Computers from the 60s and 70s

[The_Sonarman]

Promotional materials from the 60s and 70s, all touting the computers of that day.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/compupromo/1.html

[DeclinetoState]

Some of the women are pretty good looking, although I have no idea how they did what they did to their hair.

[Pendragon_6]

That long-legged secretary got my attention.

[Riverboat]

Which one? I counted about six or seven.

[DoctorDoom]

Remember: your iPod has more storage capacity than everything in this room.And the average desktop PC has more computing power than the IBM mainframes.

However, we don't need to go back to the mid-20th. I have a stack of PC World magazines from '95/96. And, to be frank, where we are now vs where we were then is startling. The Dec 95 issue speaks volumes.

As with all the back covers of that time, Dell owned it on this issue. The blurb in big letters: "THE MOST POWERFUL WINDOWS 95 SYSTEM $2699 CAN BUY." (The fact that it was $2499 in the Jan 96 ad was quite telling.) Here's what one got for $2699:

DELL DIMENSION™ XPS P133C
133 MHx PENTIUM^© PROCESSOR
Mini Tower Model
16MB EDO Memory (128MB Max RAM)
256 Pipeline Burst Cache
1GB Hard Drive [10ms] (2GB Max)
15LS Monitor (15" CRT, NI)
64-bit PCI 2MB DRAM Video (128-bit 4MB VRAM Max)
4X Multi-Session EIDE CD-ROM Drive
AWE32 Wave Table Sound Card

Take $2700 today and see what can be built.

Inside is a review of the Top 20 Notebooks. Leading the pack is a Toshiba Portégé 610CT. It was powered by a Pentium 90, with 8 megs of RAM and a 720 MB HD. Cost: $4649.

In the review of the Top 20 Power Desktops, top honors go to a Micron P133 Millenia, with a Pentium 133, 16 megs of RAM and a 1624 MB HD. The price for this screamer: $3599. Buy two! They're cheap.

The #1 slot in the Top 20 Budget Desktops is owned by a Dell Dimension P75t, with a Pentium 75 CPU, 8 megs of RAM and a 540 MB HD. No home should be without one at a paltry $1679.

On page 33, Pinnacle Micro was hawking a 2X Recordable CD System for "only" $995, a steal in view of the fact that the HP 4020i was $1249, the Sony CSP 92115 was $1695, and the JVC Personal Archiver went for a breathtaking $1795.

The ads in back are a hoot in their own right.

9.1 gig SCSI HDs were running >$2000. 64 megs of 72-pin EDO RAM was listed at $2799 (SDRAM was still in the future). Scanners were a minimum of $400. Modems (28.8K - no 56K yet) went for up to $400. A Soundblaster card went for $100 and up. A Logitech TrackMan Marble (a trackball mouse) was a C-note. A Sony 17" Multiscan monitor sold for an impressive $879.

A Compaq LTE 5000 laptop with a P-120 and a 1.26GB HD was a whistle-provoking $6329, but an IBM Thinkpad 760 with a P-90 and a 1.2GB HD topped that at $7449.

Ah, the good old days!

[Popperite]

Some of the women are pretty good looking, although I have no idea how they did what they did to their hair.

It involved some kind of artificial stuffing. My mom used to call it "The Grace element". That site is great by the way!

[Naturalized-Texan]

The computer that put men on the moon was an IBM System/360 Model 75 (http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP2075.html):

The Model 75 was an outgrowth of IBM's continuing engineering development effort to enhance the capabilities of the original System/360 offerings. Its main memory operated at 750 nanoseconds and was available in three sizes up to 1,048,576 characters of information. The memory was interleaved up to four ways to obtain increased performance.

FYI, I wrote the software that predicted the splashdown points for all the Apollo moon missions - in FORTRAN on that IBM System/360 Model 75.

[Popperite]

The computer that put men on the moon was an IBM System/360 Model 75 (http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP2075.html):



FYI, I wrote the software that predicted the splashdown points for all the Apollo moon missions - in FORTRAN on that IBM System/360 Model 75.

WOW! That's awsome!

[DeclinetoState]

I remember seeing some old Monkey & Ward catalogues from about 1970 with electric calculators that could add, subtract, multiply and divide for I believe around $400 (no, I didn't leave out a decimal point). It might have even had percents, a square root key, and memory calculations; I don't remember.

It was almost as useful as a slide rule or an abacus. :grin:

[Riverboat]

It was almost as useful as a slide rule or an abacus. :grin:Fingers are free. ;)

[DoctorDoom]

I remember seeing some old Monkey & Ward catalogues from about 1970 with electric calculators that could add, subtract, multiply and divide for I believe around $400 (no, I didn't leave out a decimal point). It might have even had percents, a square root key, and memory calculations; I don't remember.I have one of the originals. It was a repackaged Bowmar Brain. Here they are side by side.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/MW-Bowmar.jpg">

The P800 was either $300 or $400. It was so long ago that I don't recall. I resurrected the Bowmar from a trash can at work. It's an antique.

And then there was this little gem.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/SearsESR.jpg" />

It also ran a few C-notes and was the focus of interest when I brought it to night school.

[DesertFox]

A guy I worked with in 1973 bought a handheld calculator for $90. It was about six inches tall and an inch thick and weighed about two pounds. Four functions. Dude was so proud of it he left it out on his desk so anybody passing by would see it and ask about it.

[Wyatt_Junker]

I have so many free calculators on my desk from desperate salesmen trying to whore their schemes that I can play Jenga with them. Make towers out of them.

And they're all that kind with the power cell in 'em. No batteries.

They are the new business card. I have red ones and black ones and brown ones and blue ones and green ones and see-thru ones. The see-thru one is my favorite. I use it the most because I prefer my math naked.

I like the transparency of dividing two by one.

Very hot.

Anyway. I have so many that now, when salesmen come into my office, they don't leave without jumping on top of my desk and squatting down and shitting out another calculator as it plops out right next to the 500 other ones I have. I never buy anything from these salespeople clowns. But if they don't give me a calculator I get pissed off.

They usually all do shit out calculators though, by and large. They just come out of their asses sideways(very painful) and *clink* right down on my desk.

I can do the math of a nation. All with my armies of calculator.

[DesertFox]

Do they smell crappy or just new? :question:

[Wyatt_Junker]

Unfortunately, the colon removes the factory seal while the anus rips off the bubble wrap.

At that point, its an aftermarket.

[DeclinetoState]

Wyatt's imagery is . . . indescribable.

[DesertFox]

Sometimes it's pretty shitty.

[The_Sonarman]

I recall one of my navy shipmates selling his car so he could purchase a calculator. Got 300 for the car, spent the entire amount on the 4-banger calculator.

[DeclinetoState]

Sometimes it's pretty shitty.

I don't know about the "pretty" part...

I recall one of my navy shipmates selling his car so he could purchase a calculator. Got 300 for the car, spent the entire amount on the 4-banger calculator.

Well, I hope he got his money's worth.

[The_Sonarman]

Well, I hope he got his money's worth.
Jeff was an odd character.