Author: Dave Farquhar

When Bill Gates claimed to work for $2 an hour

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
When Bill Gates claimed to work for $2 an hour

The most popular software product for the MITS Altair 8800 computer was Altair Basic, the first Microsoft product. But there was a problem. Only about 10 percent of Altair owners paid for Altair Basic. On February 3, 1976, Bill Gates decided to do something about it. He wrote a letter titled An Open Letter to Hobbyists in which, among other things, he said he made around $2 an hour writing Altair Basic.

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Intel 286 introduced Feb 2, 1982

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Intel 286 introduced Feb 2, 1982

The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982 after about three years in development. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities. The 80286 used approximately 134,000 transistors and was nearly 100% backward compatible with the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088 processors.

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What happened to Packard Bell?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
What happened to Packard Bell?

What happened to Packard Bell computers? The firm ceased operations in the United States in 2000. Its former rival, Acer, acquired the brand January 31, 2008 for $46 million. It was a once-unimaginable outcome for what had been the top-selling computer brand in the United States.

But there’s more to the story than that. The Packard Bell story is a brilliant piece of marketing. The computers were terrible, but the marketing was as good as it gets. And that’s one of the reasons people remember it as one of the more prominent of the 90s computer brands, even if many who remember it don’t remember it fondly.

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Gateway announces merger with eMachines, 1/30/2004

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Gateway announces merger with eMachines, 1/30/2004

Twenty-one years ago, on January 30, 2004, Gateway announced it would be merging with eMachines. This brought two 90s computer brands together, but the tie-up didn’t go all that well. Let’s dig in and see what Gateway was thinking, and why it didn’t work. Because, let’s face it, who wouldn’t have wanted a never obsolete PC in a cow-spotted box?

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JTS: short-lived maker of 90s hard drives

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
JTS: short-lived maker of 90s hard drives

JT Storage, aka JTS Corporation, looks on the surface like just another 90s hard drive company that got mauled by Seagate and Western Digital. But I’d say they were significant for two reasons: Their quality, and their corporate ancestry. You see, when Atari decided to close up shop in the 90s, it did so by merging with JTS.

The “JT” in JTS had nothing to do with Atari CEO Jack Tramiel, but the two companies were kindred spirits in many ways, aspiring to compete mostly on cost.

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What happened to Geocities

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
What happened to Geocities

Geocities was at one time the largest web hosting service on the Internet, and was the third most visited website in existence in 1999. It allowed its users to create web pages for free. It hosted at least 38 million web pages. After holdings its IPO on August 10, 1998, Yahoo, then the most popular web site on the Internet, acquired Geocities on January 28, 1999 for $3.57 billion.

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What happened to Sun Microsystems

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
What happened to Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems was a high flying technology company for much of the 80s, 90s, and even early into the 21st century. But they fell fast and they fell hard. Although they were not a dotcom company, having had their IPO on March 4, 1986, the dotcom bust mortally wounded Sun. The result of that was on January 27, 2010, Oracle acquired Sun for $7.4 billion. And slowly but surely, Oracle is retiring parts of that Sun legacy.

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Nvidia’s IPO on January 22, 1999

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Nvidia’s IPO on January 22, 1999

The biggest company in the AI era held its IPO during the dotcom era, on January 22, 1999. That company was Nvidia, who offered 3.5 million shares priced at $12 each. It had been founded April 5, 1993.

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Why Intel stopped making motherboards

Dave Farquhar Hardware
Why Intel stopped making motherboards

For nearly two decades, Intel was a go-to brand not just for CPUs but also for motherboards. On January 20, 2013, Intel pulled out of the market, ending an era. Here’s why Intel stopped making motherboards.

Intel saw motherboard production as a way to protect its brand identity more than as a profit center. Once the industry had several other companies producing motherboards that met acceptable quality standards, Intel had little reason to stay. The key to understanding Intel’s motherboard business is understanding Intel’s mindset. Intel will introduce products just to sell or protect another product, then leave that market when the product no longer needs that support.

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Transmeta Crusoe CPU

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Transmeta Crusoe CPU

Transmeta may be most notable today for its $273 million IPO on Nov 7, 2000 being the last successful tech IPO until the Google IPO in 2004. But on January 19, 2000, Transmeta’s big news was its new Crusoe CPU.

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