Tag: micro-computers
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What computer output is supposed to look like
This month is the 41st anniversary of me coming face-to-face with a “micro-computer” for the first time – in WH Smith’s in Brent Cross. I am not truly sure how I knew what I was looking at (beyond I suppose the shop’s own signage) – because at that time not even “The Mighty Micro” –…
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When Apple made mainframes
These days we think of “mainframe computers” as lumps of “big iron” computing power that are typically designed to handle lots (millions) of simultaneous pieces of data and record manipulation. But the term did not originate in that way – a “mainframe” computer was simply one where all the key components of a “Von Neumann…
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Compukit UK101
The BBC have an article on their site about building 8 bit micros – and it includes a picture of the UK 101 – the machine that really started the home computer revolution (or at least served as its vanguard) in the UK. I never had one, but boy would I have loved to have…
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Breadboard 81
Not everything about computing is on the internet. Sometime around this point thirty years ago my brother and I went to a computer exhibition in London – “Breadboard 81” There are a couple of references to it findable through Google. But not much. It was a fantastic experience – but perhaps also the end of…
cartesian product ... stuff about computing mostly 