On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Robert Feldman wrote:
From The
Register: "Intel and HP find oldest working PC"
(
http://www.theregister.com/content/67/34933.html)
"Dutch company PHI DATA yesterday received a ? 18,000 prize from Intel, HP
and Dutch IT weekly Computable for still owning and operating a vintage IBM
5160 (Intel 8088) computer from 1983. PHI Data uses the IBM to test matrix
printers. It is now officialy the oldest obsolete-yet-active PC in the Low
Countries."
<snip>
"When Dell ran a contest in the USA back in 1999 for the oldest
small-business PC still in use, the winner was the Altair 8800b. Still
running a 1960 Digital PDP-1 to do your maths? Let us know."
I suspect that a number on this list can do better.
Not only on this list but everywhere. I would say thousands of companies
still run computers that are 20-30 years old because there was never any
need to upgrade. And I'm not just talking about embedded process control
type applications either.
Heck, in around 1999 I was contacted by a nursery in San Jose that was
finally retiring their 1950s Burroughs accounting machine. I passed it on
to the Computer History Museum where it sits today.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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