YAY!!! Finally, some others came in with a Columbia PC as their first. This was my first computer COMPANY, although I did start using a TRS-80 Model 3 as my first regular use computer. Just so you know, Columbia Data Products is still kicking, and on its fifth major project since getting out of making PCs. I bought CDP in 1986, after running Godfather's Used Computers for two years, during which we sold many of these PCs mentioned here. All I really wanted to do is to buy another used TRS-80 Model III, but no one wanted to sell them, and dealers thought I was crazy to even want a used computer. So, I started a Used Computer business. One thing led to another, and 33 years later, I'm still in the computer business.
The PC used to be called the MPC, which stood for "Multi Personal Computer". I sold the MPC trademark to Texas Instruments for about $8,000, since I thought it was a fairly stupid name. The CDP PC was built like a tank, and would have carried CDP forward into "server-land" as a company. You could hold some hotkeys down, and boot three other PCs connected over a serial cable! That was the idea, and MPC was designed to have built-in networking. Might have worked too, except for Digital Research's M/PM-86 wasn't quite ready for prime time. CDP might have continued to do well with DOS, except for a major misstep:
CDP introduced a "lug-able" with a METAL case and SHARP corners, when Compaq came out with a nice plastic case. I carried it as carry-on luggage, twice. Once to COMDEX and once to visit CDP in Columbia, Maryland. Although it did fit under the next seat up, carrying onto the plane risked taking one of those very sharp corners and breaking your leg while swinging that 20-30 LB. case. What were they thinking?? Also, Compaq's plastic case portable had three expansion slots, and CDP's only had one slot in most of these portables, and only two slots in a few of the later production. This meant you couldn't add a 512k RAM card to CDP's 128K RAM and a HD controller, and have it work properly. We tried to fix this, by creating a "slot extender", adding two slots to the one slot. However, the RF was so bad, since the CRT's flyback was very close to the added boards, that this proved to make the add-on cards unreliable.
The worst part of that desktop MPC was the Molex connectors, which would often get oxidized, and develop an open connection to the motherboard. Funny thing, I just had something similar happen with my new Dell 17" AlienWare Laptop with a 240 watt power supply brick: The power connector to the motherboard developed high resistance, and then overheated, and intermittently opened. The connector was smaller of course, but the identical problem!
My first computer was some type of very strange Atari COMPUTER, (not the game), that I bought from DAX. It lasted long enough for me to create some really cool graphics stuff for a day. But, that was about all it could do, so I sent it "home" for a refund. Next, I spent real cash for a Radio Shack TRS Model 3 with two printers, and daisy wheel and a 24 wire printer. With these, and one of the best word processors I've seen called "All Right", I created my own "camera ready artwork". With this, I submitted my first ads, "Letters from the Godfather" to Computer Shopper. It was printed and hand-carried to their Titusville, FL offices, five minutes before they had to ship the whole magazine's artwork to be FEDEX'ed to the printer! (The production guy hated to see me show up every month at press time, but got lots of free beer!)
We ended up selling thousands of CDP's PCs all over the world. CDP was the third largest PC manufacturer in the world in 1985, according to PC World. CDP never made Godfather's an authorized CDP dealer. But, I did end up buying all the remaining assets of CDP in 1986 from the CDP trustee and the banks, and re-incorporating CDP in Florida. We went on to sell a few thousand CDP PCs, and supported 70,000 users worldwide, came out with the next BIOS a
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YAY!!! Finally, some others came in with a Columbia PC as their first. This was my first computer COMPANY, although I did start using a TRS-80 Model 3 as my first regular use computer. Just so you know, Columbia Data Products is still kicking, and on its fifth major project since getting out of making PCs. I bought CDP in 1986, after running Godfather's Used Computers for two years, during which we sold many of these PCs mentioned here. All I really wanted to do is to buy another used TRS-80 Model III, but no one wanted to sell them, and dealers thought I was crazy to even want a used computer. So, I started a Used Computer business. One thing led to another, and 33 years later, I'm still in the computer business.
The PC used to be called the MPC, which stood for "Multi Personal Computer". I sold the MPC trademark to Texas Instruments for about $8,000, since I thought it was a fairly stupid name. The CDP PC was built like a tank, and would have carried CDP forward into "server-land" as a company. You could hold some hotkeys down, and boot three other PCs connected over a serial cable! That was the idea, and MPC was designed to have built-in networking. Might have worked too, except for Digital Research's M/PM-86 wasn't quite ready for prime time. CDP might have continued to do well with DOS, except for a major misstep:
CDP introduced a "lug-able" with a METAL case and SHARP corners, when Compaq came out with a nice plastic case. I carried it as carry-on luggage, twice. Once to COMDEX and once to visit CDP in Columbia, Maryland. Although it did fit under the next seat up, carrying onto the plane risked taking one of those very sharp corners and breaking your leg while swinging that 20-30 LB. case. What were they thinking?? Also, Compaq's plastic case portable had three expansion slots, and CDP's only had one slot in most of these portables, and only two slots in a few of the later production. This meant you couldn't add a 512k RAM card to CDP's 128K RAM and a HD controller, and have it work properly. We tried to fix this, by creating a "slot extender", adding two slots to the one slot. However, the RF was so bad, since the CRT's flyback was very close to the added boards, that this proved to make the add-on cards unreliable.
The worst part of that desktop MPC was the Molex connectors, which would often get oxidized, and develop an open connection to the motherboard. Funny thing, I just had something similar happen with my new Dell 17" AlienWare Laptop with a 240 watt power supply brick: The power connector to the motherboard developed high resistance, and then overheated, and intermittently opened. The connector was smaller of course, but the identical problem!
My first computer was some type of very strange Atari COMPUTER, (not the game), that I bought from DAX. It lasted long enough for me to create some really cool graphics stuff for a day. But, that was about all it could do, so I sent it "home" for a refund. Next, I spent real cash for a Radio Shack TRS Model 3 with two printers, and daisy wheel and a 24 wire printer. With these, and one of the best word processors I've seen called "All Right", I created my own "camera ready artwork". With this, I submitted my first ads, "Letters from the Godfather" to Computer Shopper. It was printed and hand-carried to their Titusville, FL offices, five minutes before they had to ship the whole magazine's artwork to be FEDEX'ed to the printer! (The production guy hated to see me show up every month at press time, but got lots of free beer!)
We ended up selling thousands of CDP's PCs all over the world. CDP was the third largest PC manufacturer in the world in 1985, according to PC World. CDP never made Godfather's an authorized CDP dealer. But, I did end up buying all the remaining assets of CDP in 1986 from the CDP trustee and the banks, and re-incorporating CDP in Florida. We went on to sell a few thousand CDP PCs, and supported 70,000 users worldwide, came out with the next BIOS a