Old computers in my university

In my previous university, there was a hallway in the department of mathematics and computer science, where they were showcasing some of the old computers that we had.

HP-150

The HP-150 is the first computer that was brought to this university in 1987. despite it using an Intel 8088, it wan’t PC-compatible, instead it ran customized MS-DOS versions.

This machine comes with 256 KB of memory, two floppy drives and a built-in 9" CRT display. but the most interesting feature this machine came with was a touch screen!

You must be wondering how they made a touchscreen in 1983. If you look closely, you will see some holes around the display’s bezel. Each of these contains either an infrared (IR) emitter or receiver. The IR emitters form a grid, so when you put your finger on the display, it blocks two IR rays on the X and Y axes, which the sensors detect.

IBM PC/XT

This rusty machine is the IBM Personal Computer XT, also known as IBM PC/XT or IBM 5160.

This machine is the successor of the legendary IBM Personal Computer, it came with an Intel 8088, 128 KB of memory (upgradable to 640 KB), an optional 10 MB hard drive (not sure if this unit had one) and 5.25" floppy drive.

Toshiba T1000

The Toshiba T1000 is one of the first successful laptops in the market. It was released in 1987 and it used an 80C88 CPU (a CMOS variant of the Intel 8088), 512 KB of memory, and an internal 3.5" floppy drive.

And unlike most PC-compatible computers of the era, this machine came with a copy of MS-DOS 2.11 in its 256 KB ROM, which is very convenient for a portable device where having to bring a floppy disk for DOS can be inconvenient, and including an internal hard drive wasn’t an option due to power and size limitation.

Macintosh Performa 5260/120

The Apple Macintosh Performa lineup was very confusing as it had too many models, and my university happened to have a Macintosh Performa 5260/120, which was released in 1996 and had a PowerPC 603e CPU clocked at 120 MHz (hence the /120 in the name), 256 KB of on-board L2 cache and 16-64 MB of memory.

(couldn’t take a better picture without my reflection showing up)

Macintosh IIfx

The Macintosh IIfx is a personal computer from Apple that was released in 1990 and featured a Motorola 68030 clocked at 40 MHz, an onboard Motorola 68881 FPU and 4 MB of memory (upgradable to up to 128 MB).

LaserWriter

The LaserWriter is a laser printer from Apple that was released in 1985, this printer also featured a built-in Postscript interpreter. and to support this, the printer had a Motorola 68000 and 1.5 MB of memory (12 times as much as the original Macintosh!).

VAX 6220

This is my favorite machine: the VAX 6220, a minicomputer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), this machine was introduced in 1988 and this model had two processors and supports up to 256 MB of ECC memory (altough the amount of memory on this unit is unknown).

According to some professors I spoke to, this machine was donated to our university from Japan, it ran UNIX (not sure which variant) and was used as a timesharing system until 2003.

On the right of the VAX 6220 minicomputer we can see the DECArray 650, a mixed storage array that can be configured with up to six RA9x disk drives and up to eight RA7x drives, and this one seems to be loaded with four RA92 drives with 1.506 GB capacity for each one.

Note: The disk drives model might be inaccurate since all I have now is this image.

On the left side of this minicomputer we have a UPS and a storage rack containing three RA82 disk drives, each one of these weighs 78 kg and stores 622 MB of data.

Takaoka XMint

This one is an X terminal which I believe was used with the VAX minicomputer.

I couldn’t find much info about it or the company that made it, if anyone knows anything feel free to email me.

DECserver 200/DL

The DECserver 200/DL is a terminal server from DEC that allows you to connect up to 8 serial terminals to the network, which I believe was used with the X terminals and the VAX minicomputer.

DECstation 3100

This is the DECstation 3100, a Unix workstation from 1989 which used the R2000 MIPS Processor, the R2010 FPU and supports up to 24 MB of memory.