I'm just going outside for a while.

[siteguru]

Re. old computers ... I've still got my old Dragon 32 computer in the loft. I got it when I was 15, so it is now 45 years old.

 

[5teep]

Bought a Sinclair 16k Spectrum and spent a fortune pimping it, upgraded to 32k with the hard plastic case and proper keys. Had 2 microdrives attached for an enormous 16k storage each!
It served as my first business computer, along with an Epson dot matrix printer.
The printer is long gone but the Spectrum is still in my loft.

 

[Everest]

LOL... you're all so young...

But, who is old enough to name my first computer...

a) it was a kit that I hand soldered
b) it had 256 bytes of memory
c) 8 character 7-segment display
d) hexadecimal keypad
e) based on 8060 processor

 

[W12Lad]

Re. old computers ... I've still got my old Dragon 32 computer in the loft. I got it when I was 15, so it is now 45 years old.

That's brought me back. Very underrated computer that had an actual Keyboard
I wanted a Spectrum but My parents bought a Dragon from some bloke in the pub .
The Dragon did me, until I (my parents) bought an Acorn Electron and I started programming proper in my bedroom at about 13/14. Well..... played Chuckie Egg mostly .
Lucked into a career as a programmer by applying for a vacancy in a Job centre at 17 after walkng out of my A level studies after a row with a teacher.

 

[Paul Mason]

OK, raise you a TWAIN cable.

Who knows what TWAIN is, no searching on the interweb thingy

Technology Without An Interesting Name

 

[dsimpkins]

LOL... you're all so young...

But, who is old enough to name my first computer...

a) it was a kit that I hand soldered
b) it had 256 bytes of memory
c) 8 character 7-segment display
d) hexadecimal keypad
e) based on 8060 processor

An Altair?

 

[emmrecs]

Technology Without An Interesting Name

Already given in post #32 above!!

 

[Paul Mason]

Already given in post #32 above!!

My apologies; I joined this post late and didn't read it

 

[Grandadgeorgec]

LOL... you're all so young...

But, who is old enough to name my first computer...

a) it was a kit that I hand soldered
b) it had 256 bytes of memory
c) 8 character 7-segment display
d) hexadecimal keypad
e) based on 8060 processor

Uk101?

 

[kiwi]

Sheeesh…

It’s Dymo not Dynamo
It’s INS8060 (Introkit SC/MP) not just 8060

And it’s “I am just going outside and may be some time."

Captain Oates was a hero, he deserves not to be misquoted.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

For myself you are correct and I apologise both to yourself and the memory of Captain Oates for a glaring misquote .

 

[Ian Key]

And I blame auto correct for Dynamo instead of Dymo

 

[emmrecs]

My apologies; I joined this post late and didn't read it

No apology needed; it's very easy to miss earlier posts to a thread as long as this one!

 

[Everest]

Uk101?

Good guess - but a bit too modern, though I had one of those too. The UK101 has a 6502 processor and had a proper keyboard and a UHF modulator for output to TV IIRC.

It’s INS8060 (Introkit SC/MP) not just 8060

Yes, the INS8060 AKA SC/MP processor.

 

[Everest]

An Altair?

No, though similar era. The Altair had binary toggle switches IIRC.

I'll give another clue...

a) it was a kit that I hand soldered
b) it had 256 bytes of memory
c) 8 character 7-segment display
d) hexadecimal keypad
e) based on an INS8060 processor
f) it was British

 

[decrep]

So coding in straight machine language?
I vaguely remember doing that at tech, but no idea of details.
I think it was a hexadecimal keypad, but don't remember how we got the program to run afterwards

 

[Coulomb]

But, who is old enough to name my first computer...

It sounds like a SC/MP (pronounced scamp) Introkit with Kitbug. But I doubt that was British.

I started off with a SC/MP of some sort; I bought it off someone at Uni who built it, got an LED to flash, and was done with it. I assume because other more compelling options were appearing, not because they didn't see the promise in it. I can't recall much about it. Though I do remember feeling the warmth of the chip (screaming along at 0.5, 1, or perhaps 2 MHz), and marvelling at how I could feel a tiny bit of the warmth from a giant coal fire hundreds of kilometres away.

I recall interfacing it to a video display unit with 1kB of display RAM, probably static RAM, and using a Signetics character generator ROM. It had a UART and initially ran at 300 or perhaps 1200 bps. It would have been mostly TTL apart from the RAM, ROM, and UART.

Edit: Ah. It must have been the Science of Cambridge MK14. Looks good. Alas, not being British, I don't recall this kit at all.

MK14 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Gomev]

Sheeesh…

It’s Dymo not Dynamo
It’s INS8060 (Introkit SC/MP) not just 8060

And it’s “I am just going outside and may be some time."

Captain Oates was a hero, he deserves not to be misquoted.

And I thought I was a pedant. Long live the king.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

And I thought I was a pedant. Long live the king.

Now, Now, don't you know competition is healthy, you just need to up your game a bit.

 

[Everest]

Now, Now, don't you know competition is healthy, you just need to up your game a bit.

Incorrect capitalization of second 'Now' and missing question mark.