4 ms·
15MHz is not from the 70s ;-) (at least outside of labs). The IBM PC shipped with a 4.77MHz CPU in the early 80s, the 386 came out in 1986 at 12 MHz, the Mac II
by Tloewald 12y ago
15MHz is not from the 70s ;-) (at least outside of labs). The IBM PC shipped with a 4.77MHz CPU in the early 80s, the 386 came out in 1986 at 12 MHz, the Mac II was 16MHz in 1987.
I got hooked on programming by the HP65, an early and very expensive programmable calculator (with magnetic data storage!) that a family friend let me play with for an afternoon. Eventually I got my own Sinclair calculator (36 instruction memory!) and programmed it obsessively. If that thing ran at 1MHz I'd be very, very surprised.
Incidentally, around 1983-85 there was a brief explosion of electronic typewriters with small (usually 2-4-line) LCD displays and oversized calculators with qwerty keyboards, a decent amount of memory (16 kB say), and some form of BASIC. They looked interesting, but I don't think I know anyone who bought one (and my friends and I were all programming geeks).
- jamespitts 12y agoComputation-nostalgia is endless joy :) In the mid-80s I did have access to several models of those pocket Japanese computers that ran BASIC, including the CASIO FX-750P. I was definitely a loner in this regard. I just got lucky -- my father was in Japan doing film work and probably spent his entire paycheck several times at the electronics malls. He bought these because he wanted to write software to help camera operators with setting up their shots, anywhere in the world. http://casio.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio%5Cboites/zoom/fx750p.JPG http://casio.ledudu.com/images/pockets/casio%5Cboites/zoom/f... I had dabbled in Apple IIs at school but this was my go-to machine at home. I could not do very much with a 1-line LED display but I wrote some simple games and animations. Every kid learning engineering would benefit from working an old-school piece of equipment, even if simulated.