The computer that looked futuristic in 1977 and still refuses to look uncool today
Posted by GoodTill1021@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 52 comments
TechDocN@reddit
The Commodore CBM 3016 was released in 1978, after the Commodore PET 2001, in 1977. The CBM had nearly an identical case as the PET, but had a much better keyboard, and no integrated cassette drive.
lordfarshave@reddit
Cool! Now that's the future!
UnSpanishInquisition@reddit
The Ziggurat
hughk@reddit
They were widely used as props in film and TV, but I didn't think that the PET was so modern for me. It just seemed too angular. However, the integrated design concept (the disks drive to the right) meant all the parts looked good together so they fit well together in offices.
interior_lulu@reddit
What was the password to the WOPR?
jombrowski@reddit
joshua
UncleSlacky@reddit
ITYM joshua5...
sys370model195@reddit
How about these?
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs64inxcn5he21.jpg
These were sold in the early 1980s. Each one off those cabinets were a single CPU. The IO processors were similar, but half the size. The memory cabinets and IO controllers were equally large, but no lights.
This picture was taken in the facility where they were designed and manufactured.
The space behind the light panels was all power supplies. The lower half contained a couple of hundred circuit boards with small scale integrated circuits.
The CPUs were impressive. Multiple parallel pipelines, doing different things. Out of order execution, speculative execution, multiple layers of cache, stack architecture.
Burroughs B7800. The underlying architecture is still being developed and sold as Unisys Clearpath MCP.
601error@reddit
Those are beautiful. When DECs had lost their blinkenlights, those still had hundreds!
Im_100percent_human@reddit
I don't think the architecture is really being developed anymore. Unisys stopped making Clearpath hardware a over 10 years ago, and the systems are now emulated. This is truly a legacy-only system at this point. I highly doubt Unisys is still making functional enhancements, except, maybe, in security.
MaelstromFL@reddit
They ran EBCDIC though...
frumperino@reddit
famously loved and super logical encoding system 100% compatible with itself.
mattincalif@reddit
The PET was the first computer I ever saw or touched. Pretty cool.
SyntaxError79@reddit
It looks like you could use it to activate a tractor beam and capture a rebel ship.
MBSMD@reddit
We had these at school. I learned a little BASIC off our school's mainframe connected to a teletype machine. Then we got these in the lab. Then we got a few Apple ][ machines (not even a ][+). A couple were even the black Bell & Howell Apples. By then, my destiny had been forged.
Im_100percent_human@reddit
They DID look pretty uncool in the early 90s.
PaleDreamer_1969@reddit
70’s/80’s angularity didn’t hold up well, but it is cool now
ShantyTed89@reddit
That’s because we’re not gonna use it! 40 column display! Hell no.
Maeglin75@reddit
The angular case of the PET was unusual even back then.
The reason for this design choice wasn't so much to archive a futuristic look (the first PET prototypes had more usual looking, rounded plastic cases). It was that the head and founder of Commodore, Jack Tramiel, believed in "vertical integration". Buy as few components as possible from other companies, instead build as many as possible by Commodore itself, so you can keep all the profits.
The CPU, RAM and ROM chips in the PET were developed and build by MOS Technology, a US chip manufacturer that was owned by Commodore. The for the time large ROM enabled Commodore to put an entire BASIC (provided by a very young Bill Gates) in ROM, without need to load it from cassette every time.
In the first PET models, the (terribel) keyboard was reused from Commodore calculators.
And the iconic sheet metal case was manufactured by a Commodore daughter company that made office furniture.
Sterquilinus-616@reddit
Well.. this version.
That original keyboard... faaaa.
omz13@reddit
That sweet original chicklet keyboard that everybody loved to hate.
MissingGhost@reddit
When I saw one in person, I thought it was actually much smaller than it looks in pictures.
ZealousCat22@reddit
Personally I liked that the front lifted up like the hood on a car, and that the contacts on the transformer and power supply cap are so easily touchable. It's like they booby trapped it.
j_carpenter893@reddit
Yezzzz
thewalruscandyman@reddit
Said it before and I'll say it again- coolest looking computer ever. 😁
jdx6511@reddit
There's something about that trapezoidal shape.
thewalruscandyman@reddit
It looks solid. Literally a hunk. ...like, I think this is what Bubba's feel when they see big ole' trucks. 😜
j_carpenter893@reddit
and popping the hood open!
droid_mike@reddit
Captain Kirk certainly thought so... https://share.google/6UXo505fi7yaYV4fd
UpstairsPractical870@reddit
Hi super Nintendo chalmers, I'm learnding
droid_mike@reddit
Did you just say. "What's a battle?"
DotComCTO@reddit
Used one in high school, way back when. It was owned by the Physics Dept computer club, which I was part of. Got to borrow it over a summer, and I learned all about BASIC programming! I still love that machine.
GGigabiteM@reddit
Except the version with the chicklet keyboard. I'd rather have my hands crushed by the fires of satan's ass than ever have to touch one of those again.
AppendixN@reddit
First personal computer I ever saw, in a shop window, when I was a child.
I have one now, it's a prized possession.
gelatinouscone@reddit
The blue PET-2001 looked cooler, but the keyboard was way less functional.
lw5555@reddit
I found its design intimidating when I was a kid.
carpathiaman@reddit
Same here. In early grade school we had these, and I had a bit of a microcomputer phobia, which wasn’t cured until my family got a Radio Shack MC-10 in 6th grade, followed by an Apple //e several months later.
xergog@reddit
That has a better keyboard than most moden keyboards.
Jealous_Club_298@reddit
We stand on the shoulders of giants today.
mbroderick99@reddit
This looks just like the Commodore PET that I learned BASIC on in high school, around 1977 and 1978. The graphics symbols on the keys came in handy when creating a little submarine game. Had a lot of fun on that thing.
jombrowski@reddit
r/cassettefuturism
AmoreLucky@reddit
The MITS Altair 8800 looked straight out of Star Trek! Barely familiar with how it works but the aesthetic is pretty neat. 😎
nativecheese@reddit
Is it weird but I can hear both the keyboard and the sound of the monitor, if memory serves me right. There was a hum to it when it turned on. Could have also been the PET.
ModularWhiteGuy@reddit
I remember this computer being about 1100 pounds, same with the floppy drive.
mattd1972@reddit
I had a cool idea years ago to put modern guts in a machine like this.
basscadet@reddit
deep thought :)
gadget850@reddit
US Army used these in the electronics school at Redstone Arsenal through at least 1982.
blakewantsa68@reddit
the mechanical design was really nice. I had the earlier version with the "chicklet" keyboard and the embedded cassette player
brandmeist3r@reddit
Awesome, I should start my CBM 8032
oldmagicstudios@reddit
The old stuff is so much better in design than today
the_Jockstrap@reddit
The ten key gives me anxiety.
Embarrassed_Try9339@reddit
So good Apple copied the design for Apple III