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Digital Retro
''Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer'' is a coffee table book about the history of home computers and personal computers. It was written by Gordon Laing, a former editor of ''Personal Computer World'' magazine and covers the period from 1975 to 1988 (the era before widespread adoption of PC compatibility). Its contents cover home computers, along with some business models and video game consoles, but hardware such as minicomputers and mainframes is excluded. In writing the book, the author's research included finding and interviewing some of those who worked on the featured hardware and founded the companies. Such hardware was borrowed from private collections and computer museums, with more than thirty coming from the Museum of Computing in Swindon. Contents Topics covered include choice of video chip and how designers of sound chips later proceeded to make synthesisers. A number of British computers "that most Americans have probably never enco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Example
Example may refer to: * '' exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, example.edu, second-level domain names reserved for use in documentation as examples * HMS ''Example'' (P165), an Archer-class patrol and training vessel of the Royal Navy Arts * '' The Example'', a 1634 play by James Shirley * ''The Example'' (comics), a 2009 graphic novel by Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson * Example (musician), the British dance musician Elliot John Gleave (born 1982) * ''Example'' (album), a 1995 album by American rock band For Squirrels See also * * Exemplar (other), a prototype or model which others can use to understand a topic better * Exemplum, medieval collections of short stories to be told in sermons * Eixample The Eixample (; ) is a district of Barcelona between the old city (Ciutat Vella) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon unitary authority area had a population of 233,410 as of 2021. Located in South West England, the town lies between Bristol, 35 miles (56 kilometres) to its west, and Reading, equidistant to its east. Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Suindune'', it was a small market town until the mid-19th century, when it was selected as the principal site for the Great Western Railway's repair and maintenance works, leading to a marked increase in its population. The new town constructed for the railway workers produced forward-looking amenities such as the UK’s first lending library and a ‘cradle-to-grave' health care centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. After the Second World War, the town expanded dramatically again, as industry and people moved out f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Register
''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information technology news and opinions. Situation Publishing Ltd is listed as the site's publisher. Drew Cullen is an owner and Linus Birtles is the managing director. Andrew Orlowski was the executive editor before leaving the website in May 2019. History ''The Register'' was founded in London as an email newsletter called ''Chip Connection''. In 1998 ''The Register'' became a daily online news source. Magee left in 2001 to start competing publications '' The Inquirer'', and later the '' IT Examiner'' and '' TechEye''.Walsh, Bob (2007). ''Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them.'' Apress, In 2002, ''The Register'' expanded to have a presence in London and San Francisco, creating ''The Register USA'' at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Inquirer
''The Inquirer'' (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from ''The Register'' (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch publisher '' Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen'' (VNU). Mike Magee later left The Inquirer in February 2008 to work on the '' IT Examiner''. Historically, the magazine was entirely Internet-based with its journalists living all over the world and filing copy online, though in recent years it has been edited from Incisive Media's offices in London. Although traditionally a ' red top', under ''Incisive Media'' it has put more weight behind its journalism, reducing the number of jibes at companies, and moved instead towards sponsored online debates in association with high-profile organisations, most recently, Intel. ''The Inquirer'' ceased publishing on 19 December 2019, partly due to declining digital advertising revenues. Scoops Sony l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apricot PC
The Apricot PC (originally called the ''ACT Apricot'') is a personal computer produced by Apricot Computers, then still known as Applied Computer Techniques or ACT. Released in late 1983, it was ACT's first independently developed microcomputer, following on from the company's role of marketing and selling the ACT Sirius 1, and was described as "the first 16-bit system to be Sirius-compatible, rather than IBM-compatible", indicating the influence that the Sirius 1 had in the United Kingdom at the time. It achieved success in the United Kingdom, with reviewers noting the system's high resolution display (for its time) and its trackball cable (later models used IR). It used an Intel 8086 processor running at . A 8087 math co-processor was optional. The amount of memory was , expandable to . It came with a CRT green-screen 9" with text mode or graphics and was equipped with two floppy discs and a keyboard with an integrated LCD display. The ''Apricot Xi'' was a similar computer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grundy NewBrain
The Grundy NewBrain was a microcomputer sold in the early 1980s by Grundy Business Systems Ltd of Teddington and Cambridge, England. Beginnings The NewBrain project was started in 1978 when Sinclair Radionics began design work with Mike Wakefield as the designer and Basil Smith as the software engineer. This project was intended to provide competition for Apple and hardly fitted in with Sinclair's focus on inexpensive consumer-oriented products. When it became obvious to Sinclair that the NewBrain could not be made for the sub-£100 price he envisaged, his thoughts turned to the ZX80 that was to be developed by his other company, Science of Cambridge Ltd. The NewBrain project was moved to Newbury Laboratories by the National Enterprise Board (NEB), the owner of both Sinclair Radionics and Newbury Labs, following the closure of Sinclair Radionics. In 1980, Newbury announced the imminent release of three NewBrain models, including a battery-powered portable computer. BBC mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon 32
The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before moving to Port Talbot, Wales (until 1984) and by Eurohard S.A. in Casar de Cáceres, Spain (from 1984 to 1987), and for the US market by Tano of New Orleans, Louisiana. The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines, which have 32 and 64 kilobytes of RAM, respectively. Product history Dragon Data entered the market in August 1982 with the Dragon 32. The Dragon 64 followed a year later. The computers sold well initially and attracted the interest of independent software developers including Microdeal. A companion magazine, ''Dragon User'', began publication shortly after the microcomputer's launch. Despite this initial success, there were two technical impediments to the Dragon's acceptance. The graphics capabilitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn Atom
The Acorn Atom is a home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd from 1980 to 1982, when it was replaced by the BBC Micro. The Micro began life as an upgrade to the Atom, originally known as the Proton. The Atom was a progression of the MOS Technology 6502-based machines that the company had been making from 1979. The Atom was a cut-down Acorn System 3 without a disk drive but with an integral keyboard and cassette tape interface, sold in either kit or complete form. In 1980 it was priced between £120 in kit form, £170 () ready assembled, to over £200 for the fully expanded version with 12 KB of RAM and the floating-point extension ROM. Hardware The minimum Atom had 2 KB of RAM and 8 KB of ROM, with the maximum specification machine having 12 KB of each. An additional floating-point ROM was also available. The 2 KB of RAM was divided between 1 KB of Block Zero RAM (including the 256 bytes of "zero page") and 512 bytes for the screen (text ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synthesiser
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI. Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II, which was controlled with punch cards and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, developed by Robert Moog and first sold in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound Chip
A sound chip is an integrated circuit (chip) designed to produce audio signals through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics. Sound chips are typically fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) mixed-signal chips that process audio signals (analog and digital signals, for both analog and digital data). They normally contain audio components such as oscillators, envelope controllers, samplers, filters, amplifiers, and envelope generators. History A number of sound synthesis methods for electronically producing sound were devised during the late 20th century. These include programmable sound generators (PSG), wavetable synthesis, and frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis). Such sound chips were widely used in arcade game system boards, video game consoles, home computers and digital synthesizers. Since the late-1990s, pulse-code modulation (PCM) sampling has been the standard for many sound chips, as used in the Intel High Definition Aud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video Chip
A video display controller or VDC (also called a display engine or display interface) is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computing or game system. Some VDCs also generate an audio signal, but that is not their main function. VDCs were used in the home computers of the 1980s and also in some early video picture systems. The VDC is the main component of the video signal generator logic, responsible for generating the timing of video signals such as the horizontal and vertical synchronization signals and the blanking interval signal. Sometimes other supporting chips were necessary to build a complete system, such as RAM to hold pixel data, ROM to hold character fonts, or some discrete logic such as shift registers. Most often the VDC chip is completely integrated in the logic of the main computer system, (its video RAM appears in the memory map of the main CPU), b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Of Computing
The Museum of Computing in Swindon, England is dedicated to preserving and displaying examples of early computers. It was the first United Kingdom museum exclusively dedicated to the history of computing and opened in February 2003. Aims It aims to preserve the history of computing, to be used as a valuable educational resource and as an information repository for historians, collectors and the media, and to illustrate this history in an entertaining way. Exhibits The Museum includes working machines and interactive activities. The exhibitions have included the '' Pong to PlayStation'' exhibition. More than thirty computers were lent to Gordon Laing, a former editor of '' Personal Computer World'' magazine, in connection with the writing of his 2004 book ''Digital Retro''. Notable events The exhibition "''Calculators from the Abacus to the Microchip''", was launched by Sir Clive Sinclair in March 2006. In April 2007, the Museum was honoured by a visit from HRH Prince Edwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
