-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com>
>> Didn't that happen a while back with the first NeXT cubes? Previous
>> situation where common sense by engineering was overruled by
>> marketing to make things pretty rather than really practical.
Another machine associated with Jobbs and overruled by marketing.... What
are the odds?
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
Yes things were moving fast even then.
>
>This was late in the game.
>
>The Altair when first available had 4 cards for IO, the SIO-A (single
>serial), 2SIO (2 6850 serial ports), PIO(parallel) and the infamous ACR.
The Digital Group developed boards that were the equivalent.
>At the time of the demo the ACR was available with usable software. Why
>they chose TTY loading to this date is speculation.
Keep in mind this was a group of sales types and maybe they
didn't have everything with them.
>
>What Sudding did do was to make the 300baud (30CPS) ACR and the 300baud
>(also 30cps) Kansas City standard look slow by pushing to 1500baud
>so that loading at 150cps was doable. However the Sudding standard
>never caught on as it was not tolerent of some problems (tape speed).
>The Tarbell standard would give a higher data rate and was self clocking.
>
>So went the audio casette hardware wars. When it was reaching it's peak
>most of us were looking at either real tape (saturation with block
>replaceability), disks or disk like systems.
Yes there was no question that disks were the way to go.
>
>
>Allison
>
>
>
< His name was Robert Suding. I have not talked to him for a long time.
< left Colorado over 20 years ago. Robert lives out in western Colorado n
< I do not know if he is doing any design work of any kind.
This was late in the game.
The Altair when first available had 4 cards for IO, the SIO-A (single
serial), 2SIO (2 6850 serial ports), PIO(parallel) and the infamous ACR.
At the time of the demo the ACR was available with usable software. Why
they chose TTY loading to this date is speculation.
What Sudding did do was to make the 300baud (30CPS) ACR and the 300baud
(also 30cps) Kansas City standard look slow by pushing to 1500baud
so that loading at 150cps was doable. However the Sudding standard
never caught on as it was not tolerent of some problems (tape speed).
The Tarbell standard would give a higher data rate and was self clocking.
So went the audio casette hardware wars. When it was reaching it's peak
most of us were looking at either real tape (saturation with block
replaceability), disks or disk like systems.
Allison
>Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 15:50:22 -0800
Come to think of it, their photo-drive is rather weird! Actually,
many of the latest machines are constructed quite originally, unlike
ones a few years ago.
>>
>> On Sun, 8 Nov 1998, Marvin wrote:
>>
>> > Probably anything manufactured by HP will be collectable,
>>
>> Why do you say that? What has HP made in the last, say, five years
that
>
>We are not talking about our particular biases right now, but rather
how
>things will be perceived in the future. I don't recall anyone thinking
that
>the IBM stuff would be collectable in the early 80's either.
Perceptions
>change :).
>
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>Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 10:27:04 -0800 (PST)
As well as portables/laptops, the Corel Netwinder, various NCs,
WebTV, kids' computers by vTech, the BeBox, and more.
>
>> Anybody care to hazard guesses at what products are actually being
>> manufactured now, that you'd want to have in your classic computer
>> collection ten years from now?
>
>Digital cameras, scanners, digital video cameras, photo printers, USB
>devices, interesting video capture/TV cards, those nifty all-in-one
>scanner/fax/printer/copier units, SyQuest drives (they be gone), Zip
>drives... It seems the peripherals are the only innovations being made
>these days in the PC world.
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 11/02/98]
>
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His name was Robert Suding. I have not talked to him for a long time. I
left Colorado over 20 years ago. Robert lives out in western Colorado now.
I do not know if he is doing any design work of any kind.
From the
>> back of the room my friend (the designer of the first digital group
>> computer) said he would like to make a brief demo.
>
>Who was this guy (what is his name), and is he still around?
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 11/02/98]
>
>
>
Ok you asked for it <grin>
The Altair sales team was invited to give a demo of the then new 8800. They
all showed up complete with a model 33 tty machine which was to read the
paper tape for loading the Altair. The paper tape was loaded and the tty
clanked along for about 4 to 5 minutes and finally stopped with the altair
system loaded.
They gave their dog and pony show and then asked for comments. From the
back of the room my friend (the designer of the first digital group
computer) said he would like to make a brief demo.
He carried his equipment up front (under one arm ) and placed it on the
table. The digital group system was loaded by means of an audio tape
recorder. The loading time aprox
10 seconds. The computer then was able to run all of the
basic routines written at that time.
Well, the Altair guys were a bit unhappy.
I know its shortcommings just like many of
>> the other early machines. I also can tell some rather amusing stories
>> about this machine.
>
>Please do.
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
Good day all, I have been following this thread and would like to add
another item from the late 70's. Have any of you heard of the Digital Group
computers? I have a few examples of this line which was developed as a true
hobbyst
machine. I know its shortcommings just like many of the other early
machines. I also can tell some rather amusing stories about this machine.
Bill Risch
This afternoon, I watched the movie Weird Science for the thousandth
time, and I have a question. Early in the movie, when Gary and Wyatt are
first "building" Lisa, they are working at an all-black computer with two
monitors (one is a green-screen and the other looks like a 19" color
monitor). The system does not look familiar. Remembering the thread about
the "War Games" computers, does anyone know:
1. Who made the computer on the desk? You can briefly see a logo on
the front which looks like "TDK".
2. Which system(s) did they use to create the wire-frame graphics?
The movie is (c) 1985 if that helps placing the technology. War Games is
(c) 1983.
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin!/CW7
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
- Collector of "classic" computers
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