The image above is from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License, and is thus available for your use under the same terms.
Its author is F-Andrey.
The fall of 1984 saw the introduction of the Mindset computer. This computer was an IBM PC-compatible computer which used the 80186 chip from Intel. In addition, it used custom graphic circuitry similar to that which would later make its appearance in the Amiga.
This computer was not a success, and quickly disappeared from the marketplace. The reason for that, of course, is not hard to guess. Although it was innovative, prospective customers would have seen little reason to pay extra for graphics capabilities that would not be likely to be used by any software they would find available, since there was no reason to expect that programs written for the standard set by the IBM PC would not vastly outnumber those written specifically to take advantage of the additional features of the Mindset.
At least the later Amiga, based on a 68000 processor, but completely incompatible with the Macintosh as well as the IBM PC, was assured of having some software written specifically for it, partly because, while it cost more than an Atari ST, it still was less expensive than the Macintosh, and so software writers had a reason to expect that enough people would own this computer to create a market for software for it.
Thanks to Microsoft providing the DirectX specification for video drivers to video card manufacturers (and we can also give some credit to SGI for OpenGL), graphics cards for IBM PC compatible computers also have a market; those people who which to play games on their IBM PC compatible computers. The Mindset didn't have the benefit of a situation like that either, where a software layer allowed people extending the graphics capabilities of their IBM PC compatible computers in other ways to use software that also would work on the Mindset, using its graphics capabilities.
The Atari 520ST was introduced in June, 1985, although there was a delay of a month before it became widely available; it was based on the 68000 microprocessor, and offered a graphical user environment by licensing GEM Desktop from Digital Research. It was considered to be an inexpensive alternative to the Macintosh, and it was also significantly less expensive than the Amiga, although that was partly because it lacked the special graphics chips that distinguished that computer.
However, the Atari ST finally, unlike the Sinclair QL, put the 68000 within the reach of the ordinary computer enthusiast in an unproblematic manner, thus putting an end to the 8-bit era, although, of course, its success was still relatively modest, given the explosion of PC clones that would come in the next year.
The Atari 520ST had 512 kilobytes of RAM.
Later models in the series included:
The Atari 1040ST, introduced in 1986, with one megabyte of RAM.
In 1990, Atari came out with the Atari TT030 computer, shown at left. Although a member of the Atari ST family, it had a desktop-style form factor, and was primarily sold as a graphics workstation. A version of UNIX was available for it.
The Atari Falcon030, introduced in 1992, also used a 68030 processor. It is pictured below. This looked like a typical Atari ST model, although with a slight change to the color scheme to make it distinctive; one could boot from a floppy with a modified version of the operating system for the ST that supported multitasking. Also, it had additional graphics support chips, so as to better compete with the Amiga.
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The image above is from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License, and is thus available for your use under the same terms. Its author is F-Andrey. |
The original Atari ST 520 was popular with musicians, because it included MIDI ports as a feature. As this feature was retained in subsequent models of the Atari ST, including the Falcon 030, although Atari left the computer business only a year after the Atari Falcon 030 was introduced, a music company, C-Lab, ended up buying the rights to the design, and started producing new versions of the Falcon in 1995.
The Commodore Amiga was introduced on July 23, 1985: it had a 68000 as its processor, but as that processor, powerful as it was by the standards of the time, was augmented by special graphics and sound chips, the Amiga had multimedia capabilities which were not available on the x86 and Windows platform until years later. Although less expensive than a Macintosh, its success in the market was limited, but it lasted until Motorola stopped making chips with the 680x0 architecture. In fact, after its apparent demise, a German company acquired the rights to the system, and successors to the Amiga are still made by that company and others to this very day, but these are mainly of interest to enthusiasts, however much the machine might deserve to be a mainstream computing alternative on its intrinsic merit.
Of course, "amigo" is the Spanish word for "friend", and amiga is the feminine of that. While the intent behind the name was to present the computer as a friendly computer in as positive a way as possible, one could easily imagine a wag noting that its name designated what a typical computer nerd really wanted and didn't have.
Although the IBM PC included a socket for an 8087 floating-point coprocessor, nether the original Atari ST nor the original Amiga included a socket for the 68881, Motorola's floating-point coprocessor for the 68000.
Subsequent models in the series included:
The Amiga 2000, announced on January 1987, a version of the Amiga 1000 with internal expansion slots, for which the Video Toaster was made, famously employed for special effects in the Babylon 5 television series.
The Amiga 500, also announced on January 1987, a less expensive version of the Amiga in a compact case.
The Amiga 3000, introduced on June 1990, which used a 68030 processor.
The Amiga 4000/040, introduced on October 1992, which used a 68040 processor. The Amiga 4000, in both of its versions, included an improved graphics chipset. Also, it used ATA hard disk drives instead of SCSI hard disk drives.
The Amiga 4000/030, introduced on April 1993, which used a 68EC030 processor.
The image at left is a publicity shot of the Commodore 800, from an item in a magazine published by Commodore itself noting its announcement. This announcement took place after the Amiga was available, although work had begun on this computer before the Amiga was concieved.
It included a "blitter" chip of its own, which perhaps served as the prototype that inspired the design of the later one which was included with the Amiga.
Earlier rumors about this computer, designed in Germany, had claimed that it would be available at first only in Europe, although this was not mentioned in the official announcement from which this image is taken.
This computer would have used the Coherent operating system. Coherent was a single-user operating system which was designed to resemble UNIX. However, there was to be a multi-user server version of the Commodore 800 available, in addition to the single-user workstation pictured here. Whether Coherent also developed a multi-user version of their operating system by the time the Commodore 800 was introduced, or some other consideration was involved, I do not know.
Had the Commodore 800 reached the market, it would have been another of the very few computer systems made available which used the Zilog Z8000 16-bit microprocessor. As it is, only 50 prototypes were made; of whatever few of them may survive, a few of them are in the hands of lucky YouTube creators, who have made videos about this mysterious computer system.
Since we're discussing the Amiga and the Atari ST, an important historical note is in order:
Commodore Business Machines was founded in 1953 by Jack Tramiel (a Holocaust survivor from Poland) as a typewriter repair shop; it then began manufacturing typewriters from parts made in Czechoslovakia, and then gradually moved to calculators and eventually to computers.
It competed intensely on price, but it still made conventional products. This was unlike what Clive Sinclair was doing over at his company: making radically low-priced items, either computers or calculators or portable televisions through paring away frills - sometimes to the point of making products that failed because they were regarded as unusable. (Although Commodore strayed into that territory at least once, since the VIC-20 displayed lines of text which had only 22 characters.)
But in January 1986, Jack Tramiel resigned from Commodore, and formed a new company, with the aim of making a new computer system; soon after, that company bought the assets of Atari from Warner Communications.
That is why the Atari ST was less expensive and less ambitious than the Commodore Amiga, instead of the other way around.
Incidentally, work on the Commodore 800 was begun when Jack Tramiel was still at Commodore.
In September 1985, Compaq brought out the Compaq Deskpro 386, which used Intel's new 386 microprocessor. An image of the original 16 MHz Compaq Despro 386 is shown at right; it is from an advertisement, and two other earlier Compaq computers are shown in the background to illustrate that company's record of advancing the state of PC compatible technology. This computer was considerably faster and more powerful than an IBM Personal Computer AT, and, with appropriate software, it could make use of more memory, which, of course, was a natural consequence of using Intel's new 80386 chip. This was the first system which was commercially available that made use of that chip. Of course, it was expensive, but as the years went by, prices of systems based on the 80386 chip came down; as well, a compatible chip with a 16-bit external bus, the 80386SX, was offered by Intel starting in 1985, which allowed even more affordable systems to use the capabilities that the 80386 offered over the 80286.
The 80286 had offered a protected mode which allowed the use of 24-bit addresses instead of 20-bit addresses, but this was at the cost of giving up compatibility with older programs. Thus, there was an operating system resembling UNIX for the 80286 processor, but it did not become popular.
The 80386 offered 32-bit addressing, and a Virtual 8086 mode which enabled computers to offer advanced multi-user operating systems without giving up the ability to run older programs for the IBM PC. This led to the versions of Microsoft Windows that required a 386 becoming the standard, and it made Linux for the IBM PC a possibility as well.
One memorable clone of the IBM PC, from 1985, was the MacCharlie from Dayna Communications. This device consisted of a PC clone computer that included a base extending to the left on which a Macintosh computer would sit, and a keyboard extension that fitted over the keyboard of the original Macintosh. The two computers were connected, so that they could exchange data, and so that PC programs running on the MacCharlie could display on the screen of the Macintosh computer to which it was attached.
I must apologize for the poor quality of my efforts to make an image of the computer out of a two-page ad, with a slice missing between the two pages. There was a single-page ad with a smaller image I had also found, but the image in that one seemed to me to be too small to use.
Another group of computers from 1985 that I would like to mention is the Tektronix 6000 family of intelligent graphic workstations. One of its members (I am not sure which) is pictured below:
The Tektronix 6120 Intelligent Graphics Workstation is the one I have seen most often referenced, but the series also included the 6130 and other models. These computers are notable because they were among the few computers to use the 32016 and 32032 processors from National Semiconductor.
The 32016 was originally called the 16032; initial production of that chip was beset by bugs which were eventually corrected; that chip, and its successor, the 32032, were not successful, as they were outshone by contemporary chips such as the 68000 and 68020 respectively. A later chip, the 32532, was much more competitive, but by that time, the market had turned to RISC chips, and as well, interest in the architecture had been lost. However, the handful of systems which used the 16032 and its successors was larger than that which used the Zilog Z8000.
A Sun workstation from 1985, the Sun 2/50, is shown at right; this workstation was powered by a Motorola 68010 microprocessor, thus making it more powerful than the home computers using the 68000, formerly used in workstations, of that time. This therefore predates the introduction of the SPARC series of RISC microprocessors designed by Sun and used in their later workstations, starting from 1987.
1985 was also the year in which DELL, founded by one Michael Dell, produced and sold its first PC compatible computer. That company was highly successful, and produced and sold servers as well as personal computers.
The IBM PC Convertible was announced on April 2, 1986.
Because it was from IBM, it was possible to fit it with 3 1/2-inch disk drives, despite the fact that the standard for the IBM PC at the time was the 5 1/4-inch disk drive. This style of 3 1/2-inch disk drive, with the sloping segment of the front, would appear again a year later, with the introduction of the IBM Personal System/2, and at that point, the 3 1/2-inch drive would become the new standard for computers derived from the IBM Personal Computer.
Its name came from the fact that the liquid crystal display could be removed, so as to allow desk space to be better organized, when the computer was being used with an external monitor.
On September 15, 1986, Apple announced the Apple IIgs; this computer used the WDC 65C816 chip, which had been introduced in 1983. It was a chip that was compatible with the very popular 6502 processor, but unlike that 8-bit chip, it was a 16-bit processor that could switch from operating as a 6502 to operating in its own native 16-bit mode.
The "gs" in Apple IIgs was presumed to stand for the Granny Smith variety of apples, although it was not identified with that officially by Apple; instead, it was said to stand for Graphics and Sound, as the Apple IIgs also included custom chips on its motherboard to give it extra graphics and sound capabilities.
The Apple IIgs included software in ROM that applications could call to handle graphics functions. Applications specifically for the Apple IIgs could and did include features such as drop-down menus, normally associated with computers having graphical user interfaces. The computer came with a mouse. And it came with the program MouseDesk which gave it a graphical user interface not unlike that of the Macintosh.
Yet, for some reason, what I remember from the time of its introduction was that either Apple specifically avoided allowing the Apple IIgs to compete with the Macintosh, or at least this was widely claimed, which would seem to be disproven by the inclusion of MouseDesk with the IIgs.
Further searching allowed me to learn that MouseDesk was originally developed by a French company, and it worked on the Apple IIc and Apple IIe computers. Apple purchased the software, and came out with new versions of it. It was renamed the Apple II DeskTop when used as the initial graphical interface for the Apple IIgs, even though I saw an early Australian brochure for the IIgs that still called it MouseDesk.
This explains why other sources refer to the GUI for the Apple IIgs as Finder; this apparently replaced Apple II DeskTop. However, it was the Toolbox, included with the machine in ROM, that was the Application Programmer's Interface (API) used for writing programs for the Apple IIgs that fit in with the GUI, and so replacing Apple II DeskTop with Finder didn't mean that the authors of software for that computer had to start over with new versions of their programs. Had that been the case, the IIgs would have failed resoundingly, and the cause would not have been a mystery.
Regardless of what Apple may have intended, the Apple IIgs did not remain a long-lasting presence on the computer scene, with the market segmented so that home and educational users would buy the less expensive Apple IIgs, while businesses used the Macintosh. No successors to the IIgs were made by Apple, as it focused instead on the Macintosh.
Did the Apple IIgs fail in the marketplace? Windows 3.1 wasn't around yet (see below), but PC clones, with all their software, even without a GUI, and the Atari ST and the Amiga, which had both a GUI and a 68000 processor, competed with it. Also, while an Apple IIgs could run Apple II software much faster than the Apple II, apparently it was a common complaint that software written specifically for the Apple IIgs, which tried to offer nearly the same features as equivalent Macintosh software, was annoyingly slow.
Focusing on the Macintosh was really the only response to this situation open to Apple; the only way to remedy the issue would be to prevail on the Western Design Center (which company was connected to MOS Technology, the makers of the original 6502 which Commodore owned) to design a faster compatible successor to the 65C816, and it's not as if, for example, Commodore ever tried to make a successor to the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 that used this chip, so the mass market required to make that possible didn't exist.
1986 was the year that the first Packard-Bell personal computers reached the market. The company that made the Packard-Bell 250 and Packard-Bell 440 computers discussed earlier in this history was acquired by Teledyne back in 1968, and only the name was purchased for the new company that made those computers.
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The image above is from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, and is thus available for your use under the same terms. Its author is Bilby. |
In January 1987, Apple made a revised version of the Apple IIe available for those who were still faithful to that computer, no doubt because of the large amount of software available for it. This revised Apple IIe had a numeric keypad, with the keyboard arrangement matching that of the detached keyboard of the Apple IIgs. It is pictured at left.
It is usually known as the Platinum Apple IIe, because its color scheme was also changed, but this name was applied informally by users, rather than having been given to it by Apple.
On March 2, 1987, Apple announced the Macintosh II. This computer used the 68020 processor, and came in a conventional desktop computer form factor, as can be seen from the image at right, with the CPU and floppy drives in a box, with a separate monitor. The keyboard was separate also, as in the original Macintosh, but added a numeric keypad; the standard design for its keyboard is shown below:
The image at right shows a unit with an optional version of the keyboard which closely resembled that of the IBM PC in layout.
The Macintosh SE, in the form factor of the original Macintosh, but with somewhat different styling, announced on the same date, came with a 68000 microprocessor, but it could be ordered with an optional card installed in it which upgraded it to a 68020 microprocessor like that used in the Macintosh II.
March 1987 was also the month that the Amiga 2000, pictured at left, was introduced. This computer still used the Motorola 68000 processor, but it did have improved expansion capabilities compared to those of the original Amiga 1000.
The most notable contribution of the Amiga 2000 to the reputation of the Amiga was due to the ability to use it with a third-party product, the famous Video Toaster, from NewTek.
I was able to find the image above of the Video Toaster itself in an advertisement; I have retouched this image, and the shadow of the card as depicted in the bottom right of the image may not be accurate.
Although it was announced at the 1987 World of Commodore exposition, it was not until December 1990 that it was released as a commercial product. It gave the Amiga the ability to do video editing, including superimposing graphics generated on the computer on a video stream.
Lightwave 3D software for generating three-dimensional graphics and animation was included in the package with the Video Toaster.
The science-fiction series Babylon 5 made use of the Video Toaster for its special effects; however, even initially, they used several Amigas networked together to generate their digital animations, and later they upgraded to a more sizable render farm built around Pentium PCs and DEC Alpha computers.
It was in 1987 that Gateway 2000 entered the field of PC compatible manufacturing; for a time, the firm was quite successful, but eventually, after a period of decline, it was acquired by Acer in 2007.
On September 19, 1988, Apple announced the Macintosh IIx, similar to the Macintosh II in appearance, which used the 68030 processor.
Note how this compares with the Atari TT, introduced in 1990, the Amiga 3000, introduced in June 1990, and the Sharp X68030, introduced in March, 1993.
The IBM PC was a spectacular success for IBM, even if, ultimately, the popularity of less expensive compatible computers led to Microsoft and Intel ending up making more money from its success than IBM. Before it left the consumer PC business on May 1st, 2005, selling it off to Lenovo, it had attempted to deal with the issue through the introduction of Personal System/2, announced on April 2, 1987, which in addition to moving to the 3 1/2" floppy disk (previously introduced for the IBM PC Convertible) from the 5 1/4" floppy disk, and introducing a smaller keyboard connector, as well as a similar mouse connector (previously, mice had to be connected via a serial port), introduced the Micro Channel Adapter bus for which a higher rate of royalties would be charged as it embodied a considerable amount of new technology.
A Personal System/2 Model 50 is pictured at right, and a Personal System/2 Model 80 is pictured at left. The Model 80 was included in the initial line-up of PS/2 systems, and was the first 386-based computer in IBM's personal computer line. Note that, as befits an expensive and powerful machine, it is not only in a tower case, but it has extensions on its sides so as to keep it from tipping over.
The initial PS/2 line-up consisted of the following systems:
The market, however, saw little reason to subscribe to a more proprietary standard which did not offer obvious advantages. OS/2 was announced shortly before the PS/2, but Windows was already in existence, and IBM had allowed Microsoft to be involved with OS/2 which it abandoned in favor of Windows NT. Had IBM, instead of Microsoft, been the company that developed the standard GUI for the IBM PC, of course, it would have succeeded in diverting the gravy train its way. However, to develop Windows, Microsoft had to license key interface elements from Apple, and either Apple or IBM might have balked at a similar relationship between those two companies instead.
Thus, for a time, some competing PC-compatible computers included slots for the EISA bus. This stood for Extended Industry Standard Architecture, the ISA bus being the 16-bit bus of the IBM Personal Computer AT. The EISA bus offered similar functionality to IBM's MCA bus. Eventually, Intel devised the PCI bus, which became the standard still in use to the present day.
The extent to which IBM regarded the success of the Personal System/2 as vital might be considered to be evidenced by the fact that it spared no expense on the advertising campaign for it. Thus, an early advertisement for the PS/2 series showed this photo of excited staff members at some office opening up their new PS/2 computers... but rather than being portrayed by anonymous models, they were portrayed by well-known actors who had appeared in a very popular television series.
From left to right, in this image we see William Christopher, Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, Gary Burghoff, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Swit, and Larry Linville. These were, of course, all actors who starred in the very popular television series M. A. S. H., which ran for ten consecutive seasons on CBS, from the fall of 1972 to just before the spring of 1983. It is considered to have been, in many respects, the most popular and successful television series of all time.
Incidentally, Alan Alda did also appear in photographs in IBM advertisements of the time; he appeared by himself in an advertisement for the AS/400 where he is shown watering a plant - the plant grows larger as a company grows larger, and changes from a small AS/400 computer to a larger one.
In case you're wondering, there was also a three-page version of this advertisement, in addition to the two-page version shown above. In the two versions of the ad, a different portion of the larger potted plant after watering is lost in the gutter between pages. So, no, I did not have a mole inside IBM's advertising agency.
Incidentally, from the accounts I've read of the production of the television show M. A. S. H., it has been claimed that there was some friction between Gary Burghoff and several other cast members, but not anything similar concerning Alan Alda. Also, Jamie Farr appeared on his own as well, in an advertisement for ASCII terminals made by IBM. So I would presume Alan Alda's absence from the large group advertisement for the PS/2 is due to decisions made by IBM or its advertising agency.
June, 1987 was a historic month for computing. This was the month in which the Acorn Archimedes computer made its debut. Shown below is an Acorn Archimedes A410/1 computer.
This image from the Wikipedia Commons was graciously put into the public domain by Paul Vernon.
After their success as the supplier of the BBC Micro, Acorn Computers ran into problems due to the lack of a 16-bit computer in their lineup. They decided on a radical strategy to leapfrog the competition, designing a RISC processor with an architecture of their own. In an early demonstration, it outperformed an 80386-based computer.
Of course, this architecture became very successful later on, as the one used almost universally in smartphones and tablets, even if, at the time, bringing out a computer based on a unique processor architecture was a very bold step.
In the fall of 1987, the SHARP Corporation of Japan brought out their X68000 computer, which was based on a Motorola 68000 CPU (actually, they used chips second-sourced by Hitachi) and which had additional graphics hardware, pictured at right. This computer could be thought of as their (belated) answer to the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga.
A number of models of this computer were available over the next few years with improvements and advancements, including the X68030 which, as its name indicates, used a 68030 CPU.
These computers were not available outside Japan.
One important reason why this computer is of special significance is that on April 1, 2000, the Sharp Products Users' Forum was successful in making arrangements for Sharp, Hudson (the makers of Human68k, the operating system for the X68000), and several other contributing companies to release both the BIOS ROMs of the SHARP X68000, its operating system and windowing environments, and its SX-Window C compiler suite into the public domain. Nothing similar has happened in the case of the Amiga or the Atari ST, which are seen to still be of commercial value despite being obsolete.
Another computer introduced in 1987, which recieved a lot of favorable publicity at the time of its introduction, was the Canon Cat. It used a Motorola 68000 as its processor, but its speed was at least somewhat reduced by using the FORTH interpretive language for its operating system.
Its designer was Jef Raskin, who had worked on the original Macintosh at Apple. His ambition with the Cat was to produce a computer that was very easy to use, but which achieved this goal without going to the elaborate length of providing a graphical user interface. It had the unusual feature of treating all the user's documents as parts of one single large text file, on the theory that it would be easier for the user to understand searching for text than a directory structure.
It was not successful, and to me, the reason is obvious. It may have been much simpler than the Macintosh, but that simplicity was not reflected in a price so low that prospective customers did not demand more in terms of power and versatility from a computer in that price range than it offered. However, those who admire the Canon Cat have other possible reasons for its failure to point to: possible pressure from Apple, which was a major Canon customer at the time, and infighting between divisions of Canon over which one should have reponsibility for this system.