oldest obsolete-yet-active PC in the Lo=
> w=20
> Countries."
> <snip>
> "When Dell ran a contest in the USA back in 1999 for the oldest=20
> small-business PC still in use, the winner was the Altair 8800b. Still=20
> running a 1960 Digital PDP-1 to do your maths? Let us know."
>
> I suspect that a number on this list can do better.
Depends on what you mean by 'in use'. Many of us have systems much older
than that that are still working (my oldest desktop computer is probably
the HP9830 from 1973, the fact that there's a PDP8/e on my desk that's a
couple of years earlier doesn't make it a desktop :-)). But it's arguable
if they're 'in use'.
In terms of machines still doing very useful work here (as opposed to
machines that are fun to operate, repair, hack, etc), there's the PC/XT
that runs the EPROM and GAL programemrs. And the TRS-80 Model 4
(non-gate-array CPU board) that I use for disk copying (it makes a better
job of handling strange disk formats than any PC I've seen).
Actually, the M4 emitted a cloud of smoke the other week while copying a
disk (and carried on working as if nothing had happened). From the smell,
I would guess a tantalum capacitor exploded, but I've not had time to
pull the case to check.
-tony
Received on Fri Jan 16 2004 - 17:36:43 GMT