Posted on 04/19/2016 1:26:22 PM PDT by daniel1212
THE Headstart Technologies Company of Great Neck, L.I., has introduced two new personal computers equipped with CD-ROM drives, becoming the first maker of personal computers to offer low-cost CD-ROM technology to the home, education and small-business markets...
CD-ROM stands for compact disk read only memory, a laser-based system of storing and replaying large amounts of text, graphics or sound on a single five-inch platter. For example, one CD-ROM disk can hold the entire contents of an encyclopedia, or a shelf's worth of other reference books.
For $2,999, Headstart is offering the Headstart III-CD, which differs from the LX-CD in that it has a more powerful 80286 microprocessor, one megabyte of working memory and a pocket-size external 2,400-baud modem.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Compaq Introduces Fastest PC Yet : Desktop Machine Based on Intel’s New 80386 Microchip
September 10, 1986|Associated Press - http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-10/business/fi-13177_1_personal-computer
PERSONAL COMPUTERS; What Intel’s New Chip Foretells
By PETER H. LEWIS published: July 2, 1991
THE Intel Corporation, confirming what some of its customers have already announced, last week formally introduced a 50-megahertz version of the i486 DX microprocessor. The new chip becomes the fastest and most powerful microprocessor available for personal computers, and it moves us one step closer to the day when the average PC user will have access to the computing power of a mainframe computer...
Of course, not everyone needs a mainframe on a chip, especially since computers built around it are expected to cost $10,000 or more when they become widely available later this year...
Compaq’s Deskpro 486/50L will be the Houston company’s most powerful desktop system. The 486/50L will cost $11,299 to $13,999, depending on how large a hard disk drive is included, and will be widely available “in the fourth quarter” of this year...
. The cache module shown by Intel can hold 256 kilobytes of data, which is a substantial improvement over the 8-kilobyte internal cache on the i486 chip itself. -http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/02/science/personal-computers-what-intel-s-new-chip-foretells.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MyzOP0vyi0
Just to play in the background while reading that article.
Jeepers creepers! That's a MILLION bytes. ;d
Interesting article, they were using DOS 3.3 back then. We’ve come a LOOOOONG way.
I remember surfing the web for the first time on an Intel 386, using the Mosaic browser. This was in 1994.
Image downloads were like watching someone pull down a windowshade...real slowly.
Yes - and who doesn’t miss their blazing fast 56k dial-up modem?!
My first CD-ROM drive cost $500. You could only get one with a SCSI interface at the time.
How much does your average iPhone or Android have? :)
Yes. It needed a special card. My CD/Sound system was $300 for my 486/120.
WHOA .... ok I am just a mere youngster then.....
I actually owned this very computer when I was a kid, it was my first IBM-compatible PC, and the first PC clone ever with a built-in CD-ROM drive.
It was very cool for the time, it came with a collection of CDs, including one with about 100 games of varying quality that kept me busy for endless hours.
The drawback was that they drew sales with the CD-ROM and skimped on the processor. It only had an 8088 running at 4.77 mhz (though it had a TURBO BOOST button you could push that would supposedly somehow get it up to 10 mhz). So while I had the cool CD-ROM, my buddy’s PS/2 was a heckova a lot faster with his 286 board :(
You laugh, but we were thankful for every byte of RAM back in those days! I remember spending endless hours streamlining boot disks to get a couple more kilobytes free so I could get some damn game to run on my machine :)
Hey, that was mine too!
Then we got a Commodore Amiga (big leap forward), and then we got one of these Headstart PCs after that.
The TI always has a special place in my heart though... I learned to program BASIC and LOGO on that machine, and I used to use the word processor to print out handouts for my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns :)
Not to mention tweaking the Config.sys & Autoexec.bat files to maximize your usable memory...
When I first got on-line my 300 Baud modem cost $300. I would have killed for 56k.
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