In article <207E4E4F-B642-424E-8649-810A589DA54B@delong.com>, Owen
DeLong <owen@delong.com> writes
>I believe the IPv4 classful addressing scheme (which some have pointed
>out was the second IPv4 addressing scheme, I wasn't involved early
>enough for the first, so didn't remember it) predates commodore, apple,
>etc.
On a historical note, if Classful Addressing is deemed to date from
rfc792 (1981) [but I'd be grateful for other nominations of a suitable
alternate date] then that post-dates the Commodore PET and Apple II
which were both launched in 1977.
If you wanted to consider the "high 8 bits = network, low 24 bits = host"
model as being classful addressing, then that predates. I concede this
is a bit dodgy.
Some sources claim the PET is later, but I remember it because I was
doing a project on "PCs in Schools" in the spring of 1977, using an
8-bit PC that I had built myself on a patchboard. And the PET arrived
just in time for me to be able say to "I'm not completely insane - a
viable PC you could install in a school is now commercially available".
Your memory seems to be in error; the PET was created for the June 1977
CES, and wasn't shipped to customers until at least later that year. It
seems very likely that you received your PET in the spring of 1978.
... JG
In article <201004041249.o34CnUUt078737@aurora.sol.net>, Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> writes
Some sources claim the PET is later, but I remember it because I was
doing a project on "PCs in Schools" in the spring of 1977, using an
8-bit PC that I had built myself on a patchboard. And the PET arrived
just in time for me to be able say to "I'm not completely insane - a
viable PC you could install in a school is now commercially available".
Your memory seems to be in error; the PET was created for the June 1977
CES, and wasn't shipped to customers until at least later that year. It
seems very likely that you received your PET in the spring of 1978.
I use the expressions "arrived" and "available" in the spirit of vapourware that was endemic in the industry at the time. In other words, it was when the product was "introduced". It's true that we would not have expected to see a real one in the UK until much later.
There are at least two sources which date the PET to "Winter CES" and "Jan 1977", but I agree that June CES is where production items would be first shown; however by then schools were out and my project was finished (I was studying to be maths teacher).
Roland Perry wrote:
There are at least two sources which date the PET to "Winter CES" and "Jan 1977", but I agree that June CES is where production items would be first shown; however by then schools were out and my project was finished (I was studying to be maths teacher).
I thought people might like to know:
According to the book "On the edge" by Brian Bagnall the first showing was in March 1977. In January of 1977 it was announced at the CES. The machine was there but had a tiny but hard to find bug that prevented it from working until the last day, then when it worked the image was upside down. It was shown to John Roach, then an operations guy of Rat Shack. He was interested to have it distributed in their stores but because Jack Tramiel also demanded they'd order a lot of Commodore's calculators John Roach didn't go through with the deal and decided they could make their own... missed opportunities.
quoting page56, "The birth of an Industry"
"Leonard Tramiel unveiled the PET 2001 to the world. "The first showing of the PET was at the Hanover Faire in Germany in March 1977," recalls Leonard. "It was shown first at the Hanover Faire in that hand-carved wooden case."
(..)
A month later they would unveil the PET in the United States"
(end quote)
That was at the West Coast Computer Faire in mid-April of 1977, organised by Jim Warren of Dr. Dobbs Journal. The first major gather of hobbyists and microcomputer companies. Apparently an important moment in the microcomputer history.
Greetings,
Jeroen
Jeroen van Aart <jeroen@mompl.net> writes:
...
That was at the West Coast Computer Faire in mid-April of 1977, organised
by Jim Warren of Dr. Dobbs Journal. The first major gather of hobbyists
and microcomputer companies. Apparently an important moment in the
microcomputer history.
seems like i saw an Apple I at that show, and also a SOL, which i remember
thinking very highly of since it had an S-100 bus. the PET was there but
with the itty bitty keyboard the machine was a bit of a head-scratcher for
the crowd.
While this isn't alt.folklore.computers, I have a minor correction (and a
lead-in to a question about early IP routers):
According to the book 'Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark
the PC Revolution' the prototype TRS-80 was shown to Charles Tandy on
Groundhog Day, February 2, 1977. One of the great engineering stories of our
time is that of Steve Leininger, who is the person responsible for the design
and construction of the prototype. It was announced to the public on August
3, 1977, and sold a quarter of a million units over its lifetime (talking
about the 'Model I' only). IOW, the TRS-80 was already in design before the
PET was shown to John Roach; that's the minor correction.
Three Steves (Leininger, Wozniak, Jobs.... others?) at the lead-in of the
microcomputer (and thus the Internet) age.
Along those lines (and the primary reason I reply), does anyone here have any
Proteon routers still in operation? I have three with full docs and those
80Mb/s ProNET over fiber links, and am wondering if they are at all useful in
this day and age....if nothing else, the enclosure makes a nice shielded rack
box....Hey, I hate to see gear sit on the shelf unused, regardless of how old
it is!
Lamar Owen wrote:
and construction of the prototype. It was announced to the public on August 3, 1977, and sold a quarter of a million units over its lifetime (talking about the 'Model I' only). IOW, the TRS-80 was already in design before the PET was shown to John Roach; that's the minor correction.
Right, I believe the book was trying to say that the missed opportunity is that Commodore could have sold the original PET in Tandy's stores. I assume you were (as I was) wondering why the hell Tandy would have done that as it've been a competitor to the TRS-80. But then Commodore (having taken over MOS technologies) sold CPUs to their major competitors including Apple and Atari. So it's not unheard of.
Regards,
Jeroen