31 Jul
2013
31 Jul
'13
11:41 a.m.
On Wed, 31 Jul 2013, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I don't know about Europe, but it was the minimum
configuration
sold--you built onto it when purchasing it. I purchased mine as a 16KB,
and added onto it at the store (ComputerLand). As I recall, the base
16KB unit was about $1000 at stores.
$1320 (or maybe it was $1365 (unrefreshed dynamic wetware))
It had one row of SOLDERED IN 16K, and 3 rows of sockets.
9 chips per row - IBM went with Parity from the start.
IBM wanted LOTS of money for each row of 16K RAM, but it took the same
ones as TRS80, where there was an intense market competition.
FDC was about $300, plus a couple of TRS80 drives (also intense
aftermarket competition) Use the Tandon, NOT the Shugard SA400!!
Video card was about $300.
CGA let you use a $100 CCTV monitor, or even a Sup'R'ModII RF modulator to
the Phildco in the living room.
(Or a $600? color monitor from IBM)(NO aftermarket for a few years)
MDA required a $300? MDA monitor - (NO aftermarket for a few years)
Printer, serial (RS232 and 20mA), and joystick card were cheap.
NOTE (for those not familiar): PARITY does NOT reduce errors, in fact,
9chips instead of 8 means 12.5% more errors. What PARITY does is LOCK UP
the machine when there IS an error. IBM considered the inconvenience of
having to reboot and rerun the software to be less important than the
possibility of printing $96.00 instead of $64.00 on a check.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com