What was the speed of the intel 8088
- Thread starter sdgserv
- Start date
Markfw
Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
- May 16, 2002
- 26,948
- 15,929
- 136
Wel,, thats debateable if it was the first PC. Thre were 8086 computers before that, and my firs "PC" (as in small enough to fit on a desktop) was a Tektronix 4051 with dual 8086 processor and upgraded 16k memory and a tape drive.(circa 1980)
We didn't use the term "PC" for desktop computer systems until IBM coined the phrase "Personal Computer" for their product. We called them "Micro-Computers" in 1977-1981. And few of us could afford to buy most such, new and ready-built for use at home, before the mid to late 1980's. The C64 and Atari 800 were affordable, but those were mostly limited to being no better than gaming systems for some pretty primitive games (yes, I know, not all were so primitive). But you *could* build a CP/M machine yourself, around an 8080 or a Z-80A and save enough to afford to get started that way.
Zilog CPU all the way, baby! Still have my sinclair zx81 packed away in a box. I have thrown away many more powerful computers since then, but somehow when "building a computer" meant puttin the individual capacitors, resistors, and chips into the PCB with a soldering iron, THAT's something to hang on to.Originally posted by: KiwiBut you *could* build a CP/M machine yourself, around an 8080 or a Z-80A and save enough to afford to get started that way.
BTW, I'm too lazy to look it up (but I'm sure you could easily witha search), but I think the first 8086/8088s were at least as slow as 4.77 Mhz. I feel pretty good about it because a number like that doesn't just get dreamed up in your head, it has to come from some memory.
It's just been too long ago now; I think I gave away the first Z-80A boat anchor (and if anyone doubts it would have worked as a GOOD anchor, you should've seen the enclosures we used for S-100 systems. I'd swear it was 3/16" thick steel. Those boxes weighed 25-30 pounds when empty!) It was probably sent to the dump by whatever cousin, neice/ nephew, whatever, after it wasn't a great deal older than when I passed it on.Originally posted by: MarkM
Zilog CPU all the way, baby! Still have my sinclair zx81 packed away in a box. I have thrown away many more powerful computers since then, but somehow when "building a computer" meant puttin the individual capacitors, resistors, and chips into the PCB with a soldering iron, THAT's something to hang on to.Originally posted by: Kiwi But you *could* build a CP/M machine yourself, around an 8080 or a Z-80A and save enough to afford to get started that way.
BTW, I'm too lazy to look it up (but I'm sure you could easily with a search), but I think the first 8086/8088s were at least as slow as 4.77 Mhz. I feel pretty good about it because a number like that doesn't just get dreamed up in your head, it has to come from some memory.
The S-100 stuff ran at a straight single MHz in the beginning, I'm almost certain. IBM's PC's and XT's did run at 4.77 MHz, but there were some early 8x86 cpu clones, like NEC's, that were faster. The First IBM AT was 6.0 MHz, for which the acronym meant "Advanced Technology" (and it *was* moderately advanced for 1985).
:beer:
Yeah, and a 286 was really fast at 8mhz. Heck, the Compaq portable model I have is maxed out with 2mbs of memory and an ancient WD 300mb HDD (still have it and it works to this day). Works great for manuscripts, since it's even stuffed with Wordperfect 6.0.
Heck, the Compaq portable model I have is maxed out with 2mbs of memory and an ancient WD 300mb HDD (still have it and it works to this day). Works great for manuscripts, since it's even stuffed with Wordperfect 6.0.I remember when the 486 came out and the DOS dir output would just fly down the screen and I was very impressed. On the 8088, it inched by line by line.
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,570
- 10,202
- 126
I still have my 8086 7.xx Mhz "Turbo-XT" clone, complete with herc-clone monographics card, and a couple of half-height 20MB (yes, MB) Seagate MFM drives. Sounds like a damn jet taking off when they spin-up. Where is a good place to get rid of something like that. It has a nifty copied real IBM XT BIOS though, complete with a ROM BASIC interpreter. (It came from the clone vendor that way, not my fault..) Interestingly enough, some of those early machines may have used AMD CPUs as well, as they were a licensed second-source for x86's, which is how their early "long-term patent license" to Intel's technology came about.
It has a nifty copied real IBM XT BIOS though, complete with a ROM BASIC interpreter. (It came from the clone vendor that way, not my fault..) Interestingly enough, some of those early machines may have used AMD CPUs as well, as they were a licensed second-source for x86's, which is how their early "long-term patent license" to Intel's technology came about.Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I still have my 8086 7.xx Mhz "Turbo-XT" clone, complete with herc-clone monographics card, and a couple of half-height 20MB (yes, MB) Seagate MFM drives. Sounds like a damn jet taking off when they spin-up. Where is a good place to get rid of something like that.
Keep it for another 20 years. Longer you keep it, the more it's value. It's already a classic, but in 20 years museums will be wanting working units -- if it works it's much more valuable. Why I keep up with the 286 (but leaving the legacy ware intact -- and all the 5.25" disks of programs).
Or you can join a modding community to push it's capabilities. Some Commodore 64 fans worked to get a 32bit kernal made for it, even. :shocked:
>I still have my 8086 7.xx Mhz "Turbo-XT" clone, complete with herc-clone monographics
> card, and a couple of half-height 20MB (yes, MB)
Old timers? Hey.
I still possess an S100 system. I don't think it has had power applied for over 15 years, though. Who knows if it still works. I don't know if I have got the guts to plug it in. You never know what might happen.
The 2 floppy drives are in a separate case. They are 8 inch floppies, full height, double sided, double density. 1.2M I think. Yes they are 8 inches wide. and use 8 inch floppy diskettes! Each drive probably weighs 20 pounds, and the case probably weighs 30 lb. Each floppy drive (Mitsubishi) cost me about $450. 5 iinch floppy drives were available at the time I got these, but they were somewhat more expensive. The drive system connects to the S100 box through an 80 wire ribbon cable about 6 feet long.
The display for these S100 type of systems was a terminal, which connected through an RS232 serial port. 9600 or 19,200 baud was normal. I've still got it, a Heathkit H19. I think the kit ran around $300, dirt cheap for a CRT terminal at the time, and all I had to do was solder every part on every circuit board, and screw in every screw. It didn't take but a couple of weeks of spare time. I think the display is 10", 25 lines of 80 characters. The CPU board has a 4MHz Zilog Z80. It was a kit from STB, quite speedy at the time I got it. Intel was only making 2MHz 8080s then. The CPU board has a couple dozen interface ICs besides the CPU. The CPU was a 40 pin IC, quite a bit less than 939 pins, 899 less
The floppy controller is a separate S100 circuit board, whcih cost as much as the CPU board. The original S100 memory I bought was 32K, on 4 8K circuit boards, each having 64 memory chips and a dozen other chips for interfacing to the S100 bus. They were all soldered by me from 4 $125 Godbout kits. But I converted over to several 32K memory boards when the next generation memory chips (4K x 1) came around. It is all static memeory. The 8080 only addressed 64K total, but there was system to bank switch memory in and out of the memory space, which was slightly useful. By the time I was doing that, the IBM PC was coming into popularity. Those intial IBM PCs were considered notably inferior to S100 systems like mine (and might have been more expensive), but that changed fast.
Those were the days!
> card, and a couple of half-height 20MB (yes, MB)
Old timers? Hey.
I still possess an S100 system. I don't think it has had power applied for over 15 years, though. Who knows if it still works. I don't know if I have got the guts to plug it in. You never know what might happen.
The 2 floppy drives are in a separate case. They are 8 inch floppies, full height, double sided, double density. 1.2M I think. Yes they are 8 inches wide. and use 8 inch floppy diskettes! Each drive probably weighs 20 pounds, and the case probably weighs 30 lb. Each floppy drive (Mitsubishi) cost me about $450. 5 iinch floppy drives were available at the time I got these, but they were somewhat more expensive. The drive system connects to the S100 box through an 80 wire ribbon cable about 6 feet long.
The display for these S100 type of systems was a terminal, which connected through an RS232 serial port. 9600 or 19,200 baud was normal. I've still got it, a Heathkit H19. I think the kit ran around $300, dirt cheap for a CRT terminal at the time, and all I had to do was solder every part on every circuit board, and screw in every screw. It didn't take but a couple of weeks of spare time. I think the display is 10", 25 lines of 80 characters. The CPU board has a 4MHz Zilog Z80. It was a kit from STB, quite speedy at the time I got it. Intel was only making 2MHz 8080s then. The CPU board has a couple dozen interface ICs besides the CPU. The CPU was a 40 pin IC, quite a bit less than 939 pins, 899 less
The floppy controller is a separate S100 circuit board, whcih cost as much as the CPU board. The original S100 memory I bought was 32K, on 4 8K circuit boards, each having 64 memory chips and a dozen other chips for interfacing to the S100 bus. They were all soldered by me from 4 $125 Godbout kits. But I converted over to several 32K memory boards when the next generation memory chips (4K x 1) came around. It is all static memeory. The 8080 only addressed 64K total, but there was system to bank switch memory in and out of the memory space, which was slightly useful. By the time I was doing that, the IBM PC was coming into popularity. Those intial IBM PCs were considered notably inferior to S100 systems like mine (and might have been more expensive), but that changed fast.
Those were the days!
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,570
- 10,202
- 126
Neat!
I know exactly what you're talking about, because I had an older engineering friend of mine give his old (and-built!) rig to me. I just didn't have the room to store it so I had to junk it, but I kept some of hte floppies, and some of the CP/M-80 source code listings that came with it. His came with a Televideo terminal. I can't claim to be that "oldie" myself, my earliest computer was using a pre-buiilt Commidore PET in grade school, followed by a Tandy CoCo 2 at home (audio cassette drive and all). Still had to do some soldering if you wanted to upgrade the RAM though. But I've never hand-assembled an S100 system myself, that must have been interesting, and rather fun. Instead of a computer build taking minutes to hours, until you find out if it works - I guess those would take days to weeks to assemble, and if they didn't work, you had to trouble-shoot the hardware itself, and no RMA for you. Back then, owning your own computer, was quite the cutting-edge geek-toy thing.Indeed. My CoCo2 (and later a 3) ended up with some modded surplus DEC "Robin" floppy-drive units, pretty decently-built things, and cheaper than the highway robbery that Tandy wanted for their drives.
PS. Oh, and I doubt that my turbo-XT is in any way a "classic", it's just a clone. If it were a true-blue IBM it might be different. I just don't have the heart to contribute it to a landfill.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 24K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 19K
-
-
-
Facebook
Twitter