PC Ephemera

[Allison]

>
>Subject: RE: PC Ephemera
>   From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
>   Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:12:18 -0700 (PDT)
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>> Not AFAIK.  It was very difficult to buy the "bare" PC retail, what with
>> demand being as strong as it was.  Most units were sold with at least one
>> 160K floppy.
>
>prob'ly mostly because they were charging about $500 for a Tandon TM100-1!
>(and a few hundred $ for each row of 16K RAMs)
>
>In fall 1981, I was able to buy a bare 5150, plus FDC and CGA.
>I had plenty of RAM and floppies in stock for TRS-80s.
>
>I wasn't able to get another bare one until summer 1982.
>
>By 1983, the college where I teach was buying that configuration a dozen
>at a time.
>
>> I can recall trying the interface out and saying "yes, it works", but the
>> most useful aspect of it was the motor control relay.
>
>Yep!
>I used it just long enough to confirm that it would not be a good way to
>distribute software.

Harrumph!  I'd given up in "audio cassette interface" back in 1976 as 
mostly useless.  I was rolling on the floor laughing when I got to see
the "PC" and it has the bit bash trash cassette interface.  That was a 
definate "you gotta be kidding right?" moment.

Why laugh?  My desktop had a multibus 8086 system running at 8mhz with 
a full megabyte (no rom holes) and four 8" DSDD (NEC!) drives in the 
spring of 1982. 


Allison