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House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

tomshardware.com

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Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#21

Post by Tor3 »

Tor3 wrote: post #18
actionfromafar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The headline is probably wrong, the article text just says "capable of" 16 kilobyte. I also think it's unlikely it had 16 installed. On the other hand, doesn't the screen look like a flatscreen, not a CRT? So the screen itself was probably very expensive in itself. (Probably plasma screen?) Edit: Look at the image and the bank of 3 * 8 socketed chips: https://www.peel.dk/Q1/img/SN615-03.jpg If these are the Intel 210…

That picture appears to be from a Q1/Lite, which is a different beast (and used 4116 DRAM according to the schematics)

And.. the original article's picture is also a Q1 Lite, as far as I can tell. Introduced 1977. That one used NEC 4116 dynamic RAM. And did not use the 8008.

It's very difficult to find anything about the original Q1. Even the "First Q1 Brochure" from TheByteAttic is actually a Q1 LMC, which was the second model.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#22

Post by troupe »

actionfromafar wrote: post #12
Tor3 wrote: post #9

That this 8008 computer from 1972 should have 16KB of RAM sounds unlikely. I haven't been able to find any real info stating this - still, the headline on tomshardware says "16KB". That's very hard to believe. Static RAM of that size would have been extremely expensive at the time, the much much later Altair 8800 didn't get past 4KB without a dynamic RAM board (which was also very unreliable). The Q1/Lite, a Z80-base…

The headline is probably wrong, the article text just says "capable of" 16 kilobyte. I also think it's unlikely it had 16 installed. On the other hand, doesn't the screen look like a flatscreen, not a CRT? So the screen itself was probably very expensive in itself. (Probably plasma screen?) Edit: Look at the image and the bank of 3 * 8 socketed chips: https://www.peel.dk/Q1/img/SN615-03.jpg If these are the Intel 210…

Probably not a plasma screen in the 70s. It looks like a bunch of individual characters. They are probably vacuum fluorescent like what was on calculators and the Speak & Spell educational toy from that period.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#23

Post by actionfromafar »

troupe wrote: post #22
actionfromafar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The headline is probably wrong, the article text just says "capable of" 16 kilobyte. I also think it's unlikely it had 16 installed. On the other hand, doesn't the screen look like a flatscreen, not a CRT? So the screen itself was probably very expensive in itself. (Probably plasma screen?) Edit: Look at the image and the bank of 3 * 8 socketed chips: https://www.peel.dk/Q1/img/SN615-03.jpg If these are the Intel 210…

Probably not a plasma screen in the 70s. It looks like a bunch of individual characters. They are probably vacuum fluorescent like what was on calculators and the Speak & Spell educational toy from that period.

https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/q1.html

Looks like it is plasma but with characters, not a pure bitmap display.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#24

Post by adrian_b »

actionfromafar wrote: post #23
troupe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not a plasma screen in the 70s. It looks like a bunch of individual characters. They are probably vacuum fluorescent like what was on calculators and the Speak & Spell educational toy from that period.

https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/q1.html Looks like it is plasma but with characters, not a pure bitmap display.

Yes, it is pretty certain that no bitmap plasma displays existed at that time, because the drivers for them would have been more expensive than an entire desktop computer (due to the high number of rows and columns).

It is said that the display was an unusual plasma display and not a vacuum fluorescent display, which were much more frequent in the desktop calculators of that time, but it must have been an alphanumeric display with segments, perhaps with 16 segments per character.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#25

Post by ChrisArchitect »

15457345234 wrote: post #8
ChrisArchitect wrote: post #7

Some more close-ups of the Q1 etc in this video and pics they've posted (all I could find): https://twitter.com/KingstonUni/status/1757444509577662951 https://twitter.com/KingstonUni/status/1757404905176695186

Could you kindly rehost those on imgur for people that don't want to play in walled gardens?

https://imgur.com/a/lg6OD55

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#26

Post by Fluorescence »

rbanffy wrote: post #15
jaredhallen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be how these were preserved thus far.

As someone who collects and restores old computers, I can tell you this is how they are preserved. Museums are only the final resting place of these machines, but, in the meantime, they are preserved by ordinary people in their own collections.

Until they are inherited by a confused youngster who puts dad's weird old trash on the kerb :(

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#27

Post by jeroen »

Fluorescence wrote: post #26
rbanffy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who collects and restores old computers, I can tell you this is how they are preserved. Museums are only the final resting place of these machines, but, in the meantime, they are preserved by ordinary people in their own collections.

Until they are inherited by a confused youngster who puts dad's weird old trash on the kerb :(

Sometimes it's the other way around. I saved a Cromemco Z2D from the trash when the company where my father worked cleaned out their basement prior to moving to a different building.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#28

Post by troupe »

actionfromafar wrote: post #23
troupe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not a plasma screen in the 70s. It looks like a bunch of individual characters. They are probably vacuum fluorescent like what was on calculators and the Speak & Spell educational toy from that period.

https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/q1.html Looks like it is plasma but with characters, not a pure bitmap display.

Ah ok. So maybe one of the early Panaplex segment displays instead of bitmap displays that came later.

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#29

Post by 15457345234 »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #25
15457345234 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you kindly rehost those on imgur for people that don't want to play in walled gardens?

https://imgur.com/a/lg6OD55

Is that Neal Stephenson there with the beard? In the 2nd pic?

Re: House cleaners find two of the first desktop PCs in random boxes

#30

Post by ChrisArchitect »

15457345234 wrote: post #29
ChrisArchitect wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://imgur.com/a/lg6OD55

Is that Neal Stephenson there with the beard? In the 2nd pic?

Ha I dunno, maybe? No indication..defo seems to have styled himself after him
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