It seems strange to me that so little time has elapsed between the start of the era at Nascom, with 2 MHz Z80s and 2K of system RAM, to Gemini’s activities in parallel processing with multiple 25 MHz processors and tens, hundreds or even thousands of bytes of memory.

In the early days at Nascom, I concluded that we were about to witness the beginning of the second industrial revolution, but subsequent events have exceeded anything I imagined. The revolution sparked off by the ability to produce microprocessors so cheaply has permeated its way throughout our society and still appears to be gathering momentum. ●

All Good Things Come To An End

by Erling Andersen

All good things have to come to an end. I have enjoyed reading the 2 volumes of your excellent magazine, and as an owner of a Nascom 2 I have found much valuable information and good hints in your articles. Therefore, I am very sorry to hear that you find it impossible to continue the magazine.

But of course, one has to realise that our machines are getting older and the new PCs in plastic boxes are now taking over. A lot of new application programs are coming up that were never even thought of on our computers. Still, I don’t think I will ever get the same relation to a computer as to my old Nascom, soldered together in the late evenings, and which worked the first time it was switched on. I also learned a lot about the inner workings of a computer and how to control it. Today, running UNIX and using lots of huge program libraries with not a single line of source code available, I think back to the NAS-SYS 3 with the complete commented listing. There were no problems that couldn’t be solved by looking through the source code. Computers have grown up, but at a price – you don’t get nearly as familiar with a “black box” with shelves of “User Guides” and a new version coming up every third month.

When I get tired I will go home to my Nascom, turn it on and listen to its non-existing fan. I will read volumes of INMC-80, 80-BUS NEWS and Scorpio News. And then maybe some day there will again be a small computer not supported by Big Blue that I can play around with.

Thank you for giving us a good time. ●