Yersterday I was browsing the web randomly and hit the
Old Computers Online Museum website. Then a short time travel begun...
When I was 13, my brother brought home the first computer I'd ever seen. It was a
TK-83 with 2
KBytes of RAM, an 16
KBytes ´expansion card´ and a Zilog Z-80 8 bits processor running at 3.25
MHz.
Around 1984, I made a deal with my parents: I´d sweep the backyard for 6 months and then they´d buy me a
CP-400 with 64
Kbytes of RAM and a Motorola MC6809E 16 bits ´
risc´ processor at 0.89
MHz. It was a
huge advance:
16 colors thanks to a Motorola MC 6847 video controller.
About one year later, I changed the CP-400 for the best computer I've ever had, a MSX 1 (
Expert XP-800): 64
KBytes of RAM, Zilog Z80A processor @ 3.58
Mhz and a Texas Instruments
| TMS-9128NL video processor with 16 KBytes of video RAM (!). I just couldn´t believe those astonishing graphics with 256 x 192 pixels of resolution and 16 colors. And there was also a General Instruments AY-3-8910 programmable sound generator with 3 channels and 8 octaves!!! Its sound quality was just amazing.
Nowadays, any mobile phone has much more processing power than any computers from the 80s. For those who were born sorrunded by computers, it´s not easy to imagine how those old machines could possibly catch a tenager's attention. The fact is that they´d cought mine, for the good and the bad ...
What was your first computer ?
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