I'll be participating in the Golden Penguin Bowl at LinuxWorld later this month. Right now my spare cycles are focusing on geek trivia. (Playing Trivial Pursuit NYE didn't hurt. ;-)
Here's question #1 (10 points):
The IBM PC (Model 5150) was released 22 years ago this week. It was the conceptual successor to the "IBM Portable Computer", the model 5100, released in 1975. The 5100 supported two programming languages including BASIC. What was the other one?Followup question (15 points):
This machine shipped with 3 integrated peripheral devices. What were they?As always, no googling. :-)
Results:
The other language was APL (an obvious choice for IBM). (+10 to davorg)
The three integrated peripherals were the keyboard (+5 to bart), the tape cartridge drive (+2.5 to delegatrix; +2.5 to bart), and the 16x64 character monitor (+5 to davorg).
I was a little harsh on the early judging, so +10 to djberg96 for correctly guessing two of the three peripherals.
This machine was quite portable: 50 lbs., and it fit on a desktop. It used an IBM-designed CPU (as did all IBM computers until the PC) called the PALM (Put All Logic in Microcode), and maxed out at 64K RAM. A fully configured machine was about $20,000. The machine was finally discontinued in March 1982, almost a year after the IBM PC was announced in August 1981.
For more information: See The Computer Closet and IBM's History Exhibit on the early history of the PC.
Followup: monitor, keyboard, mouse
Re:My guesses
ziggy on 2003-01-03T19:48:29
No on both quesions.:-)
Re:Periphs
ziggy on 2003-01-03T20:11:30
Console with blinkenlichten: +0.Reel tape drive: +2.5. (It was a tape drive, but not reel-to-reel)
Can opener: +0, but funny.
Re:My Try
ziggy on 2003-01-03T20:14:17
FORTH guess good incorrect and.Cassette tape recorder: +2.5 (w/delegatrix)
Modem: phones weren't invented yet in 1975. +0.
Keyboard: +5.
Some kind of 8086 assembly
keyboard, tape drive, speaker (the blip-blip one, I guess it would be listed as a peripheral)
Re:Randomly...
ziggy on 2003-01-03T21:04:04
Nope, it wasn't 8086 assembly. The IBM PC was the first non-IBM CPU IBM used in a computer. +0Keyboard and tape drive were mentioned previously. The third integrated peripheral isn't the speaker though. +0
Reaching back this far HURTS.
John
Re:Ouch
ziggy on 2003-01-03T21:13:56
No on both counts. Sorry.
Would the other peripheral be a monitor?
And maybe APL for the other language.
We have a winner!
ziggy on 2003-01-03T23:13:44
APL: +10Monitor: +5
Quite fitting that you got the big questions. This machine was announced just after your 13th birthday: http://www.geocities.com/user/compcloset/ibm5100.htm
