VIC
I
Since
I didn't have the full knowledge and tools required to design a state-of-the-art
computer totally by myself I opted for an intermediate solution: a do-it-yourself
computer. The system had been designed in Germany at the university of
Hannover and was called CT68K (described in the famous German magazine
"Computer Technics", equivalent of "Byte"). It was really a state-of-the-art
computer with its 16/32 bits processor at a time most PCs were 16 bits
with less than 640KB RAM. The cost of this computer ready-to-use was about
$10000 at that time. Although the do-it-yourself version was less expensive,
it was still too much money for a student so I had to contract a bank loan
of about $6000. Without my parents support I wouldn't have been able to
do that.
The system was delivered as a set of 5 single-Europe boards without any component on it. I got the electronics components separately, and soldered them all. Thankfully the system had been well designed and I didn't have too many problems to get it work. At the end of 1987 I was the happy owner of a working 16/32bits computer ! It is now housed into a professional 19" 3U Schroff rack.
Over the following years the system would prove to be robust and extremely flexible. It has been in permanent use (ie powered on) since 1987, with very few downtime periods. The real-time operating system had allowed me to design applications that still today would not run on a PC under DOS, most of them I had not imagined at the time I built VIC I. The computer is still in use today despite being almost 10 years old, and I don't see how I could live without. It will certainly carry me into the next century !
