I was going to ASU in 1996 and I decided that I needed to get a computer so that I could do my work from home instead of driving across town to stand in line for a computer in the over crowded computer labs. Prior to this I had used Mac IIx, Mac LC, and even a Powerbook Duo 280c. The 280c was very cool, but it was nothing in comparison to the new PowerMac desktop machines. This is where the power was, so I went out and bought a brand new PowerMac 7200/90 (MHz, not Ghz) with 8MB RAM (yes 8 MB) and a 500 MB drive (yes MB, not GB).
I bought it from the ASU Computer store on 5/14/1996 for $1215.07 including tax. This was several hundred dollars less than I could buy in a retail store then. I was so proud of this computer. It was so fast and powerful. Wow, how things have changed.
All I can say is wow, how impatient with computers we are today. To put this in perspective, I have a several old PC now that emulates a faster version of that same computer. I actually transferred 100% of what was on my old Mac hard drive and put it in a virtual partition on my PC. It now runs about the same speed as it did then, only now it is emulated. Amazing. Simply amazing how computer technology changes in just over 10 years.
I soon upgraded the RAM since even back then 8MB was not enough to run everything I thought I needed to run. So, I added 16MB DIMM so that I now had 24MB total. I thought that was good. Then I started programming. In order to do what I needed then I got more than I thought I would ever need. I got 64MB for $264.00 with tax. I thought to myself, I'll never need more than this. I can't even think of enough programs to open to use all that. Little did I know then, that now on program can take more than that especially if you count virtual memory.
Amazing how things change. I'm sure, things will change just as much if now more in the next 10 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment