geezer
20-04-2012, 09:49 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_XT
This was the first personal computer that I worked on back in 1983 when I started working after my 2 years national service. It had a 4.77MHz processor and 128kB of RAM. We used it to control a Magnetic Sector Mass Spectrometer. That Mass Spectrometer was similar to the one used in the Manhattan Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project), which was the R&D project that produced the first atomic bomb. This PC replaced a solid state computer that had 8kB of RAM and 16kB of ROM. The IBM PC had Lotus 1-2-3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3) installed, which probably was the first spreadsheet application. My colleagues was amazed how quick you could do various calculations and formulas with Lotus. I remember I created a spreadsheet that we used to calculate the molecular weight of synthesis gas from the Fischer-Tropch process, as well as a few other important derived values (H2/CO ratio, Ribblett ratio, Heat Value etc.). You just entered the gas analysis and immediately had your answers! This probaly took about 1 minute to enter and get to an answer, where it previously took approximately 15 minutes to do all these calculations.
This was the first personal computer that I worked on back in 1983 when I started working after my 2 years national service. It had a 4.77MHz processor and 128kB of RAM. We used it to control a Magnetic Sector Mass Spectrometer. That Mass Spectrometer was similar to the one used in the Manhattan Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project), which was the R&D project that produced the first atomic bomb. This PC replaced a solid state computer that had 8kB of RAM and 16kB of ROM. The IBM PC had Lotus 1-2-3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3) installed, which probably was the first spreadsheet application. My colleagues was amazed how quick you could do various calculations and formulas with Lotus. I remember I created a spreadsheet that we used to calculate the molecular weight of synthesis gas from the Fischer-Tropch process, as well as a few other important derived values (H2/CO ratio, Ribblett ratio, Heat Value etc.). You just entered the gas analysis and immediately had your answers! This probaly took about 1 minute to enter and get to an answer, where it previously took approximately 15 minutes to do all these calculations.