What is the oldest computer...?

[bigmck]

My first computer was a Tandy with a 8088 processor. It had one floppy drive and no hard drive. I got that in 1987. == My first "real" computer was a custom built 386 with a 16 mhz processor. I got that in about 1991. I had it upgraded several times and had the thing about ten years. The reason I decided to get a new one was that the port for the keyboard was unusual and I could not find a new keyboard to fit it. I think it was a parallel port with about 15 pins. The stores only had the round ones like they do now when I tried to buy one.

 

[Ditch]

Abacus, lol. JK, Vic 20.

 

[stevieray]

Wow... some of you guys have been using computers since the very dawn of the p.c. age! It must be cool to look back at all of the changes since the days of cassettes and "k" memory!

My first computer was a circa 2000 IBM Thinkpad w/ Windows 2000 that I bought used ($50) in 2007, followed by a used Dell GX50 Optiplex I got in 2008 (free!) w/ XP Pro. Compared to some of y'all I'm still kinda new to these infernal confounded machines.

 

[MyWin7]

M/A/I BB2 tower with core memory modules and 5 MB disk platter cartridges.

Maybe someone of you is old enough for that? - M/A/I was based in Tustin California and had international service subsidiaries. I was working for them 12 long years before they collapsed.

 

[Grathiam]

Atari 800 in 1980-82 when I was in school in Gaeta, Italy.

I, too, had an Atari-800...in 1979 before their 'XE' model was introduced.

Other's mentioned how far computers have come since then.
Well, I distinctly recall that Atari-800 cost me $2500 (US)!!
That included 2 floppy drives at $495 _each_, upgraded memory and
an incredibly fast 300-Baud modem

The 'puter I built earlier last year (check system specs- link lower left corner),
cost me _under_ $800 (US).

 

[CrazeeAFGuy]

It amazes me know thinking back to programs in Bytes rather then mega or gigabytes. Saving on a cassette player was the norm back then

 

[Zen00]

Anyone work with a mainframe computer, one of those ones that filled an entire room?

 

[madtownidiot]

My mom was a computer programmer in the 70s and 80s. I remember when external storage meant rooms full of boxes of punch cards

 

[stevieray]

My mom was a computer programmer in the 70s and 80s. I remember when external storage meant rooms full of boxes of punch cards

Punch cards. Ack!

I took one computer class at college back in '79... Intro to Fortran. I remember going to the computer center at 2:00 a.m. so I could get time on the typewriter puncher things, and then giving the stack of cards to a guy behind a counter to run through the readers... then waiting for an hour to get back a wad of greenbar track paper with my results on it (always wrong, btw). Heh. It was so traumatizing that I stayed away from computers for decades!

The hardest part was getting the computer guy's attention... they were always too busy playing dice games to wait on students... or trying to refine their nekkid girl pics made of x's and o's.

 

[Dwarf]

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is regarded by many as the Father of Computing.
The Babbage Engine | Computer History Museum

 

[MyWin7]

Anyone work with a mainframe computer, one of those ones that filled an entire room?

Part of my graduation exam was fixing one of those big man-tall tape stations in a mainframe room.

 

[WindowsStar]

Anyone work with a mainframe computer, one of those ones that filled an entire room?

I sure have. IBM Mainframe that filled a room and was water cooled! Wow that takes me back....

 

[John Ulbricht]

My first Computer was a Slide Rule, followed by a Commodore 64. I worked for IBM from 1982 to 1992, we had 4 mainfraimes and used punch cards, tape drives and removable disks. I think the laptop I am writing this on has more capacity and power than the largest mainframe.
My first real computer was a IBM PCJX - 8088 processor 4.77k, 64k ram, 2 x 720k 3.5 inch floppies, no harddrive. It actually had a CGA colour monitor..

 

[dobhar]

I have a Macintosh SE sitting in the basement.

It's a good 4 years older than I am .

LOL...I have one of these in my office also. It still works except I lost the OS Disk during a move. It now sits on my shelf in my office.

My first PC was a computer I had made for me...a 486 DX4-100 running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. I later upgraded it to Windows 98 SE. After that I built my own.

 

[RedBirdDad]

Back in the day, my high school had an IBM1620. That was the first computer I ever got to actually *touch*. The next year the school district took it out and went to an HP timesharing system and we had ASR33 Teletypes.

I was a mainframe programmer for many years. COBOL, sigh...

A few years ago I was able to get my hands a two IBM S/370 mainframe front panels. A 370/138 and a 370/148. I restored the 138 and eventually sold it when my oldest went to college. I still have the 148 panel. Maybe I'll get it restored this year. I also have a functional IBM Emulator system with a 3174 controller, 3278 CRT and 3287 Printer.
I run it up when I need a mainframe fix...

 

[Peaches]

The oldest computer I have ever used is probable the ones at my school, although I'm not sure exactly how old they are.

 

[jradicle11]

Is it bad that I have never heard of an abacus or slide rule...?

Back in the day, my high school had an IBM1620. That was the first computer I ever got to actually *touch*. The next year the school district took it out and went to an HP timesharing system and we had ASR33 Teletypes.

I was a mainframe programmer for many years. COBOL, sigh...

A few years ago I was able to get my hands a two IBM S/370 mainframe front panels. A 370/138 and a 370/148. I restored the 138 and eventually sold it when my oldest went to college. I still have the 148 panel. Maybe I'll get it restored this year. I also have a functional IBM Emulator system with a 3174 controller, 3278 CRT and 3287 Printer.
I run it up when I need a mainframe fix...

Was this high school in St. Charles, IL? East, possibly?

I attend high school in St. Charles.

 

[RedBirdDad]

Is it bad that I have never heard of an abacus or slide rule...?

Back in the day, my high school had an IBM1620. That was the first computer I ever got to actually *touch*. The next year the school district took it out and went to an HP timesharing system and we had ASR33 Teletypes.

I was a mainframe programmer for many years. COBOL, sigh...

A few years ago I was able to get my hands a two IBM S/370 mainframe front panels. A 370/138 and a 370/148. I restored the 138 and eventually sold it when my oldest went to college. I still have the 148 panel. Maybe I'll get it restored this year. I also have a functional IBM Emulator system with a 3174 controller, 3278 CRT and 3287 Printer.
I run it up when I need a mainframe fix...

Was this high school in St. Charles, IL? East, possibly?

I attend high school in St. Charles.

No, I went to High School in Elk Grove. That was *many* moons ago.

I know STCE *very* well.

 

[jradicle11]

Small world.

 

[whs]

It is funny how the young people think of "computers" in terms of PCs. In the 80's and 90's I thought of them as toys that would at best have some use for secretaries. I programmed this baby (actually the predecessor Z11) in 1958 and later I worked on systems that filled rooms the size of football fields.