Hyper threading is a form of multi-tasking developed by intel. It speeds up certain programs that support it but as always it is more hype then substance (at least for now).

Hyper threading is a form of multi-tasking developed by intel. It speeds up certain programs that support it but as always it is more hype then substance (at least for now). [/b][/quote]
Specifically, Hyper-threading is the ability of a PC to load independent instructions threads into idle stages of the CPU's parallel super-scalar pipelines. :crazy: To the PC, it is masked as a separate virtual processor. In reality, it can actually slow you down if the virtual processor is waiting on the availability of physical processor resources, but most of the time it's a good thing. My post-graduate work @ Carnegie Mellon Univ. was on processor design and fabrication... Anyway, enough techno-babble. :blink:

My first PC was a Unisys brand 286/10 slimline desktop. It came with a 20Mb Seagate ST-157 MFM drive + controller, a single 5.25 High Density floppy drive, 1024K RAM, and PVGA (Western Digital Paradise) 16bit ISA VGA card.

Before getting rid of it, I had added another 1meg of DRAM DIP chips, a Sound Blaster 2.0 card, Best Data 2400bps modem (later, a USR Sportster 14.4), 80287 MathCo, and 2 port serial card w/ 16550 uarts.

I missed it so much, now have a collection of old school PC's.

My first experience with a computer was a Timex Sinclair back in elementary school. It was I think one of the first computers available for home (before Apple) and I remember being picked from my classroom with several others to learn some Basic. i think I was 6 at the time.

Soon afterward when I was maybe 8, my parents bought a used TI-99 since we were too poor for anyting else, so I didn't even get any software. I had to type in all the source code manually, line by line for any game I wanted to play using basic until I could figure out how to connect a tape drive to backup my games.

Later when I was 11, my dad was doing better in business so he could afford to buy me a brand-new cutting edge Apple IIe, with dual disk drives and a shiny green screen monitor. Woohoo! I was stoked that I didn't have to type in code anymore and that I could simply buy games on floppy to play. =) Although I did buy Computer magazines and books and typed in Basic games line by line and compile them, so I could learn Basic better.

I even remember learning some Assembly language. I had to even type in the compiler code all in HEX code from a book! Crazy to think I was doing this at 11 years old. I think I would have continued with computer programming but my friends wanted me to spend my savings on a drum kit rather that a 10mb hard drive, so we could start a band. Glad I went the band route, rather than the hard drive at the time because it made me more social and meet girls, a good time to start doing so at junior/middle school level. =) Although I wonder where my programming skill would be now if I had stuck with it back then.

my first pc was a 386 I think. My dad upgraded it to a p1 and brought the ram to 16mb (WOW :blink: ). Ran dos and windows 3.1 W were poor at the time so he would go to the junk yard and bilt a pc from scratch. Ah Memories, I had the grey windows tile wallpaper. My dad made a awsome batch file were I type my name and a list of games pops up, were I press the number according to it. Ie. if the list was

1. Doom
2. Wolfenstien 3d
3. Monster Bash
4. Commander Keen

then to play mb I would press 3. Really nifty program he made there :) The pc was fried and I rebuilt it, sadly it isn't the same, has p-pro with 64mb of ram with dos/win 3.1.... just not the same. I am gonna cry a nostalgic tear... :cry:

486 i still have it !!!!

My first was an Apple IIe. Love that hardcore mouseless action. I've been a mac owner since day one. Didn't get a windows box until last year. My first modern OS found itself on a Performa (can't remember the number, but it was a Power PC, not a 68k). The way I ended up on a site for DOS games is due to the influence of a certain aunt of mine. Cool lady, always loved the adventure games, too.

Amiga 500
Amiga 1200
Then in the end I had to get a PC.

feminista: Yeah it's hard to believe we got by without a mouse for so long since using a mouse now is so second nature to me.

I remember talking recently to a friend the other day about how it's tough for me to get used to Emacs or other Linux (non-mouse) text editors and I then I realized, hey I used to do that all the time. My Apple IIe didn't have a mouse and I was using it as my main word processing machine until the early 90's. Heck even when I did get eventually get a PC, I just always booted into DOS and hardly used Windows, because Windows at the time, 3.1, was so lame compared to Mac GUI's.

Anyway, many fond memories of Apple IIe. Even though I still have the original machine in my garage, I'm afraid to try and boot it up. I'd be too sad if it didn't work anymore. But hey thats why I can use emulators. =)

Apple ][ *luv*

386, 2mb ram, 4mb hard drive, DOS. LOL

was fantastic little thing, had turbo which ment it ran right up to windows 95 and ran games needing pentium 2 processsors etc