Retro Computing Archives - The Silicon Underground

The problem with Micron MT 4264 RAM

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 12:00:03 +0000

Watch a Youtube video about repairing a 1980s 8-bit computer, and you can flip a coin about whether the problem will be the presence of MT (Micron) 4264 RAM chips inside. MT RAM chips of mid 1980s vintage are notoriously

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What happened to Transmeta, the last big dotcom IPO

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:00:53 +0000

Transmeta was the last big IPO of the dotcom era, launching Nov 7, 2000. Some analysts call its $273 million IPO the last successful tech IPO until the Google IPO in 2004. Transmeta didn’t completely fit in to the dotcom

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Micron Computers’ rise and fall

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:00:41 +0000

Micron Computers was a moderately successful attempt by Micron Technology, a maker of computer memory chips, to market PCs. First released in 1995, the venture succeeded very well at first, and survived in the marketplace until November 6, 2008. Although

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The first Compaq computer

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:00:56 +0000

The first Compaq computer was its eponymous Compaq Portable, announced November 4, 1982. It was a suitcase-sized clone of the original IBM Personal Computer, with an Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77 MHz running Microsoft MS-DOS. It was hardly the

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Charles Tandy, the mastermind behind Radio Shack

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:00:06 +0000

Charles David Tandy was the chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of the Tandy Corporation. He was born May 15, 1918 and died November 4, 1978. Tandy was involved in the creation or expansion of three retail

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Etoys.com and its rapid rise and fall

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:00:16 +0000

So it’s November 1997. The Internet is catching on and you want to start an online business. You just need a big idea. How about selling toys on the Internet? That could be big, right? Hence etoys.com, a short-lived Internet

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IBM PC/XT drives stuck in the bay? How to free them

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:51 +0000

If you are working on an IBM PC/XT model 5160 and need to remove a floppy drive, you may find it difficult to remove after removing the two visible screws that hold them in. If your IBM disk drive is

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When Federico Faggin left Intel

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 11:00:05 +0000

It was 52 years ago today, on October 31, 1974, that Federico Faggin (pronounced FAHH-jeen), the mastermind behind the early Intel CPUs, left Intel to try something else. His next big thing was the legendary Zilog Z-80 CPU. Yet another

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IBM’s 2018 Red Hat acquisition

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:00:49 +0000

It was eight years ago, on Oct 28, 2018, that IBM announced its intention to acquire Red Hat, the Linux vendor, for $34 billion. Its Aug 11, 1999 IPO had been the 8th largest first-day gain in the history of

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TI-99/4A discontinued October 28, 1983

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:00:44 +0000

42 years ago today, on October 28, 1983, Texas Instruments announced it was discontinuing the TI-99/4A computer and withdrawing from the home computer market. It was a stunning admission of defeat for a company that had everything it took to

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