X-Nico

unusual facts about microcomputer



AutoCAD

As Autodesk's flagship product, by March 1986 AutoCAD had become the most ubiquitous microcomputer design program worldwide, with functions such as "polylines" and "curve fitting".

Awesome Android

A synthesis of ape DNA and unstable molecules incorporated into an almost indestructible body with a microcomputer and a solar-power source, the newly christened Awesome Android is directed against the Fantastic Four, although the superhero team defeats both the Android and the Thinker.

Bulverde, Texas

The Bulverde Bul-a-ton was published in the mid-1980s using an Osborne 1 microcomputer.

David H. Ahl

DEC built the VT180 (codenamed "Robin"), which was a VT100 terminal with an added Z80-based microcomputer running CP/M, but this product was initially available only to DEC employees.

DBase

He used this as the basis for a port to PTDOS on his kit-built IMSAI 8080 microcomputer, and called the resulting system Vulcan (after Mr. Spock on Star Trek).

Digital Research Labs

Digital Research, a now defunct microcomputer operating system (CP/M, DR-DOS) vendor founded by Gary Kildall

ELF II

The Netronics ELF II was an early microcomputer trainer kit featuring the RCA 1802 microprocessor, 256 bytes of RAM, DMA-based bitmap graphics, hexadecimal keypad, two digit hexadecimal LED display, a single "Q" LED, and 5 expansion slots.

HDOS

HDOS is an early microcomputer operating system, originally written for the Heathkit H8 computer system and later also available for the Heathkit H89 and Zenith Z-89 computers.

History of computer hardware in Yugoslavia

One domestic microcomputer model managed to stand out - Galaksija.

Imagineering

Imagineering Australia, a microcomputer software and hardware distributor founded by Australian businessman Jodee Rich.

Itty bitty machine company

The company also demonstrated, sold and serviced the IMSAI 8080 Microcomputer, Processor Technology SOL-20 Terminal Computer, and kits from The Digital Group.

John Coll

He later wrote the BBC Microcomputer User Guide which was supplied by Acorn Computers with the BBC Micro and appeared regularly on the television programmes Making the Most of the Micro and Micro Live which featured the computer.

At Oundle he learnt to program the school's Data General Nova 3 computer alongside a number of pupils, built a Motorola 6800 based microcomputer from scratch, designing and etching the printed circuit boards personally and then purchased and built a kit SWTPC 6800-based computer which was made available to the pupils.

Li-Chen Wang

He was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club and made significant contributions to the software for early microcomputer systems from Tandy Corporation and Cromemco.

Lotus DataLens

It provided drivers for a number of common data sources, including a variety of mainframe SQL servers, microcomputer database files of various sorts, and even flat-file systems.

Making the Most of the Micro

John Coll was the main technical 'bod' (he had also written the User Guide for the BBC Micro along with other manuals) and Ian Trackman also featured - he wrote most of the software that was used for demonstrating certain features of the microcomputer, not only for this series but also The Computer Programme and Computers in Control.

MCP-1600

Used in the Pascal MicroEngine, the original Alpha Microsystems AM-100, and the DEC LSI-11 microcomputer, a cost-reduced and compact implementation of the DEC PDP-11.

Michael O'Regan

In 1973, with Mike Fischer (who had an physics degree from Oxford), O'Regan co-founded Research Machines, a British microcomputer and then software company for the educational market.

Mostek

The Z80 eventually became the most popular microcomputer family as it was used in millions of embedded devices as well as in many home computers and computers using the de facto standard CP/M operating system, such as the Osborne, Kaypro, and TRS-80 models.

Mycron

Mycron was a pioneer manufacturer of microcomputers, located in Oslo, Norway.

Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure

It was created for the Apple II platform and is considered one of the first microcomputer-based role-playing video games.

The game was written in Integer BASIC and was one of the first microcomputer games to be created using multiple programs, requiring floppy disc activation and access mid-game.

PC532

The PC532 was a "home-brew" microcomputer design created by George Scolaro and Dave Rand in 1989-90, based around the National Semiconductor NS32532 microprocessor (a member of the NS320xx series).

Racter

According to Chamberlain's introduction to the book, the program apparently ran on a CP/M machine; it was written in "compiled BASIC on a Z80 micro with 64K of RAM." This version, the program that allegedly wrote the book, was not released to the general public.

Space Ace

Space Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems).

Tangerine Computer Systems

was a British microcomputer company founded in 1979 by Dr. Paul Johnson, Mark Rainer and Nigel Penton Tilbury in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire.

Yuen Poovarawan

The Microcomputer Research Laboratory, which Yuen was head of, also developed the Thai Kernel System, a hardware-independent system designed to promote system-intercompatibility for Thai-language application development, in 1990, but this failed to gain a user base as it lost ground to the expanding Microsoft Windows systems.


see also