tucsoncoyote
08-13-2006, 08:33 AM
That was then (August 12th 1981):
http://www.vankuyen.net/machines/fullsize/1981_ibm-pc.jpg
Total Cost $4,273.00 (Not including Tax)
This is now (August 12th 2006):
http://netstaging.com/hp/2006/May/Hp_notebook_dx5150/promo/image/product.jpg
Total Cost: Starting at Less then $1,000.00 (Tax Not Ihcluded)
Related Link...: http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=130733®ion=3
Yes the Personal Computer turns 25 years old today.. and it was way back in 1981 that IBM offered the first Personal computer to the public...
and believe me Times have changed...
25 years ago, IBM On August 12th 1981, broke out it's first ever personal computer and sold it to the wanting public..
and to get this machine out the door back in 1981, it would cost you a nice little piece of change... $4,273.00 (Tax Not included)
so back in 1981, what did you get for that price? Well as the article states you got the following:
64K memory,
a 160KB (that's 160 Kilobytes) disk drive,
which ran on Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS)
a keyboard,
and a 12 or 14 inch black and white monitor.All for the paltry sum of $4,273.00 Not including tax of course.
and yet in that first 25 years a lot has happened. and believe me that initial 4,000+ Dollar investment has come a long way..
what have we got to show for all this? Well a lot..
CD Rom's (and Later CD Read/Write drives, plus DVD Readables and read-writable Disks and Drives)
Mice,
Universal Serial Bus Ports,
Firewire,
All in one Printers
and Even Operating systems like Windows 95, 98, 2000, and even XP and XP64, and soon .. Windows Vista...
Huge 21-50 inch monitors some of them slim as a small TV...
and the list goes on and on..
so in a way, the PC has evolved.. I was around when i got my first Apple 2e in 1983 (I initially had a Tandy TRS80/4 but that was a $1000 buck machine and all I got was a lousy tape recorder to store data on.
but over time I myself evolved with the computer.. I watched things grow and get larger and faster.. and believe me I saw at least 9 generations of Computer processors, enough data updates on Hard drives that went from that 160KB floppy drive to now drives that are 160 (or more) Gigabytes in size
I've seen it go from Black and white to Color to VGA to SVGA to now things like NVidia and Radeon 3DVideo cards with DVI Input
and I've even seen games evolve.. from simple chess games and games with very little graphics to flgiht sims that are now so realistic, you could swear that you were inside the cockpit of your favorite plane (even auot racing has become quite realistic and in just the last few years I've seen a new Hobby I've come to love, Virtual Railroading where you can build a real railroad or a model layout and watch trains run from all the imaginable angles (Inside the locomotive cab, running along side the train even seeing your train from another train). I've seen games Like the Sims 2 and Major League Baseball and even Armored Fist 2 evolve into todays videogames that you now can play on a PS 2 and X-box 360 (and even the New upcoming PS3..
Yes We've even got now the Internet, all the crazy things like IIRC, and Chat, and YIM, and AIM, and Even ICQ... there are now pages you can access and items you can download that can give you a reference in this ever shrinking world that we live in. we even got email, and DSL and High Speed Cable and even Wi-fi wirelessnow, plus PDA's Blackberries, Razors, and so much stuff like MP3's and Ipods, you don't know which way is up anymore..and then there are bulletin boards.. Like TZ.net that are around because of this item.. (Without the PC, well TZ.net wouldn't be here right now where I am writing this article up..)
We now get up to the minute news, weather warnings and even comedy and video downloads from places like Youtube, MSNBC, CNN.com, Intellicast.com Gamespot, Avsim.com, just to name a few and yes we get to talk to people on bulletin boards like TZ.net after all we all share our opinions and thoughts on Cartoons, Entertainment, Videogames, and yes even ordinary chit chat like this.
and the list keeps on growing..
Believe me the first 25 years has been a blast and I've gone through at least 10 computers already by my count..(11 if you count what I am writing this on, a laptop)
But what will the next 25 years will hold for computers? Well I'm guessing if the last 25 is like the next, you can expect that for that 4,273 dollars you spent back in 1981, you could very much have a supercomputer.. the size of a cell phone, all in your hand... complete with wireless wi-fi connection..
after all it's just been 25 years since the 'PC' Revolution started. what the next 25 years will hold? It will be up to us and our own creativity to see where the Personal Computer, The PC as we call it, goes from here...
and that's the way it is.. and PC Computing keeps on going.. so Happy birthday to the Personal Computer. I just hope we'll be around when it gets to 50...
:coyote:
http://www.vankuyen.net/machines/fullsize/1981_ibm-pc.jpg
Total Cost $4,273.00 (Not including Tax)
This is now (August 12th 2006):
http://netstaging.com/hp/2006/May/Hp_notebook_dx5150/promo/image/product.jpg
Total Cost: Starting at Less then $1,000.00 (Tax Not Ihcluded)
Related Link...: http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=130733®ion=3
Yes the Personal Computer turns 25 years old today.. and it was way back in 1981 that IBM offered the first Personal computer to the public...
and believe me Times have changed...
25 years ago, IBM On August 12th 1981, broke out it's first ever personal computer and sold it to the wanting public..
and to get this machine out the door back in 1981, it would cost you a nice little piece of change... $4,273.00 (Tax Not included)
so back in 1981, what did you get for that price? Well as the article states you got the following:
64K memory,
a 160KB (that's 160 Kilobytes) disk drive,
which ran on Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS)
a keyboard,
and a 12 or 14 inch black and white monitor.All for the paltry sum of $4,273.00 Not including tax of course.
and yet in that first 25 years a lot has happened. and believe me that initial 4,000+ Dollar investment has come a long way..
what have we got to show for all this? Well a lot..
CD Rom's (and Later CD Read/Write drives, plus DVD Readables and read-writable Disks and Drives)
Mice,
Universal Serial Bus Ports,
Firewire,
All in one Printers
and Even Operating systems like Windows 95, 98, 2000, and even XP and XP64, and soon .. Windows Vista...
Huge 21-50 inch monitors some of them slim as a small TV...
and the list goes on and on..
so in a way, the PC has evolved.. I was around when i got my first Apple 2e in 1983 (I initially had a Tandy TRS80/4 but that was a $1000 buck machine and all I got was a lousy tape recorder to store data on.
but over time I myself evolved with the computer.. I watched things grow and get larger and faster.. and believe me I saw at least 9 generations of Computer processors, enough data updates on Hard drives that went from that 160KB floppy drive to now drives that are 160 (or more) Gigabytes in size
I've seen it go from Black and white to Color to VGA to SVGA to now things like NVidia and Radeon 3DVideo cards with DVI Input
and I've even seen games evolve.. from simple chess games and games with very little graphics to flgiht sims that are now so realistic, you could swear that you were inside the cockpit of your favorite plane (even auot racing has become quite realistic and in just the last few years I've seen a new Hobby I've come to love, Virtual Railroading where you can build a real railroad or a model layout and watch trains run from all the imaginable angles (Inside the locomotive cab, running along side the train even seeing your train from another train). I've seen games Like the Sims 2 and Major League Baseball and even Armored Fist 2 evolve into todays videogames that you now can play on a PS 2 and X-box 360 (and even the New upcoming PS3..
Yes We've even got now the Internet, all the crazy things like IIRC, and Chat, and YIM, and AIM, and Even ICQ... there are now pages you can access and items you can download that can give you a reference in this ever shrinking world that we live in. we even got email, and DSL and High Speed Cable and even Wi-fi wirelessnow, plus PDA's Blackberries, Razors, and so much stuff like MP3's and Ipods, you don't know which way is up anymore..and then there are bulletin boards.. Like TZ.net that are around because of this item.. (Without the PC, well TZ.net wouldn't be here right now where I am writing this article up..)
We now get up to the minute news, weather warnings and even comedy and video downloads from places like Youtube, MSNBC, CNN.com, Intellicast.com Gamespot, Avsim.com, just to name a few and yes we get to talk to people on bulletin boards like TZ.net after all we all share our opinions and thoughts on Cartoons, Entertainment, Videogames, and yes even ordinary chit chat like this.
and the list keeps on growing..
Believe me the first 25 years has been a blast and I've gone through at least 10 computers already by my count..(11 if you count what I am writing this on, a laptop)
But what will the next 25 years will hold for computers? Well I'm guessing if the last 25 is like the next, you can expect that for that 4,273 dollars you spent back in 1981, you could very much have a supercomputer.. the size of a cell phone, all in your hand... complete with wireless wi-fi connection..
after all it's just been 25 years since the 'PC' Revolution started. what the next 25 years will hold? It will be up to us and our own creativity to see where the Personal Computer, The PC as we call it, goes from here...
and that's the way it is.. and PC Computing keeps on going.. so Happy birthday to the Personal Computer. I just hope we'll be around when it gets to 50...
:coyote: