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In Reply to: RE: Can We Get Past 1982, Please?! posted by tesla on November 15, 2014 at 07:38:21
The Apple II easily outclassed all those other pretenders mentioned. It had > 75% marketshare, and the best software (and tons of it). The processor was the least of the issues, the best part of the Apple II was the architecture. Woz ruled. ;-)
Follow Ups:
Ok, in the US, the Apple II, (with the upcoming cult of Apple and Steve Jobs) was the computer that was taken most seriously by the business crowd, (in the US, pre the IBM PC/Microsoft taking over the market), but the Commodore 64 was/is the best selling computer model of all time.BTW, the previous Commodore business computer line, (unfortunately named Pet") were arguably superior to the Apple II line, at least hardware-wise. They also sold a lot of Pets to schools back then, both in the US and Canada.
How about dual 5 1/4 floppy disk drives with up to 1 meg per disk? 5 and 7.5 hard disks? built-in monitors with up to 80 columns? The top of the line Superpet business computer was the first computer to have a dual processor system.
SuperPET 9000 series
CPU: MOS 6502 and Motorola 6809, 1 MHz
RAM: 96 kB
ROM: 48 kB, including BASIC 4.0 and other programming languages (Waterloo MicroAPL, MicroFORTRAN, MicroBASIC, MicroPascal, MicroCOBOL)
Video: MOS 6545, 12" monochrome monitor, 80×25 character display
Sound: single piezo "beeper" (optional external speaker driven by MOS 6522 CB2 pin)
Ports: MOS 6520 PIA, MOS 6522 VIA, MOS 6551 ACIA, 1 RS-232, 2 Datassette ports (1 on the back), 1 IEEE-488 port for connecting peripherals.
Notes: basically an 8000 with ROMs for programming languages, it also had three character sets, and an RS-232 for use as a terminalperipherals
Commodore Business Machines made a variety of disk drives available for the PET, using the IEEE 488 interface, including:
Commodore 2031 single disk drive (170 kB single-sided 5.25" format)
Commodore 4040 dual disk drive (same disk format as the 2031) could be used as a stand-alone disk copier.
Commodore 8024 132 column printer, friction or traction gear, Mannesmann Tally mechanics
Commodore 8050 dual disk drive (500 kB single-sided 5.25" format)
Commodore 8075 plotter, Watanabe mechanics
Commodore 8250 "quad density" dual disk drive (1 MB capacity, same as the 8050, but double-sided)
Commodore 8280 dual disk drive (8") (500 kB MFM format)
Commodore 9060 hard drive (5 MB)
Commodore 9090 hard drive (7.5 MB)
Commodore SFD-1001 "quad density" single disk drive (basically a single-drive 8250 model)Basically, Commodore computers were much more popular than any other computer back in the eighties in Europe and Canada.
For more information about the early Commodore Pets, see this. BTW, Rockwell used Pets in those years, I'm sure it didn't hurt that the Pet line used the Hewlett Packard GPIB bus for connecting things like drives
and printers.
Serving up content-free posts on the Internet since 1984.
Edits: 11/21/14
Yet, when I worked part-time at a Computerland store in 81-82 in between recordings and sound system installations, the Apple II was flying out the door by the dozens. Commodore PET? - I don't remember ever selling one or anyone asking about it.
:)
I'm confused.Did the store you work at sell Commodore computers?
Serving up content-free posts on the Internet since 1984.
"I'm confused.Did the store you work at sell Commodore computers?"I don't remember for sure - we were busy testing and selling Apples, and then, later, Apples and IBMs. It was Computerland, and we sold a variety of things, but not TRS-80s, lol. As I said previously, I don't remember anyone asking about the PET.
What was your store's balance of sales?
Edits: 11/21/14
I never worked retail. However, I am a Commodore fanatic, as many more are still.
Serving up content-free posts on the Internet since 1984.
That's all well and good. Carry on!
Personally, my friend who first introduced me to the Apple was a programmer on the DEC PDP. As a sound and acoustics guy, I could NOT WAIT to learn how to write some BASIC programs for sound and acoustics modeling! The Apple gave me the means to begin, and the IBM PC provided even more capabilities.
:)
I'm a hobbyist also. Frankly this is the best time to be one. For $1000 or so US you can build a fairly top of the line computer with name brand parts. SSD, Haswell processor, top of the line Intel board maxed out on RAM.What a difference a decade makes, thanks to China Inc.
It's all good.
Edits: 11/22/14
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