Sense, Nonsense, and Not-Sense

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Intel i486-compatible chip @ 100 MHz


• Memory: 4 or 8 MB of total RAM


• Graphics: Video Graphics Array (maybe, maybe using the new PCI bus standard), 640x480 to Super Video Graphics Array, 1024x768, Lots of colors


• Sound: Internal Speaker, Sound Blaster-compatible sound card with 3.5" jacks for output speakers and input microphones


• Inputs and Outputs: Keyboard (AT) and mouse (serial), additional serial and parallel port cards for printers of other devices (not attached)


• Storage: 512 MB hard drive, one 3.5" floppy disk drive


• OS: MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1

( A 486, in my room! )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Intel 80286 @ 6 or 8 MHz


• Memory: 640 KB of RAM


• Graphics: CGA or monochrome monitors


• Sound: Internal Speaker


• Inputs: Keyboard


• Storage: 20 MB hard drive, one 5.25" floppy disk drive


• OS: MS-DOS (probably 3.3)

( A Compaq 286 Luggable )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Intel 80286 or compatible chip, with the ability to toggle between speeds of 8 MHz and 16 MHz through the combination of Ctrl-Alt-Minus(-) and Ctrl-Alt-Plus(+) or the use of a Turbo button on the case.


• Memory: Up to 4MB of RAM


• Graphics: Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), 4 colors, 320x200, Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), 16 colors, 320x200, Video Graphics Array (VGA), 256 colors, 320x200 or 16 colors, 640x480


• Sound: A SoundBlaster (or, more likely, a SoundBlaster compatible audio card), with an RCA mini jack connected to speakers, but also, the internal speaker of the motherboard itself


• Inputs/Outputs: Keyboards (AT or PS/2), Mouse (DE-9 serial or PS/2), Joysticks and gamepads (DE-9 serial), Printers (parallel), basically anything that will fit an ISA 8-bit or 16-bit slot and provides an appropriate port and cable.


• Storage: This machine had to have a hard drive on it, but it couldn't have been more than 100 MB. It also game with both a 3.5" disk drive and a 5.25" disk drive, for all your floppy needs.


• OS: MS-DOS (likely 5.0 for this system)

( A 286, as we called it )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: MOS Technology/Synertek 6502 @ 1.023 MHz or
  NCR/GTE 65C02 @ 1.023 MHz


• Memory: 64 kB RAM built-in, expandable up to 1 MB RAM or more, 16 kB ROM built-in


• Video: Up to 560×192 (16 colors), NTSC composite video output (RCA connector)


• Audio: Built-in speaker with 1-bit toggling, Built-in cassette recorder interface using two 1⁄8-inch mono phono jacks with 1-bit toggle output, 1-bit zero-crossing input


• Expansion: Seven 50-pin card-edge slots, one 60-pin card-edge slot.


• Input: Keyboard, with numeric keypad available separately, single-button mouse available as an expansion card or with the DE-9 connector interface, Joystick (DE-9)

( The Apple IIe )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: 2.5 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor


• 64 kB of RAM


• Two single-sided 191-kilobyte 5¼-inch floppy disk drives (named A: and B:)


• 80-column, green monochrome, 9" CRT


• Input: Keyboard

What I didn't remember about this computer is that it's a luggable, which I have scheduled for later on in this series when I get to the luggable I do remember.

( The Kaypro II )