#ibm xt

When I first ended up at Rocketdyne (it was serendipity, not a conscious move) I was gobsmacked knowing I was working on the Space Shuttle Main Engine program, with bonafide rocket scientists and engineers. It was 1987, almost exactly one year since Challenger exploded and I was working on the FMEA/CIL (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis/Critical Items List) in anticipation of the shuttle’s…

IBM Personal Computer XT 

Also known as: IBM XT, PC XT, XT 

Type: Personal computer Release date: March 8, 1983 

Discontinued: April 1987 

Operating system: IBM BASIC / PC DOS 2.0-3.20 / PC/IX / SCO Xenix / Minix

CPU: Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz 

As I began college in 1990, I knew I needed to invest in a "real" computer.  My sister's boyfriend and I decided to pitch in and get a computer.  Our budget was tight.  $500. We bought an IBM XT clone at Sears  (yes, that Sears).  This machine had 640K RAM, CGA graphics and two 3.5" floppies.  No hard drive.  None.  The machine ran MS-DOS 3.3.  We used it for Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect 5.1. A year later my parents got me what is probably the best gift of my life, a 40MB hard drive with an IDE controller card. They paid at least $300 for these 40MB.  Not GB, kids....40 megabytes.   The hard drive brought a new world of possibilities.  This was the second big upgrade I experienced.  I could run more and more complex software.  I learned DOS inside and out.  I became a computer person, a geek.

I declared my major as Information Systems.  This was in the business school at my University.  It was the perfect major for me.  I didn't feel I had the math background to handle a Computer Science degree.  In addition, I didn't want to design compilers or new languages.  I wanted to use computers, and to help others use computers to solve problems. I purchased GeoWorks Ensemble and ran that on my little 10Mhz XT.  I had a full GUI, multi-tasking and near laser quality printing on a dot-matrix printer.  GeoWorks is still somewhat alive today as Breadbox Ensemble, Check it out.  Again, multi-tasking and a GUI on an 8086 processor with 640K RAM! I later purchased a VGA card and VGA monitor at a computer show in the Marriott hotel.  Remember these computer shows?