OT? Compaq 5/60M

william degnan billdegnan at gmail.com
Tue Jun 16 23:43:17 CDT 2015


I know I keep pushing the boundary of vintage lately but I wanted to report
to those who care that I finally got my hands on a 1993 Compaq 5/60M - this
is "a if not the" first desktop computer with a Pentium processor installed
stock.  it was the 1993 "dream machine - $9000+   It had an EISA bus and
was otherwise a 486 system with a Pentium controller card, not on the
motherboard.  Pentium computers' contribution to the WWW era vintage is
extremely significant.

Pentium killed the minicomputer, or at a minimum merged into it, if you ask
me.  The interplay between DEC/Compaq/HP/Intel 1992-1995 culminating into
the launch of Pentium processor systems is vital to understanding the WWW
era of computing.  How these companies worked or did not work together and
how the Pentium vs. the Alpha processor came to be...a good tale of woe and
$$.

For those interested:  Compaq 5/60:
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=612

I have a bunch of articles to post on my site related to the first Pentium
desktops which I will do asap.

Bill

P.S. while we're on this off-sh topic I also posted some photos of a
Digital 486 laptop, DEC had a 486 laptop before it was absorbed by Compaq.
1994.  Not really noteworthy other than the Digital name
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=613

P.S.S. and related to Pentium and DEC ... here is one of DEC's early (but
not the first) Pentium machine
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=585


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