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Comitstrip: First Computer[^]
My first was an Amstrad 1640: EGA graphics, 640K RAM, 8MHz processor, no math coprocessor (but a socket so you could add one), no HDD, but twin 5 1/2" floppies (360Kb per disk).
And that was second hand...
What was your first "real" computer? (I'm not counting Spectrums and their ilk here: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count  )
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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My first[^] and I still have it /somewhere/
veni bibi saltavi
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Um..."and was meant to work with a basic audio tape recorder to save and load data"
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Bluddy right!
If you couldn't find it on tape, you had to type the damned program in!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Several times, if I recall correctly...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I had the Speccy itself; you just had the cheap knock-off.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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And the first PC I bought was one of these[^] babies
veni bibi saltavi
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Hey, I bought the same model, as an upgrade from the Amstrad PPC640[^]!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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OriginalGriff wrote: if it had a cassette tape it doesn't count
Ah, so the +3 still counts[^] then? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Barely. But yes. Damnit!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I was expected some older module from you...
Mine was a (also used) C64 with tape and joystick (and floppy later). I got it from my father at age 12...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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I got myself a 32MB hard drive for mine.
Cost the same as I paid for the computer (£400 then, equivalent to around £1000/$1500 in todays money)
400ms access time - so every time I read something from the disk, it would take at least half a second.
I tried backing it up, but I ran out of floppies...
And I thought it was so quick!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I wrote FastBack! (really)
Yeah... it was a major pain, hdd to floppy!
Lloyd
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I should be clear that FASTBACK was one of those tools MS 'borrowed' from the CP/M arena (without any compensation back then. ) In its original incarnation, it was called "FastCOPY", and had most - but not all - of the features that showed in the FASTBACK version. I think I sold all of about 500 copies... 
In all, it was a fairly trivial utility to write, and having it 'promoted' to officialdom was sort of an honor, back then.
Lloyd
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IBM AT: EGA "Graphics", 512kB RAM on the MB and a 6MHz processor, but 2 20MB Harddrives (5¼" Double height, could be used as anchors) and one 5¼" floppy (1.2 MB)
The 512MB RAM was a very frustrating limitation. So when I upgraded it I had enough money for a DX50 + 16MB RAM or a DX2/66 + 8MB RAM. Being as frustrated as I was with the RAM limits of the old MB I chose more RAM. Just to find out that there were no programs that could use more than 8MB at the time. 
At the same time I also upgraded to an 800MB 3½" HDD supposedly state of the art at the time, just to find out that the old battleships were faster. 
<edit>And the old IBM keyboards were so sturdy you could go to battle with them as a Claymore substitute</edit>
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My first "real" computer was the True-Blue PC AT 8mhz with 640K and the 384K add-on board for TSR programs, 32 MB HDD and 2 1.2MB HD floppies and EGA video. Second hand at a "must-sell all" sale for only $1,100.
Although if moving up from cassette is the only criteria, then it's an Atari 800XL. (Great programming system)
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The DX50 was the better choice, then - it was a true 50 MHz bus machine, whereas the DX2/66 had a 33 MHz bus, clock-doubled in the CPU. So, the CPU was faster, but getting data in and out of it to memory was slower. All for an extra 16 MHz (33%) speed increase. Unless the data you were process could all mostly fit into the CPU's cache (even in the 486 days, not likely), the 50 MHz bus speed was the better deal.
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My first was the IBM System/360-65[^]. I then went to the oldest, which was the IBM 1620 Model I[^]. No cassette tapes on those babies.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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You owned a mainframe? 
Just how big was your house?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Not that big, really. But it was never cold. 
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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Yup. IBM 1620 with hydraulic disk drive that always leaked hydraulic oil on the floor! An I think it had 40K of 6-bit Binary Coded Decimal "digits". Pretty quickly learned how to cold-start it by using the bit switches mounted on the front of the selectric typewriter that was the operator's consol. Punch cards and a 60 lines per MINUTE line printer (upper case only). Those were the good old days.
Roy Williams
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Member 10119140 wrote: Pretty quickly learned how to cold-start it by using the bit switches mounted on the front of the selectric typewriter that was the operator's consol...
You are describing a different machine. The 1620 (either version) didn't have bit switches sufficient to boot the machine. The cold start was done with a punch card in the card reader. I think it was 35000000000... mumble mumble. I used to have the 30 or so digits memorized. Warm start was done by hitting the halt button and typing 4900796"RS" on the console, which was a branch to location 00796 in core (the main monitor loop).
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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You are so right - I am remembering the bit switches on the IBM 1130... on the 1620 it was "sense switches". And now that you remind me, I do remember that we memorized the cold start sequence and typed it in....but that was 50+ years ago.
Speaking of cold start cards, we made up a cold start card for the 1130 that worked correctly no matter what orientation it was put in the card hopper. (Really!)
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