SHIAR'S COMPUTERS A short story of each of my computers. With a short story about them and some pictures. Enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. Best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 in 1024x768.

This here (haven't taken a picture yet) was my first computer. I was 6 years old and this mighty machine was standing in a corridor on my old school. Because we had nothing better to do, my best friend and I began playing with this MSX-1 system. This HC was actually ours, because we were the only ones who knew how to operate it. All we did was program in the MSX-Basic language (there wasn't anything else to do, we didn't have any games or something).

This computer was very portable, call it a laptop without screen. But with TV connector so it could be connected anywhere you took it. An impression of it's capabilities:

• Z80A MicroProcessor, 3.58MHz clock speed.
• 64kb main memory (+16kb video RAMemory).
• 32kb ROM system memory.
• Video Display Processor TMS 9929A (text (6x8) 40x24 or (8x8) 32x24, graphics multi-colour mode: 64x48 "pixels", hi-res graphics mode 256x192 (16 colours out of 256).
• Sound: PSG AY-3-8910 (8 octaves, triple chord) could play very nice music and SFX, much better than on a normal PC without Sound Blaster.
• FSK 1200/2400 baud audio cassette interface to store data. An external diskdrive could also be connected.
• Centronics parallel printer interface. (Sometimes it was even faster to save data by printing it than by saving it on tape)
• System bus: cartridge bus, expansion bus.
• Keyboard 73 keys + twin joystick ports.
• AC240V 50Hz 17W power consumption.
• Width 37,0cm; height 6,0cm; depth 24,5cm; weight 2,8kg!

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When our school fused with another, we got access to a new HC: a real MSX-2 system! This was an improvement! This HC had even got an in-buid 720kb floppy drive! This way we could save our programs a lot faster than on those slow cassette tapes. But we also got our first MSX-ROM cartridges with full games like Nemesis 3 which were better and would run instantanious. Later we also got floppy disks with (mostly Konami-)games like Hyper Rally.

This Philips NMS 8245 MSX-][ computer now stand at my home and it's still operational. Still a mighty machine; see 4 yourself:

• CPU: Z80A, 3.5 MHz!!! (Just like my TI-86 calculator...)
• VDP: YM-9938 VDP, 128kb video memory (8 times more than on an MSX-I).
• PSG: S-3527 (about the same as the AY-3-8910)
• RAM: 128kb user memory!!!!
• ROM: 64kb (48kb MSX2, 16kb Disk Basic).
• FDD: 3.5" DS/DD 720kb! Yes, it's true: a floppy drive! No more cassette tapes! The floppy is here!

Like the Toshiba MSX it's also very small and light. Take it anywhere you want. Then: connect it to a normal TV or monitor (normal coax connection on the back, as well as a monitor connection), give it some electricity, and you're ready to go! Very easy. I've moved it a lot from school to home and back, I wonder how it could survive :-(well, the floppy drive didn't).

This text ain't finished yet: I'm gonna tell you something about a MSX-emulator....

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Then my teachers conviced my parents to buy a real PC at home, because I could only play at school. My father bought the cheapest PC he could find: a i80386SX 16, 2Mb, 40Mb. I was very happy and continued programming in QBasic, but most of the time I was playing games like Prince of Persia and Wolvenstein......

This PC wasn't very big either. Just a small desktop case. Not as portable as the MSXes, but that wasn't as necessary because it was standing at school anymore. The system's specs were: (yes, were, it died after five good years)

• Small desktop case. Everything inside ain't standard so practically unreplacable.
• intel 80386SX processor @16MHz and 2Mb memory.
• 41Mb harddisk and 1.44Mb 3.5" floppy drive. These were the only things I could remove and place inside another system.
• 12" VGA monitor (max. 640x480x256 colours).
• Normal keyboard and 2-button mouse.
• Software: DOS 4 and Windows 3.0 and ms Works.

The only thing survived was the printer: the still legendary HP DeskJet 510! Still using this one for all my printing and I can't complain much.

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After the PS/1 died, I convinced my parents to buy a new computer. A good computer this time, well beyond the current standards and not too expensive: an intel Pentium 133, 16Mb, 1707Mb with 8x CD-Rom. I'm still working on this machine right now and he's keeping up quite well most of the time.

It's got 24Mb and a VOODOO ][ inside now, but games like Unreal ain't too happy with this:

• Nice Pentium Mainboard (unnamed) i430VX PCI chipset, 256kb cache, 4xSIMM, 1xDIMM, 4xPCI, 3xISA16... I discovered it even has support for the Universal Serial Bus.
• Intel Pentium 133MHz processor, tried to overclock it to 166MHz... didn't work! Stupid Intel!
• S3 Trio 64V+ SVGA 1Mb 64bit video card. Replaced after a few months with a Diamond Stealth 2400 Pro 4Mb card (the first piece of this PC I own, not my father).
• 14" SVGA monitor (broke several times, but works fine now), MPRII, dp.28, max. 1024x768.
• 1707Mb HDD E-IDE, 3.5" 1.44Meg FDD, and Goldstar 8x speed CD-ROM drive.
• Genius soundcard 16bit PnP (SbPro compatible).
• For my birthday I got a Logitech (rulz) Trackman Marble. I like it.
• 4x4Mb EDO RAMemory (=16Mb SIMM). One year later, I installed a 64Mb DIMM (two SIMMs had to be removed), but the DIMM didn't work completely: it was detected as 16Megs! So total: 2x4Mb SIMMs + 1x16 of 64Mb DIMM = 24Mb.
• Not too long ago (January '99), the CMOS battery was replaced, and the Flash BIOS was updated.
• February '99, installed 3Com Etherlink III card (9442S), present of my uncle.
• 12 Feb'99 I bought myself a Helios 3D VOODOO-2 add-on card!
• First I installed DOS 6.0, then Windows 3.11 which didn't work as slow as I was used to on my old '386. Then I installed Windows 95 (upgrade). So now my system is as slow as on my 386; thank you Microsoft! To slow it down a little more, I recently installed Windows 98. You can imagine why I want a new CPU: just a few months before Windows 2000...

This is how it looks inside the case (you'd never guessed). Normally you can't see this much of the mainboard, but I removed the IDE cables before I took the picture. You can clearly see (from top to bottom) the VOODOO][ accelerator, the video card, the Etherlink III (network)card, the soundcard, and the fax-card. With a lot of imagination you can also see the DIMM and SIMMs. Well, whatever, you probably won't care. Click on the picture for a bigger image...

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My latest "computer". When I was on vacation in America, I decided to buy this graphical calculator. We wouldn't need such a device at school just yet, but I always liked calculators and I really wanted to have this one. Also, it was a lot cheaper than here in Holland, so I convinced myself.

(text from ticalc.org:) Essentially, the TI-86 is a hybrid between the TI-83 and the TI-85. It incorporates the TI-85's advanced features such as unit conversions, polynomial solver, linear system solver, menu-based user interface, and vectors, with the TI-83's ease-of-use features like deep recall, built-in assembly language, function table, high contrast display, different graph styles, and matrix editor. Combine this with the 96K of user memory, and you have a very powerful calculator set to overtake the TI-85 as the calculator of choice for engineering and Calculus. Model information:

• Z80A CPU @ 6 MHz, back to the MSX ages.
• Memory 128kb, of which 96kb user-available.
• 128x64 pixels (21x8 std. chars) LCD display.
• Port&cable to link to another TI-86 or TI-85 (or PC with TI-Graph Link).

Actually I think it's slower than my old MSX although it runs at 6MHz instead of 3½MHz. But that doesn't matter much. Right now I'm looking for a TI-Graph-Link to upload the software (games) I got from internet to my calculator, but a link cable is very hard to find...

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