Category Archives: PC history

About That Warranty…

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Michal Necasek

Readers have been wondering what kind of valuable warranty users of Microsoft’s Quick Pascal 1.0 (and other products) might be voiding by running it on top of DR DOS 3.3x or 3.40. I don’t have the original Quick Pascal 1.0 … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Research, Microsoft, PC history, Undocumented | 16 Comments

How Apple Created Hackintosh, Part II

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Michal Necasek

There is every indication that throughout the early 2000s, Apple internally built and ran all of OS X on x86 PCs (it’s also something Steve Jobs himself mentioned in 2005). Otherwise why would Apple have x86 drivers for AC’97 audio … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Intel, OS X, PC history, Pre-release | 10 Comments

How Apple Created Hackintosh, Part I

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Michal Necasek

At a developer conference in June 2005, Apple announced that OS X will transition from PowerPC to Intel processors. The first Intel Macs (sometimes nicknamed “Mactels”) were introduced several months later, in January 2006. The announcement generated significant interest in … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Intel, PC history, Pre-release | 10 Comments

MS KB Articles

Posted on October 17, 2017 by Michal Necasek

A recent blog post over at pcjs.org explores some of the mysteries surrounding information that at one point or another was published as a Microsoft KnowledgeBase article (or a KB article for short). It’s not entirely clear where the KB … Continue reading →

Posted in Documentation, Microsoft, PC history | 17 Comments

Audio Frequency Data Acquisition

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Michal Necasek

Readers of this blog may have noticed that besides OS/2 software, I have interested in PC sound cards. I thought I had a decent idea about the major milestones in PC sound history, but I had to perform a few … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, MCA, PC hardware, PC history, PS/2, Sound, Sound Blaster | 17 Comments

SYSENTER, Where Are You?

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Michal Necasek

It has only recently been brought to my attention that Intel’s SYSENTER/SYSEXIT instructions have rather unusual past, and their origin is shrouded in mystery and confusion. One facet of the usage of these instructions is also a little unorthodox. Depending … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel, PC history, Undocumented | 26 Comments

Would You Believe It?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Michal Necasek

The following article was printed in Computer Shopper, June 1992 issue (page 152). Commentary follows. The Big Squeeze Compression Scheme Shatters Storage Logjam Todd Daniel believes he has found a way to revolutionize data storage as we know it. DataFiles/16, … Continue reading →

Posted in PC history, PC press | 65 Comments

Rich Heimlich’s Patch Set Overview

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Michal Necasek

Resurrected from the depths of the Internet, here comes an interesting and useful historical resource.  In 1994 and 1995, Rich Heimlich published several iterations of his “patch set overview” covering mainstream wavetable sound cards, daughterboards, and modules (“mainstream” being defined … Continue reading →

Posted in PC history, Sound, Wave Blaster | 33 Comments

PC DOS 1.0, But Not Quite

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Michal Necasek

Last week a most interesting image of a 160K disk arrived at the OS/2 Museum. The files on the disk image are rather old. When the disk boots up (not trivial, see below), the following message appears: Astute readers will … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, IBM, Microsoft, PC history, Pre-release | 47 Comments

How Many Gravis UltraSounds?

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Michal Necasek

The question came up a while ago. Just how commercially unsuccessful was the Gravis UltraSound? There appears to be no public information about the sales volume of the UltraSound. But now, looking at a sample of 3 (three) classic GUS … Continue reading →

Posted in PC history, Sound, UltraSound | 51 Comments