"Mark Metzler wrote:
I was in WalMart last night, and I swung by the Electronics area. I was curious as to how much a replacement drive would cost me for my PC at home, which has a 17gb drive in it. They had a 80gig drive sitting on the shelf next to the surge suppressors for $70. Never mind that it comes with the software to copy everything to the new drive. So I stood there trying to do the math on what it would cost to equate that volume of storage with ST506 drives at $1995.00 a pop. My head started hurting, so I rounded the ST506 to $2000.
It would take 16,000 ST506’s to reach the memory of the drive in WalMart (again sitting on the shelf, not behind a locked cabinet).
At $2000.00 a pop, it would cost me $32,000,000.00.
Now that would have been a nice sale, but would have been stolen by Jim Scharffe or Mike Daniel.
Here is another perspective. If stacked on top of one another, they would be as tall as a 667 story building.
If from sea level, they would stack high enough to top the tallest building in Downtown Denver.
If sold with a cabinet and power supply, Josef Rabinowitz would be retired. "
"Ohmigod! I'm reminded of when I worked for Heath Kline at Priority One Electronics in Chatsworth...and before that for Galaxy Computers in Woodland Hills when the Commodore 64 was introduced! We thought it huge compared to the Timex Sinclair...."
"We both have been into computers since 1970's & currently own 6 OSBORNE's in working condition. Although we use DOS now, we miss cpm & how actually FAST it was compared to Windows. We miss dBase. Append as well instead of Access now. We still have data on 5 1/4" discs we need to put into the dos machines we use now.
Sorry to hear you are leaving the business - we certainly hope you find a buyer who will keep the collection intact!
Best to you & your wonderful efforts!"
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SYSTEM WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR VINTAGE COMPUTER SYSTEMS
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO
THE FREEMAN PC MUSEUM
Welcome to The Freeman PC Museum collection. The following is a complete list of vintage computer systems in the museum. Feel free to scroll through the list, view details of the system, see related links and advertisements, and join in on the mini forums for each of the systems.
The following list is complete. If you are searching for a particular model, manufacturer, or a list of computers from a particular year, use the "Search" form on the left. Thank you again for visiting The Freeman PC Museum, and enjoy.
Monroe Model L 160-X Executive. This model was first shown at Moroe's High Point Club in September of 1928. Introduced on jnuary 22, 1929. The price was $250.00. Monrie first launched their sales organization in 1915. They could not keep up with the demand. First models were the D, E, F and G square-cornered and clumbersome. The L series was introduced to meet the demand for smaller and quieter and portable adding-calculator machines.
Heathkit H-8 Computer system with H-17 Floppy subsystem and H-9 Video Terminal.
Input from a user "Jay": CPU was an 8088, upgradeable to Z80. Ran at 2MHz, I performed the HUG mod that allowed me to run at 3MHz (software selectable!)
Base RAM was 4KB and expandable to 64KB. Display was dumb/smart terminal connected through serial IO port. I had the H9 (pictured on your site) and also the H19 (looked identical to the H89 but without the floppy drive). These ran VT52 terminal emulation. (Among several others.)
Operating systems included HDOS, CP/M, UCSD Pascal.
Couple odds & ends: bootstrap was keyed in on the front panel of the H8 in split octal machine code-- address & instruction. The H8/H9 kit was buildable by a 7th grader over a single weekend. This computer is now in a new museum and not part of our collection.
Panasonic HHC (Handheld Computer) with microprinter and case. This Handheld Computer was designed to allow 3rd party software developers and OEM's provide their own software solutions. Manufacturerd in 1981 by Matsushita in Japan
Josh H added.
These computers were used by General Electric, and later Ericsson for programming two way radios. Most GE shops of any size in the early 80's until recently had these units since IBM PC's were not at all common when these units came out. The basic Panasonic computer with serial interface and printer were mounted in a suitcase along with two GE plug in modules. The first module contains EPROMS with software for each model of radio or control unit to be programmed. The second module has two EEPROM sockets to accept chips from the radios or control units and a plug for programming cables that directly interface to radios (for programming a radio without removing it from a car or truck). The GE model number for the unit is TQ2310 and they were manufactured by the Mobile Communications Division of GE in Lynchburg VA. These computers seem to be pretty reliable, except for the printers. My friend and I have two complete units, and neither printer works. These units are still fairly common in GE shops even today. Radios were made into the mid to late 90's required the suitcase to program. Newer equipment uses windows based software and a serial interface box. The California Highway Patrol is just now phasing out their GE/Ericsson RANGR series radios with custom S-825 and S-830 control units. These control units require the old suitcase with special software to program. (note my unit has CHP software in it).
