Before the IBM PC was born there were other computers on the scene: one
of them was the Tektronix 4051. In 1979 it was one of the best
desktop computer that an engineer could have ever dreamed of.
Tektronix 4051 was worth many thousands dollars, and was not
intended for personal use. It was espected to be found in engineers' or
scientists' laboratories, and there it was.
Although a modern Pentium, or an Atlon, might appear to be light years
far from the old 4051, and in fact they are, I think that some facets
of that old computer are still missing in today's PCs.
First of all the "impression" of being in front of a serious computer,
with a serious operating system and an extra powerful programming
language, and everything very easy to use.
The characteristics of the 4051 were:
- 8 bit CPU
- 16 kB RAM
- ROM operating system and ROM BASIC
- digital cartridge mass storage
- memory CRT
- GP-IB interface to the external world
8 bit CPU was the state of the art at the end of the '70s, and 16kB RAM
might now appear too few: but Windows still didn't exist in those days, and
the programmer could do lots of calculations with that little RAM.
The ROM BASIC, just like the HP BASIC, is still unarrived by any other
programming language in terms of powerfulness and ease of use.
The digital cartridge was very fast, and light years away from that awful
audio cassette that later came with some PC models.
The memory CRT was a proprietary tecnology of Tektronix: it didn't need
refresh. One pass of the CRT beam was sufficient to impress the green
phosphor screen. This presented many vantages and some disadvantages.
The GP-IP interface made it possible to connect the 4051 to printers and
plotters, that in those years were very expensive.