The Silicon Underground

Home » Page 4

What happened to Procomm Plus

Dave Farquhar Software March 30, 2026March 30, 2026

Procomm Plus was the ultimate terminal emulator of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a product of Datastorm, a small software company based in Columbia, Mo., a college town about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. Obsolete for years because of the decline of BBSs and big iron computing, it still has a niche following among hobbyists who like vintage minicomputers and mainframes, because it can emulate almost any terminal you might want.

It was 30 years ago, on March 28, 1996, that Datastorm ended its run as an independent software publisher.

AMD K5 CPU: Not quite what AMD hoped

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 27, 2026March 27, 2026

The K5 is AMD’s first x86 processor to be developed entirely in-house. Introduced March 27, 1996, its primary competition was Intel’s Pentium microprocessor. The K5 was an ambitious design, closer to a Pentium Pro internally than a Pentium. However, the final product was closer to the Pentium regarding performance, although faster clock-for-clock compared to the Pentium. The “K” in the name K5 stood for Kryptonite. AMD, being an underdog compared to Intel, hoped the K5 be the undoing for the Superman-like Intel.

The Melissa virus of 1999

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, security March 26, 2026March 26, 2026

The Melissa virus was a mass-mailing macro virus from March 1999. It was one of the more notorious computer viruses of the 1990s, and reportedly the author named it for a dancer he met in a Florida nightclub. Authorities quickly identified the author, David Lee Smith, and arrested him in New Jersey on April 1, 1999. He served two and a half years in prison and paid $7,500 in fines for creating the virus.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft executive and NBA owner

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 25, 2026March 25, 2026

Steven Anthony Ballmer, born March 24, 1956, served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. Today he is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Steve Ballmer’s personal wealth is around $145 billion, making him the tenth-richest person in the world. Together with Gates, their personalities defined Microsoft’s public image for about 30 years.

eMachines never obsolete PCs: More than a meme

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 24, 2026March 24, 2026

It’s a meme from the turn of the century, an irony to end all ironies. The cheapest computers on the market at the time, which were arguably obsolete the day before you bought them, had stickers on the front bragging they were never obsolete. Of course I’m talking about the eMachines Never Obsolete marketing campaign. Emachines was for a time a very popular line of inexpensive PCs, and the company held its initial public offering March 23, 2000, after selling 2 million PCs in 1999.

Now, what eMachines said and what they meant by never obsolete were two very different things, but if anything that just made the stickers more ludicrous.

What came after 486?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 23, 2026March 23, 2026

CPUs didn’t have brand names, besides the manufacturer, until the 1990s. They had part numbers and clock speeds. Frequently we shortened the part numbers. The 486’s full part number was 80486. The courts wouldn’t let Intel trademark a number, so the 486 was the last CPU of its kind, raising the question: What came after 486?

The follow-up for the 486 was the Pentium, at least in Intel’s case, and it was introduced March 22, 1993. But several companies made 486 CPUs, and several of those released their own follow-ups to the 486, including AMD and Cyrix.

The first 3Dfx card: Orchid Righteous 3D

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming March 20, 2026March 20, 2026

On March 20, 1996, Orchid Technologies announced the Orchid Righteous 3D, the first consumer graphics card based on 3Dfx technology. It retailed for $299, achieved FCC certification July 24, 1996, and reached retail shelves October 6, 1996, beating Diamond Multimedia’s Monster 3D to market. Orchid was 3Dfx’s first OEM partner and the maker of the first 3Dfx Voodoo card.

Magnavox Odyssey 2: 1978-1984

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming March 19, 2026March 19, 2026

The Magnavox Odyssey 2 is an overlooked second generation game console, at least in the United States. I was curious how this console sold 2 million units and yet I never saw one and rarely heard about it growing up. It was launched December 1, 1978 and discontinued March 20, 1984. That makes today as good of a time as any to give this console a second look.

AOL history

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 18, 2026March 18, 2026

AOL, also known as America Online, wasn’t the first online service. But it became the biggest and most popular one. For many people of a certain age, AOL was their first experience with a modem, or with the Internet. Let’s take a look back at AOL history and how its legacy affects things even today.

AOL long had a reputation as a place where inexperienced, unsophisticated computer users hung out, but the company had a long streak of innovation and was ahead of its time in many regards. I’ll bet you had no idea the history of America Online begins way back in 1983. And you may also be surprised to hear the company still exists, though in a different form, even today.

Toshiba’s Soviet nuclear submarine scandal

Dave Farquhar 1980s March 17, 2026March 17, 2026

On March 19, 1987, the Pentagon announced that it had learned the Soviet Union acquired machine tooling for making submarine propeller blades from Toshiba Machine, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, better known as a major electronics manufacturer. Between the machine tools the Soviets acquired from Toshiba and Norwegian weapons maker Kongsberg, the Soviets were able to make their submarines harder to detect, identify, and track.

One of the results of scandal was the U.S. Government banning its own use of Toshiba computers and certain other products from Toshiba until the end of 1991. The Japanese government was unhappy with the ban, but did not intervene. This Cold War scandal is largely forgotten today but was a major incident at the time.