My Vintage Computer Collection

• IBM PC and IBM AT
• Screen shots of GeoWorks, an early PC GUI
• My experiences with DOS-based AutoCAD for Mechanical Design
• UNIX workstation collection: HP 735, DECstation, Sun IPC, Sun Ultra1, Sun SparcClassic, SGI Indy, SGI O2
  

During the late nineties I saw a program on PBS (the US publicly-funded TV broadcasting network) called "The Triumph of the Nerds", in which the stories of the birth of Apple, the IBM PC, and the subsequent success of Microsoft were told. The host, tech writer Robert X. Cringely, demonstrated the use of an original IBM PC in his garage. Having owned examples of fine machinery in the past ('70s Ducati motorcycles) that I had regretted selling years later, I realized it might not be too late to still recover a couple of the more significant IBMs for future reminiscing.

Only a year before, my employer (the now-defunct IRT Corporation, San Diego CA) had disposed of a dozen genuine IBM machines, which I had not even given a second thought about despite being asked numerous times if I wanted them. They were considered useless and worthless by everyone - that should have been my first clue!

In a mild state of panic I started searching swap meets and garage sales and soon located an IBM PC in perfect original condition for which I grossly overpaid, $100, but it calmed me down a bit. Further scrounging and begging produced another as-new PC from a family friend, and a pair of ATs with various monitors and keyboards for a total of less than $25. My favorite find was a fully-loaded 8 MB Intel Above Board (memory) for $1, which would have cost about $3000 new. While wandering the swap meets of southern California I learnt to spot and instantly identify any genuine IBM PC, XT, or AT components from yards away just like The Terminator.

It's clear however that these machines are rapidly disappearing from circulation having been either destroyed or perhaps saved by other enthusiasts. When I wrote this in 2002, I rarely, if ever saw vintage IBMs or their components at the local ham radio electronics swap meet in Santee, CA, and never any at the huge "TRW" meet near LAX.

If possible, I like to also recover the original documentation and operating system disks. Although many machines had been modified by their owners to improve performance, I configure them as closely as possible to the original specs.

In terms of the "IBM - compatible" class of computers, the genuine IBM models "PC" and "AT" are the defining machines in my opinion. The PC of course being the original Intel 8088-based "Personal Computer" with the "open" architecture and PC-bus, and the AT ("Advanced Technology" with the Intel 80286) setting the standards for the 16-bit ISA bus, the NVRAM BIOS setup with RTC, and the first attempt at protected mode operation to name a few.*

The intermediate model XT (eXtended Technology) was a more practical version of the PC, as it was available with a hard disk. Although it was a huge seller, it was not really a design landmark - the only change from the PC was reducing the expansion card spacing to the still-used 0.80 inch.

"When IBM introduced the PC back in August of 1981, the company whipped the personal computer industry into a frenzy. Demand, and hence sales, spread like fall-out after a nuclear explosion as the market went 8088 and MS-DOS mad. PC clones, followed closely by third-party peripherals, burst on the market with equal fury. Even though 90% of IBM's revenue still came from mainframe and minicomputer sales, the PC held the spotlight.

Three years later, after the ho-hum XT and ill-fated PCjr, IBM introduced the powerful AT (a full review appears in the December 1984 issue). As the first sales figures trickle in, it appears that demand for the AT is soaring. Hard disk failures aside, the AT looks like another big winner for IBM."

--Russ Lockwood, CREATIVE COMPUTING JULY 1985, PAGE 25

My experience and recollections of these DOS machines was gained while using them professionally for mechanical design with AutoCAD 10, starting in late 1987. While first learning AutoCAD on an XT, I was grateful when one day my boss "magically" assembled an IBM AT for me out of what appeared to be scrap parts just lying around the office. I had no idea how these machines were put together unlike many of my work colleagues.  The 8-MHz AT was a great improvement over the XT - not only for the operating speed but it would hard-boot DOS in just a few seconds.

Once I had seen how the AT was assembled, I was hooked. In the next year I spent as much time tweaking the AT as I did learning AutoCAD and actually doing my job. Soon I became the AutoCAD and PC "expert" in the engineering group.

For practical reasons I have to limit the size of my computer collection. A big issue is spares as MFM hard disks tend to be fragile in the ATs. Possibly even worst, if a monitor fails the only option is to install a VGA card, but matching monitors are already becoming obsolete.

Having covered the DOS machines I found I also have a great interest in the '90s UNIX machines. At work, everyone in the software development group had a SUN Sparc workstation on their desk, considered serious computers compared with the kludged-together PCs we used. But our hardware engineering department was never allowed the budget for state-of-the-art equipment.

The '90s Unix boxes are historically-significant in unique and subtle ways as there are many more architectural variations than found in PCs. Famous companies in this market have come and gone over the last 20 years. Many of the survivors migrated to x86 Intel hardware to mitigate losses, a trend unimaginable in those days with even Apple moving to RISC CPUs. †

I can be sure that no parts will be available for any of these machines in 30-40 years, with the exception of discrete electronic components. Whatever spares or software I might need to demo the machines in the future will have to be saved now, along with the hardware.

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As of January 2005 my collection has been moved to my birthplace, New Zealand, significantly increasing the money I have spent on this hobby. Original IBM machines are very rare here, presumably as NZ didn't start buying PCs in quantity until the prices came down. By that time clones were the more economical and sensible choice. Unexpectedly, I was able to add two more Unix machines to my collection in NZ. They are extremely rare here but it seems I'm more willing to pay fair money for good examples.

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*[For reference ISA means "industry standard architecture," NVRAM means "nonvolatile random access memory," BIOS is "basic input and output system," and RTC is "real-time clock."]

† Even more amazing is that Apple would end up adopting not only the i86 architecture but also a Unix-type operating system, becoming the most successful of the Unix workstation vendors.

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