- Dec 12, 2000
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Brought on from the 'specs of your first computer' thread...just wanted to show y'all how cool this PC was for its time. While it wasn't really designed for home use (VAXmate, as the name implies, was intended as a workstation/terminal machine for VAX mainframe administration) its emphasis on small form factor, integrated chassis and built-in networking would inspire PC design for years to come. At the time, this was the 'coolest' machine with x86 architecture and definately held its own against the Mac. And oh yes, for its time, it was a real screamer of a machine!!
We got ours in 1987 and it was the first real PC in our home (not counting the TI-80 we bought a few years earlier...that was more of a gaming console since my family didn't use the BASIC programming tools.) My dad got ours free since he was the leading salesman in his territory at the time...I don't even want to know how much it cost (upwards of $5000 possibly!) Here are the specs:
- 80286 processor at 8MHz
- 1MB RAM (expandable to 3MB, which we had!)
- No hard drive (support for internal hard drive with optional interface card, which we had. Started at 20MB, upgraded to 30MB, then 40MB, then 380MB SCSI 1.0!!!)
- Internal CGA graphics
- Internal RX33 floppy drive (5 1/4 inch HD 1.2mb)
- 3 ISA slots
- Integrated 12" CGA amber monochrome monitor (took us 4 hours to figure out how to disable built-in graphics/monitor and use an EGA expansion card with external monitor! After that, people thought we had a dual-monitor setup...this was back in 1989!!)
- VAX VMS operating system (which we replaced with MS-DOS 2.0 and later Windows 1.03 of course!)
- Internal 2400 baud modem (back when 1200s were still cutting edge!)
- Network bootable!!
- 114-key LK250 keyboard (with VT terminal function keys)
- 3-button mouse
Pic
Note the 3-button mouse. The proprietary connector almost resembles a modern-day USB connector!
We got ours in 1987 and it was the first real PC in our home (not counting the TI-80 we bought a few years earlier...that was more of a gaming console since my family didn't use the BASIC programming tools.) My dad got ours free since he was the leading salesman in his territory at the time...I don't even want to know how much it cost (upwards of $5000 possibly!) Here are the specs:
- 80286 processor at 8MHz
- 1MB RAM (expandable to 3MB, which we had!)
- No hard drive (support for internal hard drive with optional interface card, which we had. Started at 20MB, upgraded to 30MB, then 40MB, then 380MB SCSI 1.0!!!)
- Internal CGA graphics
- Internal RX33 floppy drive (5 1/4 inch HD 1.2mb)
- 3 ISA slots
- Integrated 12" CGA amber monochrome monitor (took us 4 hours to figure out how to disable built-in graphics/monitor and use an EGA expansion card with external monitor! After that, people thought we had a dual-monitor setup...this was back in 1989!!)
- VAX VMS operating system (which we replaced with MS-DOS 2.0 and later Windows 1.03 of course!)
- Internal 2400 baud modem (back when 1200s were still cutting edge!)
- Network bootable!!
- 114-key LK250 keyboard (with VT terminal function keys)
- 3-button mouse
Pic
Note the 3-button mouse. The proprietary connector almost resembles a modern-day USB connector!
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