Ten beautiful computers

Nelson.C

#1 – 5:15 AM May 14, 2009

Is Sudoku particularly difficult for a computer? I'd be more impressed if it could play Go.

strider_mt2k

#2 – 5:40 AM May 14, 2009

My brother had some really cool hardware back in the day (1970's-1980's)including but not limited to several Sinclairs, ZX Spectrums and a big rack mounted thing he named "Assorted Bastardized Electronics" or ABE.

He made a mobile one (called MABEL) that he built into his SAAB.
It would communicate with ABE via a long ribbon cable he ran out the window.

Heady magical stuff for a kid my age at the time.

Rob Beschizza

#3 – 5:42 AM May 14, 2009

For a moment, there, I thought you said "rack mounted ZX spectrums" and my heart skipped a beat.

dculberson

#4 – 6:31 AM May 14, 2009

Nice assortment!

I recall back in the mid-90's some guys won a Cray in a bid type situation. They bid on a lark and were flabbergasted when they realized that two semi truck loads of very specialized, obsolete computer equipment was now theirs. They panicked for a while until someone told them that the Fluorinert (I think?) cooling was worth a couple hundred bucks a gallon and managed to sell it for more than the purchase price and moving costs. Then they were left with the unenviable task of gradually selling pieces off on Usenet, etc. They probably scrapped most, if not all, of it.

I bid on a PDP-11 setup once, it was beautiful. I mostly bid a "I won't charge you to haul it away" type price and they didn't accept it. But really - since scrapping it would be a crime - how could you pay much for one? It would cost so much to store it, just to gaze upon it lovingly from time to time.

I think it was an 11/40 maybe? Oh, maybe an 11/70; it looked just like this one:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/digital/timeline/photos/pdp11-70.jpg

avocadotoe

#5 – 6:35 AM May 14, 2009

Well, solving Sudoku is pretty bright for a quantum computer. In 2001 the academic world went nuts over some particularly bright perfluorobutadienyl iron complex molecules able to factorise 15 (hint: it's 3x5). See Nature 414, 883.

killdeer

#6 – 6:59 AM May 14, 2009

The G4 Cube is ugly.

Latente

#7 – 7:11 AM May 14, 2009

Connection Machine 5 or CM-5
http://bradley.csail.mit.edu/~bradley/cm5/

Anonymous Anonymous

#8 – 7:43 AM May 14, 2009

The PDP-11/34 and PDP-11/24 were both glorious purple.

I think the difference was, the 34 was unibus and the 24 was something faster but narrower? It's been a while.

Both machines had a processor light that blinked in time with actual computing operations.

Marti

#9 – 8:16 AM May 14, 2009

mmm sorry, the Amstrad can be a piece of computer history... but it's not pretty at all!!! cheap plastic and bright colors... at least the top model, 6128, had a more professional look to it

O_M

#10 – 9:14 AM May 14, 2009

...The Cray-2 was great, but the XMP-24 was far more classier. It was also something you could sit about 8 people on comfortably.

O_M

#11 – 9:42 AM May 14, 2009

...On a side note, if you scroll the page up and down real fast while looking at the Difference Engine photo, you get a rather interesting motion effect. YMMV - Your Monitor May Vary - but on mine it was a really cool effect!

shaz

#12 – 10:39 AM May 14, 2009

>Amstrad's CPC series was popular in Europe in the late 1980s.

In Europe it was called a SCHNEIDER http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=885

Its popularity was generated through the mail order Catalogues e.g Littlewoods/Grantan/Great Universal, as parents could pay weekly for it for Christmas / Birthdays as presents. Real computer geeks at the time, took their parents shopping ;)

subrico

#13 – 11:07 AM May 14, 2009

And this http://oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html

Slaney Black

#14 – 11:25 AM May 14, 2009

No Lisp machine = FAIL

Whiteops

#15 – 11:48 AM May 14, 2009

@SUBRICO Wow I was just about to say that the TI-99/4A should be in there. First PC I ever owned and learned Basic on it when I was 8. Coolest looking thing, like the Delorian of the PC world.

Jordan

#16 – 11:51 AM May 14, 2009

I would add the hand-cranked Curta calculator to the list. A beautiful chunk of tech.

Anonymous Anonymous

#17 – 12:10 PM May 14, 2009

The guy in the Cray-2 picture still works at Cray.

Calum

#18 – 12:18 PM May 14, 2009

No SGI boxes? They were the ultimate in workstation chic in the 90's.

freetardzero

#19 – 1:08 PM May 14, 2009

My friend's brother works for D-Wave. My goal in life is to meet him and get seriously drunk together, so we can discuss quantum mechanics. (I have no hope in hell of understanding it sober!)

PaulR

#20 – 1:13 PM May 14, 2009

Ahem:

The Tinker-Toy Computer

http://www.retrothing.com/2006/12/the_tinkertoy_c.html

the second coming

#21 – 1:16 PM May 14, 2009

@shaz

i grew up in europe and i had an AMSTRAD... just tossing it in the mix.
pretty sure if you were german you'd have gone with the SCHNEIDER;)

PaulR

#22 – 1:28 PM May 14, 2009

Oh yeah:

I don't like the new layout. Inter-commnent headers are too big, too loud. They drown out the comments.

Rich Travis

#23 – 1:47 PM May 14, 2009

what about every computer ever made by SGI? Prism had some neat ones also.

SeppTB

#24 – 2:41 PM May 14, 2009

#11, I agree! I'm curious, were you scrolling with your mouse wheel? I think it has to do with the distance one click on the wheel moves the page, when I used pgn dwn/up or clicked the scroll bar or dragged it, the effect was gone, use the mouse wheel and it made the gear appear to be moving up/down!

Simon Howarth

#25 – 2:43 PM May 14, 2009

Sinclair has two in the list, wow. A Jon Ive of his time? I had a ZX81 built from a kit and then a Spectrum. wot about the BBC Comp?

kevin england

#26 – 5:13 PM May 14, 2009

I would've thrown at least 1 Atari 8-bit or 16-bit computers in there, not to mention the 5200 and 7800 game machines. The 800XL was pretty nice (got it!), and I LOVE my 2040 STe (under the desk right now!) Let's not even get into the Falcon and TT beasts, which I believe are now even in production by a 3rd party, and heavily modified.

David Pescovitz

#27 – 5:17 PM May 14, 2009

O_M @11, Totally. Great effect. Now, back to my scroll wheel. : )

timbearcub

#28 – 7:18 PM May 14, 2009

wow, really glad someone took note of the Sinclair design - up to the + (which I sadly had, better keyboard though) was really great. Even the manuals - which I've kept - had really good design, even with the + which had cool colour tabs with a black/grey front - Dorling Kindersley I think.

Also good:

NeXT workstations looked cool, all black styling - One Per Desk I used to love as a kid. And I thought the original Macs with the handle or the Mini-Macs or the Grape IMacs were better than the Cube design wise? Even the heater G5 is.

Parents had a Memotech 512 - all black, brushed aluminium, lovely design, it was like a Commodore with all the clunky heavy german styling and beige taken out. WOOT as they say :-)

And Cray ROCKS. So does the Antikythera mechanism.

But the Amstrad? You have to be kidding. Ditto whoever mentioned BBC - most boring looking computer ever bar the C64. Archimedes? Now yer talking, much nicer.

BR1AN

#29 – 9:13 PM May 14, 2009

I just had a little geek gasm...

gouldina

#30 – 1:07 AM May 15, 2009

I'm with Simon Howarth. The BBC Micro was the best looking UK computer of its day.
The largely unsuccesful Sinclair QL was also a thing of beauty. If Bang and Olufsen made computers, they would look like this.

Darkstar

#31 – 2:43 AM May 15, 2009

Neither NeXT-Cube nor the BeBox? I'm disappointed :(

Tony

#32 – 3:00 AM May 15, 2009

Great list :=)

I would also add the Enterprise 64
http://rubenerd.com/uploads/enterprise64-console.jpg

James Killdare

#33 – 3:56 AM May 15, 2009

Wow, talking about a trip down memory lane! Amazing!

RT
www.whos-watching.net.tc

Tore Sinding Bekkedal

#34 – 4:08 AM May 15, 2009

The picture you have of the "PDP-10" is actually a PDP-11/40 with a KL-10 front panel being used as the console processor for the KL-10.

The front panel of the KA-10 - the original PDP-10 processor - is far, far more pornographic.

t00nfish

#35 – 5:10 AM May 15, 2009

wow, what a cool collection - the pictures are in such a high quality that i'm going mad about this beautyful view :D

Buddy Farr

#36 – 5:19 AM May 15, 2009

not an oldie but a real goodie as far as looks go:

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2006/05/22/wmd_part2_g-gnome_case_mod/1

the weapons of mass destruction pc on bit tech is a gorgeous beast..

elmer

#37 – 5:25 AM May 15, 2009

aahh! where's the venerable BBC?!

that zx80 is gourgeous!

Ben Vost

#38 – 5:40 AM May 15, 2009

What no Amiga 3000?! I second the calls for the QL, the SGI Indigo and the NeXT station.

B

briantw

#39 – 7:03 AM May 15, 2009

I agree about the TI-99/4A. Just before everything became plastic and cream-coloured, Texas Instruments in 1981 gave a damn about styling. Black plastic with brushed aluminium panelling. Oh yes, oh yes!

http://briantw.com/ti-99/4a/ti192.jpg

Calagan

#40 – 7:56 AM May 15, 2009

I would like to see the Atari 800XL in the list: it was really stylish, inspired by B&O products
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=27&st=1

@SHAZ
>In Europe it was called a SCHNEIDER

Unless the United Kingdom and France are not part of Europe anymore, The Amstrad was marketed as Amstrad in Europe.

Schneider marketed the CPC only in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and probably some other eastern European countries

Halloween Jack

#41 – 8:01 AM May 15, 2009

The Amstrad's not particularly pretty, but it is neat to have a tape deck built into the keyboard--I assume that it's for software, but it's still a neat idea to be able to play cassette music that way. (I still had a lot of music on cassettes back in the 80s.)

c13

#42 – 8:14 AM May 15, 2009

打酱油

Jux_Zeil

#43 – 8:38 AM May 15, 2009

I have to say I have so many favorites but not many come up to the same level as you tech heads. I had all the Sinclair ZX Speccy's right up to the +3(Diskette) and it was a travesty when Amstrad bought the designs. I also liked programming on the Commodore +4(with Hi-Res graphics) which in my opinion was an underrated machine. The IBM Vector and the Commodore Amiga A500+ were probably the first powerful machines I used, and I thoroughly enjoyed the DOS GUI the Amiga's used. Well, even though nostalgia is a strong emotion, I look at my PC and marvel at how far we have come in such a short time.

Nishal

#44 – 8:38 AM May 15, 2009

wooow, this is really kool, once i felt a tour through my college, where we started from valve diode, then semiconductors, then transistors...to VLSI.... computers have been nourished by humans thats the beauty of computers.

rgmolpus

#45 – 8:53 AM May 15, 2009

How'z about a Sol-20?

http://www.sol20.org/

-THAT- was a beautiful computer, walnut side panels, and one or the best keyboards of it's day.

(I still have mine, and should spend the time booting it up someday...)

Captcha: defame given - what am I, the NYT?

Biz

#46 – 10:49 AM May 15, 2009

Sinclair Spectrum was my first computer, so it is to be expected that is the most beautiful for me.

evan Varsamis

#47 – 11:03 AM May 15, 2009

YUUHHH!!, Disgusting, I am soo happy that I live on 21st century :D

Passing By

#48 – 11:36 AM May 15, 2009

CBM64 and BBC micro.

Just being nostalgic.

Matthew

#49 – 12:25 PM May 15, 2009

WOW!

Amazing! Thanks for sharing...

Bill K

#50 – 1:07 PM May 15, 2009

I would add the Mindset Computer from 1986. It's in the permanent collection at MOMA. It was killed by the delay in -- and redefinition of -- Windows.

mm

#51 – 3:24 PM May 15, 2009

Mostly ok, Amstrad no!

IMSAI8080
http://www.computercloset.org/IMSAI8080.htm

Cray1 was good too - for sitting on

Benway

#52 – 12:27 AM May 16, 2009

I have several of those computers in my collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Nfl8GQwSE

I think if I'd chosen that list, I'd have substituted a Jupiter Ace for the Amstrad.

Lars

#53 – 10:16 PM May 17, 2009

What?! No Atari 800, with it's orange/brown color scheme and elegant lines? Still the best computer ever made.

Nik P

#54 – 12:45 AM May 18, 2009

Back in the day when Gigabyte memory was but a pipedream for school computer rooms, there was a seemingly never ending debate over which was better, the BBC Micro or ZX Spectrum... well it seems the ZX Spectrum has finally confirmed its place in notoriety, while the BBC Micro is knocking on the door of obscurity.

Timothy O'Brien

#55 – 2:53 AM May 18, 2009

For me the machine that I most wanted was the MTX series ... they were jet black with lightwieght aluminium casing ..even the power supply was a work of art. For the gamer the most cool add on was "speculator" a cart that allowed you to load and run spectrum games :)

Additionally, they were made near Oxford; not a million miles away from where I am sitting right now :)

tim99uk

#56 – 3:05 AM May 18, 2009

For me the machine that I most wanted was the MTX series ... they were jet black with lightwieght aluminium casing ..even the power supply was a work of art. The most cool add on was "speculator" a cart that allowed you to load and run spectrum games :)

Additionally, they were made near Oxford; not a million miles away from where I am sitting right now :)

anonymoose

#57 – 9:47 AM May 21, 2009

what the... any computer should be able
to beat sudoku

debt reduction

#58 – 1:55 PM May 28, 2009

These are some way cool photos of computers. I gotta get me a custom made computer.

xpez2000

#59 – 11:49 PM June 22, 2009

That apple cube does not belong in this list.
Especially when I have seen people turn that box into a kleenex dispenser.

The NEXT computer with a removable MO drive sure does...

Marlet

#60 – 1:52 PM September 3, 2009

loveing the NEXT computer looks great
Free iPod | Free iPhone

heribertosellers

#61 – 11:23 PM September 9, 2009

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Chris

#62 – 6:00 AM October 5, 2009

Where is the commodore :0! Great list all the same!
Free iPhone | Free iPod

soybees

#63 – 6:34 PM October 27, 2009

such a weird kits. avi converter for mac

Gamer8956

#64 – 9:55 AM October 28, 2009

WOW!

Amazing! Thanks for sharing...
taittovirheet

siphoner1

#65 – 10:36 PM October 30, 2009

What about the good old Amiga's? I had a great time with my Amiga 500+, saved my pocket money for ages to get it too. It was great at the time, but I reckon the iPhone probably has more processing power than that did!

garyl2k

#66 – 2:47 PM November 17, 2009

Aye you have to love the commodore!

Free iPhone or Free iPod Touch