The Silicon Underground

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 first non-IBM computer to run MS-DOS, but it was the first legal IBM PC clone with a high degree of compatibility.

Compaq shipped the first unit about four months later, in March 1983. It originally cost $2995 for a single-drive unit. A dual-drive unit, which was much more useful, cost $3,590.

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Monorail was a short-lived PC vendor from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Founded November 2, 1995, they were the first company to sell a Pentium-class PC including a display for under $1,000. And Monorail PCs were the first desktop all-in-one computer that included an LCD rather than using a CRT. On top of all that, they assembled their computers in the USA, utilizing a facility in Kansas City, Mo. So what happened to Monorail? Why did it fail?

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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 retailer founded November 3, 1997.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. While etoys was founded in November, the idea dated back to February 1997. That’s when former Walt Disney VP Toby Lenk joined up with Bill Gross, founder of a net startup incubator called Idealab, to start building etoys. They secured financing by September and launched in November, just in time for the 1997 holiday season.

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It was 51 years ago today, on October 31, 1974, that Federico Faggin, the mastermind behind the early Intel CPUs, left Intel to try something else. His next big thing was the legendary Zilog Z-80 CPU.

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On June 13, 1994, a mathematics professor discovered a bug in Intel’s then-new Pentium CPU. Intel’s new CPU was fast, but it couldn’t divide correctly. The bug became known as the Pentium FDIV bug. It resulted in Intel recalling 60 and 66 MHz Pentium CPUs in stepping levels prior to D1, and 75, 90, and 100 MHz Pentium CPUs in steppings prior to B5. The recall cost Intel $475 million and might have caused reputational damage if more viable competitors had been available at the time. Collectors prize a surviving Pentium CPU with the FDIV bug today.

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It was seven 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 Wall Street at the time. The acquisition closed in July 2019.

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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 absolutely dominate the home computer market: vertical integration, name recognition, pre-existing relationships with retailers, and a compelling design. Let’s look at what went wrong.

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October 27, 1982 is the date on the IBM 5150 Revision B BIOS, making this week as good of a time as any to look over the differences between the Revision A and Revision B IBM PC 5150. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Revision A vs Revision B IBM PC 5150? Maybe more importantly, is one of them more rare than the other?

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Thirteen years ago this week, on October 26, 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8. Let’s just say Windows 8 was not their finest moment. It was their most significant UI redesign since Windows 95, and it flopped. Oddly, two of the most beloved Windows versions ever, Windows 7 and Windows XP, were also released in the same week, several years apart.

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It was 24 years ago this week, on October 25, 2001, that Microsoft released Windows XP. I find it interesting that Microsoft released two of the most beloved Windows versions in the same week, 8 years apart, and another one of the worst Windows versions, Windows 8, in the same week, but after these two.

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