Return of the ancestors
04/04/07 22:42 Filed in: Technology
Two of the original names (and it IS just the names we are talk about) in home computing from the 80's are back.
First up we have Acorn. Back in the day Acorn was a byword for quality, innovation and high prices. Their team up with the BBC produced one of the best specced but highly priced machines available in the 80's. The Model B was a legend in the UK. It was a proper computer for series people, schools or the well off. But it was low on memory and Acorn was slow to up the ante against companies like Commodore with it's 64 or Sinclair's Spectrum. Much to late in the game they introduced a range of ARM RISC based machines. Extraordinarily powerful by the standards of the day, but the price was much too high and when they did return to the home market with an Amiga beating machine... the Amiga was already a high runaway success and it was desperate mistake.
But on a recent reading of CTO (Computer Trade Only) I was shocked to see that the Acorn name is back. No ARM RISC based machines; instead its straight forward PC in a box. Laptop or iMac style desktop unit. But it's nice to see the old baby oak logo again. Ahhh the memories.
Then low and behold. What do I hear from Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech? Commodore.. the company that spent itself to death by having five private jets and head quarters in the Bahamas. They are now back as a high end gaming company. Complete with the old Commodore C= logo and some pretty wild spec. machines (and presumably prices).
Top spec. Commodore GX sports Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.66 GHz QX6700 processor, 4GB Corsair memory, 2x 150GB 10k SATA Raid 0 and 1x 500GB 7.2k SAT and 2 x NVidia 8800 GTX SLI with 768mb each! All in a very lovely black case.
If you really looking for a blast from the bast then why not look at the real old stuff at
The Old Computer website or perhaps the
Obsolete Computer Museum or perhaps the Californian based
DigiBarn. If you get the time, then do give Bruce Damer a call and drop in to see his barn full of relics.
First up we have Acorn. Back in the day Acorn was a byword for quality, innovation and high prices. Their team up with the BBC produced one of the best specced but highly priced machines available in the 80's. The Model B was a legend in the UK. It was a proper computer for series people, schools or the well off. But it was low on memory and Acorn was slow to up the ante against companies like Commodore with it's 64 or Sinclair's Spectrum. Much to late in the game they introduced a range of ARM RISC based machines. Extraordinarily powerful by the standards of the day, but the price was much too high and when they did return to the home market with an Amiga beating machine... the Amiga was already a high runaway success and it was desperate mistake.
But on a recent reading of CTO (Computer Trade Only) I was shocked to see that the Acorn name is back. No ARM RISC based machines; instead its straight forward PC in a box. Laptop or iMac style desktop unit. But it's nice to see the old baby oak logo again. Ahhh the memories.
Then low and behold. What do I hear from Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech? Commodore.. the company that spent itself to death by having five private jets and head quarters in the Bahamas. They are now back as a high end gaming company. Complete with the old Commodore C= logo and some pretty wild spec. machines (and presumably prices).
Top spec. Commodore GX sports Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.66 GHz QX6700 processor, 4GB Corsair memory, 2x 150GB 10k SATA Raid 0 and 1x 500GB 7.2k SAT and 2 x NVidia 8800 GTX SLI with 768mb each! All in a very lovely black case.
If you really looking for a blast from the bast then why not look at the real old stuff at
The Old Computer website or perhaps the
Obsolete Computer Museum or perhaps the Californian based
DigiBarn. If you get the time, then do give Bruce Damer a call and drop in to see his barn full of relics.