My thoughts and knowledge about old hardware
This is a system board from a DEC Personal Workstation 433a with a 433-MHz Alpha AXP CPU (top-left corner). This is a system from the 1996 and was quite expensive. Next to the CPU, you can see the cache module and 8 RAM slots. The custom chipset provides memory (128bit)/PCI-X (64bit) controllers. The Intel PCIset… Read More » Let’s look at something unusual again…
During our visit of the Home Computer Museum we spent a lot of time playing with a rare BeBox computer (or workstation?), only to find out that the “hero of computer magazines” from the past was not so great after all. We also corrupted the OS installation on the museum machine and spent some time… Read More » My big disappointment with the BeBox, a computer designed by former Apple executive…
MIPS Magnum 4000 is derived from the Microsoft Jazz development platform which was internally used to develop Windows NT (3.1). Then, it was ported to other CPU architectures incl. x86. Windows on MIPS was not successful but it was an important part of the history. From the outside, the Magnum 4000 looked like a regular… Read More » Finally, there is a proper computer to run Windows!
Three lovely #UNIX machines networked together during Bytefest 2024. Btw Rhapsody OS is surprisingly a nice experience compared to the standard (pre-X) Mac OS. The BlueBox environment (paravirtualized MacOS 8.1) does not support any direct hardware access (3D, video acceleration), but 2D graphics works just as fast as on bare metal MacOS.
I got some new SGI computers. I was surprised because I thought the SGI guys from the Czech Republic gave me all their leftovers. I had to go to one of the original SGI offices in Brno this time. The office design was very 90s and there were classic SGI artworks on the walls. All… Read More » More SGI computers
The original SimCity 2000 had a strict requirement for an SVGA video card that supported 640×480 resolution with 256 colors. I used to believe that this was an inflexible requirement, but it turns out that the hardware requirements were eased in the Windows version. Not only did it allow the game to run in 16-color… Read More » SimCity 2000, 16-color modes and custom palettes
I just wrapped up an article on the Toshiba T3200SX, a desktop-replacement laptop from 1989. This beauty boasts a 386(SX) CPU and a stunning VGA gas-plasma display. You can check it out here: https://retro.swarrm.cz/toshiba-t3200sx-1989/ For those of you who are new to the world of vintage computers, this article can provide some valuable context and… Read More » New Article: Toshiba T3200SX
8bit guy published a video about SuperCGA cards, which reminded me that this was a topic a recently dug into. I’ve never really worked with CGA/EGA monitors. When we had a computer at home for the first time in 1989, it was an IBM PS/2 Model 20 borrowed from dad’s office. That computer already had… Read More » “SuperCGA” and ATI Graphics Solution and GEM Desktop
I am trying to avoid buying any old computer, but a friend of mine and I made an exception in this case and bought this together. Somebody in Prague offered a non-working HP Integral Personal Computer (1985) for $420. It was just 15 minutes of traveling from my friend’s home, so he visited the seller… Read More » New Item: HP Integral Personal Computer
Last summer, I put new set of alkaline batteries in this portable beauty as I needed it for a photoshoot. A few months later, I used the machine also during a vintage computer event and (both times) I forgot to remove them. The stand-by energy consumption is apparently so low that nine months, the computer… Read More » Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 batteries still alive