Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Micro Life (7) : Unisys 386SX-33

After a couple of laptops (or 1 laptop and 1 beast in the PPC) i decided to forget portability and get a "proper" PC so i could do some programming and the like on it. Morgan Computers was my destination again (my first 4 computers came from there) and i bought a nice little Unisys PC. It was a small compact little box which had solidity to it (which makes me think it was surplus stock from a government order). Inside was a 386SX-33 microprocessor (yes we were going 32 bit!) and 4MB of RAM. It was also my first computer with a built in hard drive, a massive 80MB! It came with an Apple RGB monitor (Morgan tended to mix and match what was available).

This was however my second choice, i had intended to go to Morgan to get an IBM PS/1 but they had sold out of that, this Unisys system had a better specification though so its an ill-wind.

For the next few years this little workhorse served me well and i upgraded the hardware a few times. The RAM was doubled to 8MB and i got an external CD-ROM drive. This enabled me to install OS/2 Warp. It didn't exactly run fast but it did run OK and was interesting to play with. I also bought my first modem (2400 baud natch) for some telnet and ftp fun (this was pre-public web of course).

The computer served me until i graduated from university but then i needed something more powerful and by then had a job so i could actually pay for something, but that is a story for next time.

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