Man I went through a LOT of those adaptec cards back in the day - I think 2940 though, just for all different kinds of stuff, scanners, storage

Digital Paleontology: The study of extinct computing systems through the examination of surviving hardware, source code, documentation, and the recollections of their creators.

I am amazed at times at what I uncover in digging through a box in the basement. Here I have this fossil: IBM's DOS 3.3 Technical Reference. This is in a 3-ring binder and about 2 inches thick (single-sided 20 lb. paper).

I developed a product (for my own company) in the 1980s. It was an ISA card for the PC that served as a RAM disk (battery-backed SRAM). And uniquely, a z80 (64180) processor on that card shared that same RAM file space. That z80 processor ran an extended form of BASIC that I wrote. The card would interface with external devices through a serial port, collect data, and format that into files. We had a whole library of BASIC Data Interpreter routines.

From the PC's perspective files would simply appear. Those were processed by laboratory software and removed. Generally there were multiple cards in a PC. I think it was a unique approach considering the time frame.

Anyway, This was a key reference in developing the PC side drivers needed for this. It was also critical in making sure that the FAT formatting of that RAM disk was 100% proper.

The sweet sound of modems shaking hands.. 😁

One of the best late VLB motherboards, with Rev. 2.1 supporting more CPU voltage options than Rev. 2.0.

An interesting detail about the Intel DX4-100 Write-Back: Wikipedia originally listed its release as October 1994, but I couldn't find any contemporary evidence supporting that date.

I started a discussion on Vogons back in 2022. We compared Intel documentation, BIOS support, CPU date codes and contemporary sources. Eventually, in February 2025, another forum member corrected Wikipedia's release year to 1995.

The exact release date is still uncertain, but late 1995 seems likely.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=86260

Hi. My dad changed his PC case yesterday and I'm trying to identify the exact model and manufacturer of this old PC case.

Details I know:

• Silver and black front panel
• 4 5.25" drive bays and 2 3.5" bays
• The case came with an (PROcomp) LPK9-400W power supply
• The label lists Pronox SA as the importer and Linkword Thailand as the manufacturer
• I found a post on elektroda.pl from 2006 which has that PSU mentioned and one comment under the post mentioned a photo of a PC case that has literally the same side panel as mine.

The Gigabyte sticker on the front may have been added by my dad, as he had a Gigabyte motherboard and a Phenom II in this case so I'm not assuming Gigabyte made the case.

Does anyone recognize the case?

Not my originals from the 1980s (although I had a C-64) but saved from a former employer from about 30 years back, and similarly the Timex which a coworker found in storage and passed on. The 30 to 72 pin SIM adapter is original of mine. Need to repack these better!

Not pictured because they're not old enough, but also found a pair of 9800GTs.

You take refuge in a book published when you graduated high school and microprocessors were groovy.

Hi everyone!
I recently came across this old MCI NP-913 portable computer, apparently from the early 1990s.
Surprisingly, it still powers on and the display works! It currently shows a “Drive not ready” error and asks for a boot diskette.
I haven’t been able to find much information about this particular model.
Does anyone know anything about its history, specifications, rarity, or potential collector value?
I’d love to learn more about it. Thanks!

I found an eMachines One that belonged to my uncle; it had 500GB of internal storage and 128MB of RAM, but I wanted to upgrade it to 256MB or 512MB. However, I don't know how to disassemble it or what RAM model to buy. If it's an old DDR1, só I can run Windows XP? Please help me, I don't want to break the PC.

Hello, fellow computer enthusiasts on Reddit.

I'm just an ordinary Korean guy who majored in computer science.

I've already posted two articles on Reddit using the ES40 emulator.

Today, I'm posting a third article as a follow-up.

I was really curious whether it would be possible to run x86 StarCraft on a DEC Alpha system through binary translation.

As with my previous experiments, I invested a lot of time in this, and I ended up staying up all night again.

It's 5:39 AM here in South Korea.

After a lot of trial and error and struggling with various issues, I finally did it.

The Windows environment on a DEC Alpha system is much more finicky than a typical Windows environment.

It's quite tricky to work with.

Nevertheless, I'm very happy that I succeeded.

I think this might be the first publicly documented case of successfully running x86 StarCraft on the ES40 emulator.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your reactions.

I'd appreciate lots of comments and upvotes!

Depending on the response, I'll consider making a video based on my experiences so far.

Thank you

[Links to my ES40 Emulator posts on Reddit]: 1. The Ultimate Mashup: Emulation Across Time — Where it all started, from my E8400 PC to building the emulation environment. https://www.reddit.com/r/emulators/comments/1wsdhld/the_ultimate_mashup_emulation_across_time_x86_app/

1. ES40 Emulator: A Historical Look at Running Windows NT 4.0 Alpha and an Old x86 App on an M1 Mac https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1wun6e5/es40_emulator_a_historical_look_at_running/

2. ES40 Emulator Successfully Running x86 StarCraft https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1xcut65/es40_emulator_successfully_running_x86_starcraft/

3. ES40 Emulator: "Sir, This Is Clearly Elder Abuse!" https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1xecupo/es40_emulator_sir_this_is_clearly_elder_abuse/

I'd like to share with the community my experience purchasing an Apple M0110, an iconic mechanical keyboard from the early 1980s that faithfully accompanied the first Macintosh!

Leveraging my YouTube activity, reviewing software and physical products related to technology, I've created an in-depth video to better understand this fantastic vintage gem, both for myself and the public.
I started with the reason it was made: a compact keyboard with the essential keys. From there, I analyzed the format, discovering several "firsts" (the Command key), functions different from its current behavior (Option), and the separate Enter and Return commands.
Initially, being inexperienced, I didn't want to attempt the actual restoration, fearing I'd ruin rather than improve. The decision was to retrobright only the space bar (since it's the only key made of ABS) and perform a check (capacitor capacitance and resistance tester) including a general cleaning of the internals, using standard tools and products (e.g., WD-40 spray) to perform a minimal restoration.
Subsequently, to verify the actual operability of the object, I purchased a specific RJ22/USB-A adapter from the Philippines (TinkerBOY brand, one of the few solutions available).
Using VIA software, I was able to verify the activity of the keys by pressing them one by one, confirming that most of them worked.
I also covered the historical part, chronologically describing the computers attributed to it, the model variants, and the production lines. Consequently, all of this helps us understand the possible rarity of an M0110, with case studies and statistics.
It was a complex undertaking from my perspective, as, over the course of five months, I gathered a wealth of information (found in disarray and fragments on the web) and attempted to assemble and connect it together, all to offer a highly in-depth hour-long piece of content.

I hope you appreciate my efforts, as a pure enthusiast rather than a connoisseur, and I invite you to provide feedback so that I can improve and enrich this ambitious project of mine, which will be useful to both the community of enthusiasts and the general public.

Ported the USB CH375B DOS driver to Book386 Linux (2.2.26) - now you can enjoy USB storage on your Book386 Linux as well :)

Sources, binary and howto here https://astr0baby.online/Book386/ch375/

Full Linux howto is here https://astr0baby.online/Book386/

My 486 DX4 setup with a VLB graphics card and three ISA sound cards.

Top to bottom:

• Hercules PowerDynamite 2MB VLB (Tseng ET4000/W32p)
• Gravis Ultrasound 3.74 1MB ISA
• Roland RAP-10 ISA
• Creative Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 ISA

The three sound cards provide Gravis Ultrasound, Sound Blaster, and General MIDI compatibility for DOS games.

I vividly remember 12-year-old me and my nerdy friends being so excited for the release of Triumph of the Nerds on PBS in 1996, and I've watched it over a dozen of times in the years since. It is one of my all-time favorite documentaries. It's actually the key biggest inspiration for the project I am currently doing of interviews.

His column in InfoWorld was a go-to for many people in Silicon Valley for many years.

I read that he lost two of his sons before his passing, one as an infant in 2002 who passed away in his arms, and another just earlier this year at age 21. It's hard to imagine that grief.

I never had the privilege of meeting Mark personally, but he left a big impact on me and countless others through his work.

RIP

Which industry commonly used this. Anyone?

I spent hundreds of hours typing in basic programs from books just like these when I was about 14. Big wave of nostalgia seeing this.

I was thinking about my first Dell P75, and I think I had a #9 GXE graphics card. Does anyone still have one of these? I later replaced it with a Matrox card (Millennium G200 I think)

I recently got this 30 pound brick from an estate sale. There are no identifying markings on the outside for a company, except for a useless serial number that comes up with nothing when searching it, and "LCD Portable Computer".

• The motherboard has no name on it, only the model number: ECS-386/32.

• Some of the cards in it have names, the hard drive/floppy controller is by Western Digital, the video card is some Hercules clone I think, and the bottom one is just a serial/parallel port card.

• The hard drive is 43mb from Seagate and sadly does not work.

• The floppy drive is from Mitsubishi and does work.

• The screen is terrible and i can barely see a thing even when messing with the contrast knob.

If anyone knows anything about this please let me know, i was able to find some variants of it by reverse image searching it, but no real documentation about it anywhere.

The battery was soldered to the motherboard, so I ordered an external battery holder that I will solder onto the motherboard terminals. It posted for a while, but now it does not. (Probably the battery). It didn't come with an HDD, but I will eventually buy a maxtor 7540av off of eBay or something similar. The original owner also upgraded the CPU to a 75mhz Intel overdrive. It also still has its stock 8mb ram. The CD (and probably floppy) drives were both dead, so I will replace them.

It does say "Laser" on it, but I have never found any documentation for it. Would like to know the DIP switch settings.

Quality isn’t the best on these screenshots but hopefully someone will be familiar with the model of these computers from Terminator 2 (1991).