ChiefsPlanet - View Single Post - Computers Who here has the oldest functional computer?

Frosty · 10-10-2019, 08:32 AM

I have a Timex-Sinclair with the 12K RAM expansion module from around 1981 that still works. I mostly keep it around to show people how terrible it was.

Also, fwiw, the refrigerator sized computers weren't confined to the 1960s. I was a computer operator for a bank from 1985 - 1992 that used a new (when I started) Burroughs mainframe. The main computer was bigger than a full-sized chest freezer. One side of the room was also covered with a bank of magnetic tape readers (the big reels of tape that you see in old sci fi movies), a couple of dishwasher sized hard drive banks (the hard drives were 50MB and were made of stacked disks) and several other cabinets that i don't think I ever knew what they were for (I believe one was a very large power converter).

This is similar equipment, though ours wasn't this spread out.

Here's one of the hard drives. We had four. They were removable, though I don't know why other than easy replacement when they inevitably went bad.

10-10-2019, 08:32 AM	#8
Frosty Go Beavers! Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Warshington Casino cash: $5448243	I have a Timex-Sinclair with the 12K RAM expansion module from around 1981 that still works. I mostly keep it around to show people how terrible it was. Also, fwiw, the refrigerator sized computers weren't confined to the 1960s. I was a computer operator for a bank from 1985 - 1992 that used a new (when I started) Burroughs mainframe. The main computer was bigger than a full-sized chest freezer. One side of the room was also covered with a bank of magnetic tape readers (the big reels of tape that you see in old sci fi movies), a couple of dishwasher sized hard drive banks (the hard drives were 50MB and were made of stacked disks) and several other cabinets that i don't think I ever knew what they were for (I believe one was a very large power converter). This is similar equipment, though ours wasn't this spread out. Here's one of the hard drives. We had four. They were removable, though I don't know why other than easy replacement when they inevitably went bad.
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