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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><small>G'day!<br>
<br>
I had an Amstrad briefly, but can't remember if it was a 1512 or a
5086. Both were sold in Australia. Someone rescued it from a skip and
passed it on to me, but I sent it off soon afterwards to some recycling
or charity organisation because I had no use for it. It worked, but
wasn't a patch on my 286 with an SVGA monitor and a 40MB HDD. I also
have 5-1/4" floppies containing Amstrad's GEM (v1.2?), but got those
separately. I sent the content of these disks to Robert Avis (anyone
know what became of him?) who posted them to his site.<br>
<br>
I was interested to hear that Amstrads were sold in the US under the
Sinclair brand. My first contact with Sinclair was through a
semi-kitform stereo amplifier, which used an unconventional audio
output system. Unfortunately, it was not protected against high current
draw under no load conditions, and one channel spectacularly died when
a speaker lead was accidentally dislodged.<br>
<br>
386 computers were certainly becoming available here by around 1987, as
I remember an exhibition </small></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><small>in that year </small></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><small>of computers and the use of
computers at the Theological College I was attending, and a couple of
students were already using 386-based machines. Back then, though, even
a 286 was worth about a fortnight's salary for an average professional
(engineer, architect etc) which hindered the uptake of the 386.<br>
<br>
When the 386sx came out, which was able to use a variant of the less
complex architecture of the 286-style motherboard, it became a quite
viable purchase.<br>
<br>
I'm one of the older contributors, I think... 60 this year.<br>
<br>
Peter<br>
</small></font><br>
Thomas Clayton wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid20060621011812.11099.qmail@web33615.mail.mud.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Dear Veganlex:
With regards to 80386 market entry dates, my Byte magazine (which
just re-surfaced while cleaning the basement) collection has 1988
issues discussing upgrading older systems to, programming, and
pricing of 386's. So they WERE 'out' (on the market) by then.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">i'm only 13! youngest on the mailing list i bets :~P
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->I think so. It seems to beat the college kid in Scotland by a FEW
years!
TomC
--- veganalex <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:veganalex@gmail.com"><veganalex@gmail.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 19/06/06, Ben A L Jemmett <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ben.jemmett@ukonline.co.uk"><ben.jemmett@ukonline.co.uk></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Quoting veganalex <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:veganalex@gmail.com"><veganalex@gmail.com></a>:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">nope its not the pc1512...its got better specs than the
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">pc1512 - its
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">def. the pc5086
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">In that case, it's not a 1986-vintage machine -- closer to
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">1990, 1991 I think.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">The PC1512 was launched in 1986 (shipping with GEM/2), so they
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">wouldn't have
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">released a 5000-series for quite a while :)
BTW, hope you get that Psion working -- the Organiser II was a
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">nice machine,
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">although my Model XP has sadly conked it (the power supply
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">probably pushed a few
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">too many volts at it, and it let the magic smoke out shortly
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">afterwards).
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Unfortunately you'll probably find it doesn't recognise dates
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">past 1999, but I'm
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">sure that won't be much of an issue :)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">as for the date problem...there is a fix that someone
wrote....just
the fact that it would take me years to input it, so i was going
to
wait untill i could send it down the comms-link i have for it,
its
hardly been used actually....bought on a basic shopping spree by
my
grandad years ago, then passed to my dad seeing as my grandad
didn't
want his wife (my nanny who is now deceased), and then about
2weeks
ago it was passed on to me...i am just using a regular 9v battery
in
it at the moment because otherwise i'm scared of blowing it up
(not
that much power needed for the machine). I know that the higher
end
psion II (the LZ) which had a 4 line screen and was basically
better,
had no bug2k problem.
as for the date of the PC5086, thinking about it...yes it would
be
later, but i am sure that i have seen earlier than that...it was
pushed at (my grandad yet again), because basically the shop
needed it
gone, but the reasons they pushed rather than getting an intel
286
machine, was the fact it had a decent gfx card/colour
monitor...even
though its an 8086. nearer to 1990 probably, but i thought the
386 was
out by then? not too good on the dates of older
computers/hardware -
i'm only 13! youngest on the mailing list i bets :~P
veganalex
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">--
Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett.
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/">http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/</a>,
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.deltasoft.com/">http://www.deltasoft.com/</a>)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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