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GortWillSaveUs · 2012-07-28, 02:10

I just read a thread that discussed the i3 vs. the A6 for use as a HTPC.
So, it got me thinking, or better reminiscing,...

What was your first CPU?

Technically my first "computer" was a Commodore 64.
But if we're talking real computers, then mine was a 386-25 Mhz

How about you?

artrafael · 2012-07-28, 02:41

A Commodore PET 2001 in 1977. It came out just before the TRS-80 ("Trash Eighty") and Apple II. CPU was a MOS Technology 6502 running at 1MHz. I splurged and bought the high-end model with 8KB of RAM for $795. The base model with 4KB of RAM cost $595. It had a built-in "Chicklets" keyboard (since Commodore was primarily a calculator company). The system booted up into BASIC from ROM. The built-in monitor could display 40 columns by 25 lines of text. It used a built-in audio cassette player for program and data storage. The tolerances on the tape deck were so poor that a program saved on a tape from one machine may not load on another machine... the trick was to find a third machine that was "in-between" in terms of tolerance so that you could load the program from tape to RAM on the 3rd machine, save it to another tape on that unit, and then try to load that new tape onto the 2nd machine. Wink

I cut my teeth on computers with this baby... still have fond memories of it to this day. Smile

thrak76 · 2012-07-28, 02:51

My first computer was also the Commodore 64. It was all decked out - floppy drive and tape drive!

I lived with that until the Apple ][GS - with the 65C816 running at a blazing 2.8 MHz! I remember actually composing music on that computer, and even working up a rudimentary version of Metallica's "One" with the program... wish I could remember the name of that synthesizer/sequencer program...

mofoo · 2012-07-28, 04:11

well the first PC I bought with my own money was also a 386 25mhz. But my parents started off with an Apple II, then 286 then I went into my own.
Next was 486 DX2 66mhz, then pentium, pentium 2, etc etc.
My parents wrote a program in binary once...

Mick1152 · 2012-07-28, 05:37

(2012-07-28, 02:51)thrak76 Wrote: My first computer was also the Commodore 64. It was all decked out - floppy drive and tape drive!

I lived with that until the Apple ][GS - with the 65C816 running at a blazing 2.8 MHz! I remember actually composing music on that computer, and even working up a rudimentary version of Metallica's "One" with the program... wish I could remember the name of that synthesizer/sequencer program...

Ran out to the garage and looked in my IIGS box for you! Is it "Will Harvey's Music Construction Set"? My sister was the musician and the software was for her but I sure fucked with songs all the time. Still have the 3.5" diskette in my disk box.

hamiltong · 2012-07-28, 05:59

(2012-07-28, 02:41)artrafael Wrote: A Commodore PET 2001 in 1977. It came out just before the TRS-80 ("Trash Eighty") and Apple II. CPU was a MOS Technology 6502 running at 1MHz. I splurged and bought the high-end model with 8KB of RAM for $795. The base model with 4KB of RAM cost $595. It had a built-in "Chicklets" keyboard (since Commodore was primarily a calculator company). The system booted up into BASIC from ROM. The built-in monitor could display 40 columns by 25 lines of text. It used a built-in audio cassette player for program and data storage. The tolerances on the tape deck were so poor that a program saved on a tape from one machine may not load on another machine... the trick was to find a third machine that was "in-between" in terms of tolerance so that you could load the program from tape to RAM on the 3rd machine, save it to another tape on that unit, and then try to load that new tape onto the 2nd machine.

I cut my teeth on computers with this baby... still have fond memories of it to this day.

What you didn't spring for the dual floppy Smile

. Dual 500k 5.25" drives.. 8050. Rofl

Damn thing was huge.

Commodore PET was also my first computer - first basic programming and first assembly language journey.

Til the C64 - I loved that thing.. Fond memories as a young teenager playing Spelunker for hrs. -gh

thrak76 · 2012-07-28, 06:49

(2012-07-28, 05:37)Mick1152 Wrote:
(2012-07-28, 02:51)thrak76 Wrote: My first computer was also the Commodore 64. It was all decked out - floppy drive and tape drive!

I lived with that until the Apple ][GS - with the 65C816 running at a blazing 2.8 MHz! I remember actually composing music on that computer, and even working up a rudimentary version of Metallica's "One" with the program... wish I could remember the name of that synthesizer/sequencer program...

Ran out to the garage and looked in my IIGS box for you! Is it "Will Harvey's Music Construction Set"? My sister was the musician and the software was for her but I sure fucked with songs all the time. Still have the 3.5" diskette in my disk box.

Ha!

After looking that up... that is definitely the program! Screenshot confirmed it and brought a smile to my face. Sure is a far cry from Ableton Live and Cubase!

**Beer40oz** · 2012-07-28, 07:30

Pentium II 450MHz first computer in 1997... it was a beast... hehe Smile

amet · 2012-07-28, 08:30

I wrote my first line of code on ZX Spectrum, still have a code somewhere on a tape Smile

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

GortWillSaveUs · 2012-07-28, 13:35

(2012-07-28, 04:11)mofoo Wrote: well the first PC I bought with my own money was also a 386 25mhz. But my parents started off with an Apple II, then 286 then I went into my own.
Next was 486 DX2 66mhz, then pentium, pentium 2, etc etc.
My parents wrote a program in binary once...

I used to go to Radio Shack and drool over the TRS-80 but it was too expensive.
For some reason,..I never latched onto the Apples,..and even to this day, I'll buy anything else but an Apple.

But what you described is a timeline for me too.
I brought that 386-25 from Gateway Computers (Mooo) for $2,000
I think I skipped the 486 and then brought one of the first Pentiums.

**Dougie Fresh** · 2012-07-28, 22:15

My story is pretty much the same - TRS80, C64, 386, 486, etc.

But, my first HTPC CPU was an AMD 5050e with 780G motherboard.

giftie · 2012-07-28, 22:47

First processor.. Hmmm... 65c02... Inside the Commodore 64's competition, the Atari 800xl(still have it. in complete working order... Smile

)

**PatK** · 2012-07-28, 23:06

Nostalgia; sigh..

8080A Interact... Released:1979 colour, tape drive 16K, but only 4K after loading MS-Basic, had around 8 languages available and machine code. I had 3, also had the largest collection of software in the world for that computer, RS-232 port... and I had a 100 baudette 2 hole modem for it. Games such as Flight Simulator in MS basic eventually became MS-flight Simulator, nice colour, Graphic text 17 chr$ x 12 lines on a CRT, pixel res 112 x 78 graphics the specs say only 4 colours.. but it was 8.

Czranito · 2012-07-29, 00:02

We had a ZX spectrum when I was a kid Smile

But the first CPU that was my own was a 486DX@50MHz. Unfortunately, I swapped the good old AT power connectors, and burned my motherboard before I used it. So the first one that was really mine, and I didn't burn it, was s Pentium 75. I can still remember the sleepless nights with Descent 2 and Quake Smile

teaguecl · 2012-07-30, 22:11

I also started programming on a TRS-80. Those damn audio tape drives haunt me in my dreams - they would corrupt about 5% of your files! I spent hours re-editing all my BASIC code Smile

My first PC was a 386, which had a "turbo" button that doubled the clock speed from 8 to 16 mHz Smile

I also remember thinking to myself "$10 per megabyte is a great price for a hard drive"!