LGR - Strangest Computer Designs of the '80s
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Pellervo
A late comment -- I could add a few more, including one that I built myself from a kit by Giarcia's Circuit Cellar. It used a Hitachi CPU, 80180 and ZCPR operating system. A friend of mine had an Osborne portable. And just when the IBM PC was on its first incarnation, there were HP-85 and HP-87. I bought the '87 that had a wide screen display with text or bit graphics. The operating system was HP's own Basic (Amigo, I think. The floppy disk and printer interface were through HP-IB that was later standardized as IEEE-488 instrument control interface. One of the odd things was its memory stack, which could be optionally chained to 64 bits width.
By the way, in the 1970's there were -development systems- to build programs and even burn EPROMS. One that I saw had a word processing program (loaded from an 8- floppy disk) and a compiler for Motorola 6800, 6801 and 6803 chips. A bit later Motorola came out its own development system, VME/10 that was a 32/16 bit unit for programming their 68, 000 series chips.
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A late comment -- I could add a few more, including one that I built myself from a kit by Giarcia's Circuit Cellar. It used a Hitachi CPU, 80180 and ZCPR operating system. A friend of mine had an Osborne portable. And just when the IBM PC was on its first incarnation, there were HP-85 and HP-87. I bought the '87 that had a wide screen display with text or bit graphics. The operating system was HP's own Basic (Amigo, I think. The floppy disk and printer interface were through HP-IB that was later standardized as IEEE-488 instrument control interface. One of the odd things was its memory stack, which could be optionally chained to 64 bits width.
By the way, in the 1970's there were -development systems- to build programs and even burn EPROMS. One that I saw had a word processing program (loaded from an 8- floppy disk) and a compiler for Motorola 6800, 6801 and 6803 chips. A bit later Motorola came out its own development system, VME/10 that was a 32/16 bit unit for programming their 68, 000 series chips.
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moogyboy6
One computer that really should be on this list (if you haven't covered it already elsewhere) is the Amstrad/Sinclair PC-compatible family from the mid/late '80s. These things were basically first generation dual floppy 8086 PCs, with either 512k or 640k RAM, in a weird proprietary form factor and sold in a bundle with a monitor (which housed the power supply, keyboard, mouse, MS-DOS, GEM desktop (a pre-Windows GUI, and Migent Ability (an odd pre-Office productivity suite. It was my first experience with the PC/MS ecosystem and I still think it's a neat, if dead-end design. I guess you could call it a disguised all-in-one machine since the moniitor was physically separate from the computer but they could only work when plugged in together. They were sold in department stores and I think were at least modestly popular in their day
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One computer that really should be on this list (if you haven't covered it already elsewhere) is the Amstrad/Sinclair PC-compatible family from the mid/late '80s. These things were basically first generation dual floppy 8086 PCs, with either 512k or 640k RAM, in a weird proprietary form factor and sold in a bundle with a monitor (which housed the power supply, keyboard, mouse, MS-DOS, GEM desktop (a pre-Windows GUI, and Migent Ability (an odd pre-Office productivity suite. It was my first experience with the PC/MS ecosystem and I still think it's a neat, if dead-end design. I guess you could call it a disguised all-in-one machine since the moniitor was physically separate from the computer but they could only work when plugged in together. They were sold in department stores and I think were at least modestly popular in their day
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Bob
I had an IBM PCjr and there was one expansion (aftermarket, not IBM) that installed on the side but also added about 3 or 4 inches on top allowing for a 10MB hard drive, a second floppy drive and 640KB of RAM with DMA (direct memory access, so that it wouldn't beep at you while you were typing and it was reading or writing to the floppy drive. I didn't buy it because the price was way too high and even back then 10MB didn't seem worth the investment (40MB half height drives were the new thing then.
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I had an IBM PCjr and there was one expansion (aftermarket, not IBM) that installed on the side but also added about 3 or 4 inches on top allowing for a 10MB hard drive, a second floppy drive and 640KB of RAM with DMA (direct memory access, so that it wouldn't beep at you while you were typing and it was reading or writing to the floppy drive. I didn't buy it because the price was way too high and even back then 10MB didn't seem worth the investment (40MB half height drives were the new thing then.
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Norbert
You need to check out the BASF 7100 series desktop computers.
They ran either on BASIC or on CP/M (full software operating system stored on 5 1/4- Floppy disks, had two ) Z80A CPUs (which allowed parallel computing) and were probably the least successful computers of that time.
One of the most important accessories was the hexagon key to open its casing either to clean the contacts at the three Mainboards or to replace the monitor driver board (which was improved in later models.
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You need to check out the BASF 7100 series desktop computers.
They ran either on BASIC or on CP/M (full software operating system stored on 5 1/4- Floppy disks, had two ) Z80A CPUs (which allowed parallel computing) and were probably the least successful computers of that time.
One of the most important accessories was the hexagon key to open its casing either to clean the contacts at the three Mainboards or to replace the monitor driver board (which was improved in later models.
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Moonjumper
God, I miss the 80s! Imagination. something I feel we've lost quite a lot of. I grew up doing my schoolwork on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4 (green text on a black tube screen, two 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drives, then eventually graduated to an IBM PS/2 with Windows 3. 1 and a -massive- 125 MB hard drive, when I was going to college. (And I could play games on that one! --i. e. -Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within- and -Star Wars: X-Wing. -) Good times.
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God, I miss the 80s! Imagination. something I feel we've lost quite a lot of. I grew up doing my schoolwork on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4 (green text on a black tube screen, two 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drives, then eventually graduated to an IBM PS/2 with Windows 3. 1 and a -massive- 125 MB hard drive, when I was going to college. (And I could play games on that one! --i. e. -Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within- and -Star Wars: X-Wing. -) Good times.
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Marsharoni
I'm a decently fast typist (100-110 wpm accurately) but that Micro Writer device looks absolutely infernal to me. It blows my mind to see people going fast with those combo-key typing interfaces. To this day I can -barely- use a phone keypad to text, and that's 4 more buttons with the letters printed on the keys. I hated it so much I picked my first cellphone entirely on the basis of it having a slide-out keyboard. (LG Rumor, kinda miss that thing)
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I'm a decently fast typist (100-110 wpm accurately) but that Micro Writer device looks absolutely infernal to me. It blows my mind to see people going fast with those combo-key typing interfaces. To this day I can -barely- use a phone keypad to text, and that's 4 more buttons with the letters printed on the keys. I hated it so much I picked my first cellphone entirely on the basis of it having a slide-out keyboard. (LG Rumor, kinda miss that thing)
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Cat
You seem like the kind of person that would have appreciated the show halt and catch fire. I know nothing of technology other than what i have gleaned from your videos and I greatly enjoyed that show. If you haven-t seen it it-s about the rise of computer production and the expansion of the internet in the 80s and 90s and still remains one of my favorite shows after its conclusion.
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You seem like the kind of person that would have appreciated the show halt and catch fire. I know nothing of technology other than what i have gleaned from your videos and I greatly enjoyed that show. If you haven-t seen it it-s about the rise of computer production and the expansion of the internet in the 80s and 90s and still remains one of my favorite shows after its conclusion.
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David
My wife was a teacher during the period when the government tried to force Icon computers onto the school system. I remember closets stuffed full of dead Icons (or ones which were never unboxed), while the students clustered around a couple of Apple II's that the teachers brought in. That only lasted about a year before the government came to their senses and bought Macintoshes.
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My wife was a teacher during the period when the government tried to force Icon computers onto the school system. I remember closets stuffed full of dead Icons (or ones which were never unboxed), while the students clustered around a couple of Apple II's that the teachers brought in. That only lasted about a year before the government came to their senses and bought Macintoshes.
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Tim
I did not see the Zenith Heathkit Z-100 or Z-120 (IBM compatible) that ran on the CPM OS. And I don't think I saw anything about the Radioshack TRS-80. I know I did not see the Convergent Technology systems with the CTOS operating system, sold by Burroughs with the Burroughs Operating System (BTOS.
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I did not see the Zenith Heathkit Z-100 or Z-120 (IBM compatible) that ran on the CPM OS. And I don't think I saw anything about the Radioshack TRS-80. I know I did not see the Convergent Technology systems with the CTOS operating system, sold by Burroughs with the Burroughs Operating System (BTOS.
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George
The Access Computer was not the name of the computer at least in the USA. First released as the Access Matrix then later released as the Actrix. I know as I have the Access Matrix version. I also have the optional battery pack. Try getting it past airport security in 1982. I did.
Rev George
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The Access Computer was not the name of the computer at least in the USA. First released as the Access Matrix then later released as the Actrix. I know as I have the Access Matrix version. I also have the optional battery pack. Try getting it past airport security in 1982. I did.
Rev George
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