Hardware

Dinosaur sightings - old-school computer hardware

By // May 25, 2007, 3:58 AM PST // billdetwiler

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  • Bill Detwiler's Tandy 1000

    This Tandy 1000 was my first real computer. It came with an Intel 8088 processor, 640K RAM, two 5.25" floppies, and a color monitor. I later upgraded to a 20 MB hard drive. I spent countless hours writing high school papers, crafting BASIC programs, and playing Gunship and MechWarrior on this machine. It still runs perfectly.

    Bill Detwiler, Section Editor, TechRepublic

  • Mac 512Ke that sits on Stephen Howard-Sarin's desk at CNET

    This was my main PC for most of college. It has a Dove board upgrade to add more RAM (a whole 1MB!) and SCSI. Those boxes sitting next to the CPU are an external Apple 20MB hard drive and an Asante SCSI-Ethernet thingamajig. This old Mac has MacPaint, MacWrite and MacHTTP on it. My dream is to get this up and running on the CNET network as the world's slowest Web server, but I'm not sure the IT department would let me.

    P.S. There's a fortune cookie saying taped above the screen: "A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains."

    Stephen Howard-Sarin, VP Business Technology Portfolio, CNET

  • Bill Gate's Altair

    Bill Gate's original 1970-era Altair computer and some of his paper-tape programs.

    &copy Webshots - jherrbachlowe

  • ENIAC

    Four of the panels and one of the functional tables from the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) displayed at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

    &copy Webshots - fishoftheweek

  • ENIAC vacuum tube

    A vacuum tube on the ENIAC

    &copy Webshots - manojpurayidathil

  • First Apple Computer

    The first Apple Computer now at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

    &copy Webshots - rocker419

  • Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer (WISC)

    Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer (WISC)

    &copy Webshots - manojpurayidathil

  • IBM System/360 console

    IBM System/360 console

    &copy Webshots - manojpurayidathil

  • Sinclair ZX81

    The ZX81 was the first computer that I owned.

    &copy Webshots - grcanac1

  • My Commodore C-64 (around 1985)

    This is a picture of how my Commodore C-64 was setup at the time. Back then around 1985, I only had one floppy disk drive (which the Vic-20n at the time had to share) it's hard to believe that not more then 2 or 3 years later, I'd have at least 5 drives for my Commodore Setup in a tower and by the 1990's, I had at least 30 Plus Commodore Drives People were giving me. My first drive there cost over $300.

    &copy Webshots - kapital11_2000

  • Sony SMC-70

    This is a picture of my old Sony SMC-70 computer, that was my first computer that I bought, in 1983 (came out in 1982) it had the first 3 1/2" floppy disks available commercially. It has a Z80A CPU at 4.072 MHz! it uses CP/M as an operating system, and the video mode can write on the screen at four layers. I also have a light pen and the printer that was available for it. You could also get a unit called a Supercharger with an 8086 CPU in it and the unit could be even more powerful.

    &copy CNET Networks - Submitted by: turgeon.m@...

Bill Detwiler's Tandy 1000

This Tandy 1000 was my first real computer. It came with an Intel 8088 processor, 640K RAM, two 5.25" floppies, and a color monitor. I later upgraded to a 20 MB hard drive. I spent countless hours writing high school papers, crafting BASIC programs, and playing Gunship and MechWarrior on this machine. It still runs perfectly.

Bill Detwiler, Section Editor, TechRepublic

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By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop supp...