Early Personal Computers

I'd been following the development of microcomputers through magazines like Byte etc. since the introduction of the Altair. Unfortunately the various 8-bit systems running CP/M were mostly incompatible with each other.

IBM released the IBM PC in the USA in August 1981, based on the Intel 8088 16-bit (internal) CPU. It almost entirely used off-the-shelf, non-proprietary components. This, coupled with the size and market influence of IBM, opened up the possibility of industry standardisation.

My First Personal Computer

My first PC — a 1982 IBM PC-1.

I purchased an IBM PC-1 from Terry Smyth at Computhink in September 1982, well before they were made officially available in Australia in March 1983. It was a 5051 system unit with 64 Kb RAM, combination monochrome display and printer adapter, cassette tape interface, plus two double sided 320 Kb 5.25" floppy diskette drives. IBM PC-DOS 1.1 was patched to support these non-standard drives. An IBM 5151 monochrome video display and Epson MX-100 Type III printer completed the combination. Total price A$6,930.

Personal Computer At Work

My IBM PC-1 spent most of its early days beside my desk at BHP Head Office in Melbourne. I was working as a Senior Systems Programmer, managing a team of six Data General systems programmers supporting commercial, technical and general systems software on over fifty AOS and AOS/VS based minicomputer systems nationwide.

A serial line and terminal software was installed so I could use my IBM PC to connect to the various DG minicomputers in the building. In the second half of 1982, BHP provided me with an IBM PC at work and my personal computer moved back home.

Your Computer Magazine

I wrote an article called "My First Computer is an IBM" which was published in the December 1982 edition of Your Computer magazine. In 1983, I became a regular contributor to the magazine, producing the "Your IBM Computer" column each month. I also took on the distribution of "Freeware" and public domain software from various collections in the USA.

Melbourne PC User Group Is Started

In my September 1983 column in Your Computer magazine, I floated the idea of a PC user group in Melbourne. The response was encouraging. Thus the first meeting of what was to become the Melbourne PC Users Group was held at the offices of Computer Power in St Kilda Road in November 1983. I became the inaugural President and focused on getting the group on a firm footing and starting up the group's newsletter PC Update.

PC Connection Australia BBS

PC Connection Australia BBS Logo.

By June 1984, I'd upgraded my IBM PC so that it could become Australia's first IBM-PC based Bulletin Board System (BBS) operating under the name PC Connection Australia BBS. That PC then proceeded to run almost continuously 24 hours per day, seven days per week, as a BBS until replaced in 1989.