Byte Jan 87 retrospective.

It's been slow the last few days on the list so it is time to send this. It is another look back at an issue of a magazine. This one is the January 1987 issue of Byte. There is some interesting stuff. Enjoy. --pec -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prelude Once again Sam Ismail beat me to the punch. I've been working on this on and off for about a week (mostly during long compiles). Most likely it will be boring to some, but there is some value in looking back occasionally to see how we got to this point. If the group consensus is that this sort of stuff does not belong on the list, this will be the last one. A few more are planned, but they focus more on the happier days of the 70s and early 80s. Introduction While going through some old magazines I came across the January 1987 issue of Byte. It is the oldest copy of Byte that I currently own. Over the years I have pulled this issue out and looked at it several times, not because it was a particularly good or bad issue, but because it was my first. Since this list is about collecting computers over 10 years old and this is a magazine about computers which is over ten years old, it seems to be on topic. This is somewhat biased look back to the state of computing 10 years ago as presented by Byte. As has been noted, the articles in this issue have an academic flavor so it clearly belongs to the second age. The cover of this issue features a butterfly whos body is an IC and whos wings are paper basic listings. The butterfly sits on a leaf with circuit board traces. The focus of the magazine is programmable hardware. On the cover is a block of text: REVIEWS: ------- 9 PC AT Multifunction Cards 12 EGA Cards 3 Modula-2s 12 PC AT Clones. Clearly in 1987 we were in the era of the PC. Looking through the magazine, there are some interesting threads. There are quite a few ads for expert systems/AI programs. There is even an article on the use of intelligent databases which advocates the use of Prolog to implement databases. Many languages are represented in ads and articles including several C products, Modula-2 ads and reviews, as well as ads for Forth, COBOL, Pascal, BASIC, and APL. These are primary ads focused on selling language products. There are also several ads for Unix and machines which ran Unix. It appears that a good machine in 1987 was a 286 with a 9 pin dot matrix printer, 512K of memory, a 20MB hard disk, and a 2400bps modem. A top of the line machine was a 386 with either a 24 pin dot matrix printer or a laser printer, 1MB of memory, a 40MB+ hard disk, and a 9600bps modem. There are many ads for 1200/2400 bps modems and dot matrix printers. The state of the art at the time does appear to be 9600 bps modems and 24 pin printers. One or two ads mention laser printers. It is obvious that 386 has not been on the scene for a long time. Most ads for clone machines feature AT class computers. 386's are priced at a premium. Logicsoft lists only one 386, a Compaq Deskpro with 1MB of memory, 16MHz maximum clock speed, and a 40MB hard disk for $5,349. A monitor is available as an option. Interestingly there is some coverage of the Amiga and Atari ST. There is not anywhere near the coverage of x86 machines. Several ads mention Amigas, STs, and even VAXen. The dog that didn't bark There is only one ad by Microsoft, and it is in the form of a "Languages Newsletter". It features a picture of Bill Gates and pushes their C compiler and QuickBasic. There are no articles about Microsoft products. In 1987 they had not yet achieved a strangle hold on the programming and applications markets. While there was still some diversity it was definitely being elbowed out by the beige boxes. Prices Everything was more expensive then. It is amazing that a box of 360K disks cost between 8 and 12 dollars. There are several ads in the back of the magazine in which DSDD disks could be had for as low as $.25 per disk (in quantities of 500). High end products today still command premium prices.