Monthly Archives: May 2013

Why I Don’t Want a Laptop with a Glued-In Battery

Here’s why: Not much to add really… in this case, the laptop wasn’t damaged because the battery simply forced its way out of the shell. If it had been glued in, it would have destroyed the case and quite possibly … Continue reading

Posted in Apple | 6 Comments

DOS Goodies at bitsavers.org

The excellent bitsavers.org last week uploaded scans of several IBM Personal Computer DOS manuals. Included are the manuals for DOS 1.0 (1982), 1.1, and 2.0, a preliminary technical reference for DOS 3.1, the DOS 3.1 user’s reference manual, and DOS … Continue reading

Posted in DOS, IBM | 1 Comment

ISA bus 8514/A?

During the development of the 8514/A, IBM clearly had ISA-based adapters. A proof of this may be found in the source code for the Windows 2.x setup program (part of the Binary Adaptation Kit, or BAK), which among other things … Continue reading

Posted in Graphics, IBM, PC hardware, Windows | 7 Comments

The XGA Graphics Chip

After covering the 8514/A and its clones, it’s only appropriate to write a few words about the XGA (eXtended Graphics Array), IBM’s final attempt at establishing a PC graphics hardware standard. The XGA was introduced on October 30, 1990, about … Continue reading

Posted in Graphics, IBM | 5 Comments

S3 Graphics Accelerators and the 8514/A

The previous article about the IBM 8514/A graphics accelerator and clones did not mention S3’s chips because S3-based graphics cards were never 8514/A compatible, unlike the ATI Mach 8 and Mach 32 chips and others. However, the relationship between S3 … Continue reading

Posted in Graphics, PC hardware | Leave a comment

The 8514/A Graphics Accelerator

On April 2, 1987, when IBM rolled out the PS/2 line of personal computers, one of the hardware announcements was the VGA display chip, a standard that has lasted for 25 years and counting. While the VGA was an incremental … Continue reading

Posted in ATi, Graphics, IBM, PC hardware | 29 Comments