[HN Gopher] Microcomputers - The First Wave: Responding to Altair
___________________________________________________________________
Microcomputers - The First Wave: Responding to Altair
Author : cfmcdonald
Score : 80 points
Date : 2025-04-06 21:30 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (technicshistory.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (technicshistory.com)
| andrehacker wrote:
| Really enjoyed this writeup. I'd come across Don Tarbell's name
| before, but didn't realize how influential he was in the pre-
| Altair era--and even in setting the stage for the Apple I.
| Fascinating stuff.
|
| I also wasn't aware of this site--some really well-researched
| essays on early computing. Great work, and thanks for putting
| this together!
| snvzz wrote:
| Ah, the good old days.
| rbanffy wrote:
| "In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men
| were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures
| from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha
| Centauri."
|
| -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
| andrehacker wrote:
| I've always been fascinated by the history and technology of
| microcomputers. It's similar to how enthusiasts feel about
| classic muscle cars. With microcomputers, you can understand
| every aspect of the technology, from the transistors and gates
| on the silicon to the components on the board, and all the way
| up to computer languages and the user interface. It feels like
| I could work on any part of it with just a bit of time. My
| daily driver is an M4, and I find any new trend in computing
| worth exploring. However, my retro computers always keep me
| company.
| JPLeRouzic wrote:
| A recent (2014) and intriguing concept for making a small
| computer that feels like it was made in the past is the
| PDP-11/Hack, which only uses a DEC J-11 microprocessor, some RAM,
| and a common UART.
|
| The original concept By Brent Hilpert:
|
| http://madrona.ca/e/pdp11hack/index.html
|
| Another implementation:
|
| https://www.chronworks.com/J11/
|
| A more complex and modern PDP-11/Hack:
|
| https://www.5volts.ch/pages/pdp11hack/
| rbanffy wrote:
| I can't imagine these being cheap - those relics are no longer
| being made.
| JPLeRouzic wrote:
| I bought a DEC J-11 for $45 on eBay, the maximum price I saw
| was around $100:
|
| https://www.ebay.com/itm/326186449818
| Tor3 wrote:
| I got mine for just below $40, from what I believe (though
| one can never be certain) a reliable seller. Still haven't
| decided how I will proceed, I want to use it for a real
| project and not just as a decoration.
| nxobject wrote:
| This being the PDP-11, even if you don't have any RAM, I'm sure
| the registers are mapped into memory somewhere contiguous where
| you can still run code from them :)
| hnpolicestate wrote:
| From this wonderful article I found a PDF version of the Amateur
| Computer Society Newsletter 1966-1976.
|
| Probably deserves it's own post.
| http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201...
| ferguess_k wrote:
| The days I wish I were born early to enjoy them. They say every
| era has its own excitement but some definitely had way more than
| the others.
| jandrese wrote:
| What an exciting time for the industry. Most of the companies are
| run by 20 or 30 somethings. Nobody has a plan for success.
| Everything is poised to explode once someone, anyone, figures out
| how to deliver product at scale. This also makes it clear how the
| software guys got so big so fast: making new copies of software
| is trivial compared to hardware manufacturing.
| wduquette wrote:
| Brings back memories. My first computer was a Heathkit-branded
| PDP-11 kit my dad assembled, with a dumb terminal, paper-type
| I/O, and no operating system. Later we had dual 8" floppies and a
| version of DEC's RT-11 OS, which was similar to CP/M. Read Byte
| magazine, and grew familiar with the names Altair, MITS, SWTPC,
| Imsai, etc., etc. Good times.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-04-07 23:01 UTC)