Clint Laskowski» ohio scientific http://clintlaskowski.com Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog ... Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:40:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= My First Computer http://clintlaskowski.com/2009/08/my-first-computer/ http://clintlaskowski.com/2009/08/my-first-computer/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:00:35 +0000 Clint Laskowski http://clintonsecurity.wordpress.com/?p=15 In 1979, at age 16, I saved money from my paper route and purchased my first computer – an Ohio Scientific (OSI) C2-4P – from Allied Electronics in West Allis, Wisconsin. It had a 6502 microprocessor and 4K(!) of RAM. I used a cassette tape recorder for mass storage (transfer rate was 300 baud), and an RF converter and a television set as my video monitor. This provided a stunning monochrome 80×40 character display!

Within a few months I grew tired of the 15+ minutes it took to load BASIC into RAM from cassette and decided to learn assembly language. This was better since there was a “monitor” program in ROM and therefore always available immediately.

Today, I flip-flop back and forth between thinking, “Those were the days!” and “How could 30 years have gone by so quickly?”

Ohio Scientific C2-4P

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