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  • Author Author: phoenixcomm
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Back to College: History of Single Board Computers

phoenixcomm

In the dim past, computers were so large that they could take up a large amount of space and have their own cooling.  Then in the '70s, there was the minicomputer. This is an Interdata 70, in their later models they changed the color of the rack to dark blue. Then in 1981, IBM changed the game, enter the PC even with very limited memory, sometimes only one floppy disk and the most hated piece of software ever WordStar. image  You could get some work done.imageimageimage

In my opinion, the first real SBC was the AMPRO Little Board (1984). It had  Zilog Z80A @ 4MHz, 64Kb of RAM, 1 parallel and 2 serial ports and you talked to it via one of the serial ports.image

Enter the SBCs, a plenty:  Intel's Multibus (failure), Motorola's VERSAbus (failure but it survived).

VERSAbus morphed into the VME standard and was later updated to VME64, and of course the most recent to the table is cPCI or Compact PCI, this will stay a long time. And let us not forget the small factor SBC's as well: Rasberry Pi, Beeglebone, TI Launchpads, and it never stops sort of like a cross between an Energizer Bunny, and a Timex watch. So Enjoy, just jump in.

  • Well they'll pass you by

    Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye

    Glory days, glory days

     

    I entered the technology on the cusp of the industry switching from vacuum tubes to transistors. I got to experience both worlds. A 6800 hexi-decimal programmer was our introduction to computers in technology school.

     

    The first company I worked for had a mainframe that was a PDP11/04 called blue and gold. It was the system for creating air-traffic display data from radar data.

     

    Our SBC was DADS digital altimeter display system. It was a black metal box about a 4in(H)x4in(W)x12in(L). It weight 3/4lbs. It had three buttons on the front with a four, 8 segment displays to provide atmospheric pressure readings.

     

    Glory days, glory days

     

    Sean

  • Reading this made my life flash byimage. No it really is amazing the changes so far. I wonder what the future holds in my waning years ahead. Thanks.