- The first of the selection criteria is that each computer selected for this short list must be a personal computer, which means that supercomputers and time-sharing terminals are completely excluded from the list. Those based on electronic diaries and the like are also excluded.
- The second of the selection criteria is that they must have elements that make it unique compared to other computers of the time, whether they marked a general line to follow or other computers that were totally different, but more late it took items years after.
We have tried to make the computers on the list as little known as possible to the general public, but at the same time compared to their contemporaries, they are unique and incomparable pieces. Hope you like the list.
Xerox Star 8010
First on our list of irreplaceable PCs is the Xerox Star 8010 and if there’s one thing that’s true that hurts the most loyal Apple veterans, it’s the fact that the graphical user interface we use today hui was not invented by Apple. Steve Jobs seeing how Xerox didn’t know the potential they had before them decided that in the Lisa and Macintosh projects, Apple engineers would copy Xerox’s idea, which he had already developed in the 1970s with his Alto, but it was not until after 1981 that they released their Star 8010 to the world.
In the same year that IBM launched the 5150, Xerox employees launched their Star 8010, the first personal computer to feature not only a graphical interface, but also a network connection and an operating system supporting supports programming oriented programming. Smalltalk and the ability to send emails. It was therefore even superior to the computers that Apple released a few years later.
In what was also higher was the price, 17,000 US dollars in 1981 is 50,000 today due to inflation and therefore we are faced with one of the most expensive personal computers in history. What was he wearing inside? Well, all of its hardware has been designed from first to last piece by Xerox and that makes it something unique and extremely rare.
Mentality computer
The second of our unique PCs is what we might consider the first PC hardware-based workstation to be created for computer graphic design, a discipline that by the early 1980s was far from a computer. staff. The reason is that they did not have the necessary materials and tools. That’s why, in 1984, Mindset was launched, a computer that we could call the first x86 hardware workstation in history.
The Mindset was a modified version of Radio Shack’s Tandy 2000 with an Intel 80186 processor and yes we were right, there was only one 186 that IBM did not adopt for its PCs. Although what stood out the most was its graphics card, with a 512 color palette, the AT PC with EGA of the same year had 64, and the ability to put 16 on the screen. While what stands out is the fact that this is the first personal computer with a Blitter, a hardware unit that was a key part of the personal computer graphic design boom that years later , will popularize the Amiga.
Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100
While the previous two that we showed you are rather dark and unknown computers, the third of the irreplaceable PCs is a contradiction in itself, since it has been repeated a thousand times because it is the father of today’s laptops. We have to say that if there is something that has always surprised us when it comes to Apple, it is that it is not known to have been the one that marked the form factor in PC laptops for many years and is that although the Macintosh PowerBook of 1991, it seems to us a generic piece of hardware, it was the first computer that defined how laptops should be from then on.
Designed in partnership between SONY and Apple, the PowerBook 100 was a design marvel that took the market away from those hideous old suitcase computers with a monochrome display inside almost as small as a Game Boy. It was so revolutionary that since then all laptops have copied the design of this computer, so it can be said that it was not only unique in its time. Sadly, like many of Apple’s innovations in its day, it is not remembered, despite being one of the most unique computers in history due to the influence it has on. he got on the rest.
Its processor was a Motorola 68000 16 MHz, 2 MB of RAM and a hard drive of 20 MB. The size of your screen? 9 inches with a resolution of 640 x 400 pixels, but this one didn’t have color support and was therefore monochrome.
SEGA TeraDrive / Amstrad MegaPC
The fourth and last of the irreplaceable PCs on the list starts from the concept of joining a video game console to a computer. Arguably today the PC video game industry is one of the most mobile in the world, but in the early 90s there was still the PC mentality of playing games and its hardware was n was not as prepared for it. fans preferred other platforms.
The Japanese SEGA, which in the early 90s had incredible success with its 16-bit Mega Drive console, Genesis in the US market, decided to merge said console with a PC and the result was the Tera Drive. A compatible PC that was only sold in Japan and whose CPU was an 80286, which caused enormous disinterest from users in the Japanese country, especially since it was already possible to get an 80386 at the same price and therefore with very similar specifications.
Its western counterpart was manufactured by Amstrad in 1993, but this time equipped with an 80386 as the main processor in the computer part. Unfortunately, this was the cropped 25 MHz version of the processor and again. Of course, again the hardware was outdated and despite the interest of the concept, this term was also a failure and the version based on the Cyrix Cx486SLC was not even made.
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