Greetings from Romania !

[BogdanV]

I never expected to find a active vintage computing forum (probably just bad luck), but I was happy to find this community on the recommendation of a BetaArchive member (linuxlove).
I mostly enjoy old software and alpha/beta builds, but I'm afraid that what I see as old looks pretty new for most people here (judging by the posts). I'm afraid I'm too young to have witnessed the beginnings of x86, not to mention pre-x86 era stuff.
Can't explain why, but for me at least, the '90s look like the glory days of computing, with lots of new companies emerging, all sorts of architectures being developed, all sorts of pc's appearing... The market back then looked richer and vaster than today.

Anyway, I can't say I have a vintage collection, because like I said above, compared to what's here, most of my stuff looks pretty new. Its also the problem that old tech is quickly scrapped here. People don't bother storing such stuff; they just throw it down the trash, which is really sad.

Well, about my computers, I've got a :

- 300MHz K6-2 PC
- 486 Compaq Contura Aero (monochrome lcd version)

And the crown jewel : a CompuData Tulip System I with a 8086 CPU (launched about the same time as IBM's PC)
This computer has a story of its own, with lots of beautiful memories tied to my early childhood.

Sadly, the PSU's gone. Yes, it vanished. Its all complete (serial, external dual-floppy unit, green monochrome monitor, manuals covering CP/M, DOS and general stuff about the computer). except for the PSU.
I've heard that Windows 1.0 might work, but I don't have a mouse. It would still be interesting though.

Another thing would be that I'd like to own a DEC Alpha PC to run NT4 and 2000 RC1 (the only Alpha version compiled).
It sounds like a interesting architecture (64-bit RISC before x86-64 or even IA64 ! ) and I'd like to try it out, but I haven't got much luck in finding a workstation.

Anyway, glad to meet you all !

 

[barythrin]

Welcome to the forums. Don't worry too much about the collection or age part, we all started somewhere and it's a safe bet not all of us were collecting vintage equipment vs buying obsolete gear to see what we missed out on like yourself. I'm not sure what's popular location wise for you but the good news (I think) is I see a lot of Alpha systems not going for much value since they aren't quite vintage and are stuck in that "old computer" phase, not quite powerful enough to do the mainstream work but not old enough to be collectible. I remember (probably 94 or so) seeing an ad for an Alpha system in a magazine and my friend and I (both learning all we could about computers and programming at the time) thought it was a typo since I think they were boasting almost Ghz speed when we were using ...probably 66Mhz systems. It was insane specs (the type we'd joke about a newbie saying). Years later I ended up finding one for around $200 (a friend of a friend purchase).

While it's not vintage (IMO) I do have fond memories of my first job working at AMD (internship right out of high school as a programmer). It was 98-99 and was amazing to work there. Even though myself and a few friends were just interns they treated us like full respectable employees, asking us our opinion on things, celebrating our financial announcements (a loss but still providing squirt guns and food for all the employees for a fun party in back). I probably can't give too many details on what I worked on but it was to improve our good processor runs. Out of an entire wafer (1 silicon platter is 1 wafer which X amount of processors are then etched onto) it was normal to get 64% of them working and the rest defective. While I was there was when the K6-2 technology was released so my history in the making was AMD getting way better yields and finally beating Intel in sales. Quite good memories so I do like seeing the K6-2 systems still.

So what's the story with the Tulip? I love hearing vintage stories

 

[Erik]

Welcome aboard!

Enjoy!