Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 09:52:09 +1100 From: jonathan michaels <jon@caamora.com.au> To: Steve Friedrich <SteveFriedrich@Hot-Shot.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Very Strange Question Message-ID: <19990216095209.B18116@caamora.com.au> In-Reply-To: <199902151513.KAA26607@laker.net>; from Steve Friedrich on Mon, Feb 15, 1999 at 10:13:13AM -0500 References: <199902151513.KAA26607@laker.net>
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On Mon, Feb 15, 1999 at 10:13:13AM -0500, Steve Friedrich wrote: > 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. this is all very well and good from an amreican point of view, but, the truth is that in 1929ish or 1933ish the german scisntists had a working 'digital' computer that the allies subsequently stole and declared to the world. 'look at what we did'. all the relevent information is in teh archives .. but thiese ar books that people will have to go to libraries and request and then read .. sort of grin. regards jonathan, offering another view of what really happened. -- =============================================================================== Jonathan Michaels PO Box 144, Rosebery, NSW 1445 Australia ===========================================================<jon@caamora.com.au> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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