Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:13:13 -0500 From: "Steve Friedrich" <SteveFriedrich@Hot-Shot.com> To: "Dan O'Connor" <dan@jgl.reno.nv.us>, "K. Marsh" <durang@u.washington.edu>, "root@isis.dynip.com" <root@isis.dynip.com> Cc: "freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Very Strange Question Message-ID: <199902151513.KAA26607@laker.net>
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On Sun, 14 Feb 1999 22:53:45 -0800, Dan O'Connor wrote: >You're referring to the Altair 8800, which appeared on the cover of Popular >Electronics in January 1975. The Altair featured an Intel 8080 processor, a >whopping 256 bytes of RAM and cost $297 ($395 with a case). The inventor, Ed >Roberts, is the man who coined the phrase "personal computer." Very good answer. But let me point out to everyone that this "microcomputer" came VERY late in the game. If you want to find out about the very FIRST digital computer, research Ekert and Mauchley (I may have misspelt Mauchley), or research ENIAC or Sperry-Rand. This first digital computer was used to calculate missle trajectories and was comprised of VACUUM TUBES !! It was however, preceded by analog computers. Necessity is the mother of invention, and if you discover what a pain in the ass analog computers were, you'll understand why digital techniques were sought... If you find a description of ENIAC, you'll see it took a very large room to house and was less powerful than most Intel products. Steve Friedrich Viva la FreeBSD!! Unix systems measure "uptime" in years, Winblows measures it in minutes. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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