Slightly OT: Le plus ça change...

[Mark Hammer]

Looking for something in the basement yesterday, I yanked out a box of old electronics magazines to browse through (you never know when you’ll re-stumble across something that didn’t seem important or useful at the time, but now...). One of them was an issue of Popular Electronics, dated November 1980.  Funny how prices for some things have changed over the years, and prices for other things haven’t changed much at all.

In 1980, an Ohio Scientific single-board computer (no case or PSU) with a whopping 4k of RAM (expandable to 8k), 8k of ROM that contained the BASIC interpreter, and 1k (expandable to 4k) of video RAM for the 256 x 256 pixel monochrome display, would set you back $279 US.  If you wanted to crank up the RAM, you would buy the RAM expansion board (that came with 8k but could be “boosted”to 32k) for another $300.  If you were not content with loading/saving data via cassette recorders, $300 more could fetch you a 5-1/4" “mini”-floppy disk drive that *might* be able to hold as much as 180k (power supply not included).  This was a 6502-based unit (same CPU as Apple, Commodore, and a few others), clocked at a blazing 1mhz (yes, ONE mhz).

If you had someone else’s money to spend, you might want to spring $2495.00 for the “full blown” Radio Shack Z-80 based Model III, that came with 32k RAM, a pair of double density (175k capacity per drive) disk drives (no hard drive), and a 64-character by 16-line monochrome display integrated into the chassis (don’t forget the ubiquitous BASIC interpreter) with the keyboard, drives, motherboard, and PSU.

APF Electronics went completely nuts and offered their 6800-based “Imagination Machine” for $599 that included 9k of RAM, 14k of ROM, a 53-key keyboard (with the ever popular delete key situated right beside the return/enter key), “high resolution graphics” (up to 256x192 with 4 colours), a built-in RF modulator (so you could use your TV), and a kickass built-in dedicated cassette recorder that would let you load software/data “in excess of 1500 baud” (that’s 45 seconds or less, kids, to load a program).  An additional 8k RAM would cost you another $100, and a combination floppy-interface card and single disk drive cost another $450.  Still, all in all, a bargain. An Apple II+, with 48k of RAM, but no peripherals, would set you back as little as $1099 and an 8k RAM Atari 800 (upgradeable to 32k with no drive of any kind) as little as $799.

At the same time, elsewhere in the same issue, Digi-Key lists 8-pin IC sockets for $0.10@, 2N3904 for $0.20@, 2N5457 and MPF102 for $0.54@, 10uf/16v for $0.13@, NE555 for $0.70@, LM386-1 for $1.10@, LM358 for $1.10@, LM1458 for $0.80@, and a package of ten 1N4001 for $0.80.  Jameco charged a little more for some things, but they would sell you an RC4136 for $1.25@, an NE570 for $4.95@, a TL074 for $2.49@, a CA3080 for $1.25@, and an LM13600 for $1.49@. If you absolutely needed a .22uf tantalum cap to clone your friend’s TS-808, they were going to cost you 39 cents each.  Garden variety LEDs would set you back about 4/$1.  These are in 1980 dollars, so they *were* more expensive, considering the average paycheck, but still, not too bad.

Remarkable how the most basic of components have hovered around the same retail price for a quarter of a century, but the most advanced technology is deliverable for a tiny fraction of what it once cost.  If I added up the price per chip in 1980 dollars for an S-100 board that I can buy for $2 in the discard pile right now, we're looking at $500 at least, so that's 25,000% decrease over time.  By comparison, the analog components have decreased maybe 50%.  Amazing.

[Gilles C]

In 1980, an Ohio Scientific single-board computer (no case or PSU) with a whopping 4k of RAM (expandable to 8k), 8k of ROM that contained the BASIC interpreter, and 1k (expandable to 4k) of video RAM for the 256 x 256 pixel monochrome display, would set you back $279 US. If you wanted to crank up the RAM, you would buy the RAM expansion board (that came with 8k but could be “boosted”to 32k) for another $300. If you were not content with loading/saving data via cassette recorders, $300 more could fetch you a 5-1/4" “mini”-floppy disk drive that *might* be able to hold as much as 180k (power supply not included). This was a 6502-based unit (same CPU as Apple, Commodore, and a few others), clocked at a blazing 1mhz (yes, ONE mhz).

It is the really first computer I bought and used and learned from.

Do you also remember that in 1980, it was cheaper to buy from a US retailer than directly in Canada. And very often, we couldn't even buy some of these things in Canada.

That was also the case for guitars or guitar effects.

Now in 2005, most of the time, it is cheaper to buy something from a Canadian retailer because they buy directly from Japan or China or else.

Gilles

[niftydog]

I recall using a "portable" computer of that vintage. It had a 5 inch B/W screen, a floppy drive, a keyboard and a breadboard type of affair, all compactly slotted into a conveniently sized large suitcase!

[MartyMart]

That's great info Mark  !!
I had my first "computer" in about 1984, it was a "commodore 64" which
was for the "64k" of memory .!!  WOW  and it had a cassette interface to
load programs, anything from 1 to 4 minutes of load time !!
Great little box with a cool 16trk MIDI sequencing package ....
Now I have "4 gigabytes" of memory and a couple of terabytes of
storage ....   :shock:
I can't even begin to think how much money I've "lost" on computers and
studio equipment since then ......  ouch !!

Wonderful thing ......... "Change"  !

Marty.

[Ge_Whiz]

Yep, I started in 1980 with an 4K Ohio Superboard II too. Had to build a video enhancer to get it to sync properly to a 50Hz UK standard TV - my first build with ICs! It was three months before I typed in a magazine program and realized I needed to fork out for the other 4K!

[petemoore]

"They Don't Make 'em like they used to"...this phrase was used often in the 70's - 80's, to depict the loss of quality in certain products...like the Vega.
 I don't hear that much anymore.

[KORGULL]

MartyMart wrote:

I had my first "computer" in about 1984, it was a "commodore 64" which
was for the "64k" of memory .!! WOW and it had a cassette interface to
load programs, anything from 1 to 4 minutes of load time !!

That was my first too. Got it in '83 or '84. Couldn't afford a floppy drive but my friend lent me the tape drive from his old Commodore VIC-20 after he upgraded to a C-64 and floppy.
I only used that computer for a year or two and still have it (mint condition). I didn't touch a computer again until a couple years ago when someone gave me the one I now use. I also still have an Atari 2600 game system  - gave away most of the game cartridges to a friend though.

Remember how much you had to spend to get a basic multi-track cassette recorder only twenty years ago (more or less)? Now look at what you can get for a few hundred bucks.

[octafish]

I believe it was W. Gates who said "no-one will ever need more than 64k of memory" or something along those lines. I didn't really have much contact with computers other than my uncles spectrum. In high school I was friends with some computer geeks* who were mad keen hackers using their commodore 64's and the monster modems like the one Mathew Broderick uses in "Wargames"

*I'm more of a general purpose geek.

[Mark Hammer]

My two Timex/Sinclair machines are in the museum, er, basement, as is the first machine I bought in 1982, an Acorn Atom, and its successors, a trio of RS Color Computers, a 386, a slew of 486's and Pentium ones, a Sincalri Spectrum, a trio of Macs, and lord knows what else.  Trust me, you don't want to go in there.

[bigjonny]

This is taking it more off topic, but if you want a good laugh, you ought to see what qualified for a supercomputer in 1986.