糖心原创

The introduction of the new Commodore 3000 series to the European market took place in spring 1978 at the Hannover Trade Fair: 鈥淭here were big crowds at the Commodore company鈥檚 exhibition stand: those who wanted to see or touch the attraction ... had to make use of their elbows鈥� (Computer Week, 12 May 1978). After pre-ordering and a producer-guaranteed maximum wait of six weeks, you could have your own Commodore CBM 8-bit microcomputer on your desk at home as of 1979. From then on it took only a few seconds before the legendary neon-green prompt 鈥淩EADY鈥� appeared on the screen. Not long afterwards, computer nerds from around the world were typing in games like Space Invaders, Snake or Pong from computer magazines and coding them themselves with the programming language BASIC. 鈥淭he central unit, with its typewriter-style keyboard, is the command centre of the Commodore,鈥� advertising brochures stated enthusiastically. The cassette drive (read-only memory, ROM), called 鈥渢he datasette鈥�, was another innovation. The game or programme was saved on tape as audio tones, 鈥渓istened to鈥� by the drive (higher tone = 1, lower tone = 0), and translated back into data by the computer 鈥� a fascinating mix of audio and computer technology. In Europe the device was sold under the label 鈥淐BM鈥�, because the original name 鈥淧ET鈥� (personal electronic transactor) was already copyrighted by the Philips company for its 鈥減rogramme development terminal鈥� (鈥淧ET鈥� in German). The computer still went down in technological history as the Commodore PET. For many engineers 鈥� including those at what was then the Technical University of Hannover 鈥� this 8-bit microcomputer of the late 1970s and early 1980s was the first time they had come into contact with a computer. Before that, students and researchers had to painstakingly enter their programmes on punched cards and bring them to the central computing centre, where they would then be read into the mainframe systems (mostly from IBM). The CBM 3032 was the first desktop computer used directly in the institutes鈥� offices and labs 鈥� just like this device from the Geodetic Institute. It could be connected to lab or measurement devices in order to automatically collect measurement data. Thanks to its iconic angular 鈥渃ar hood鈥� design, with a top that could be opened for maintenance, it was also possible for the university鈥檚 own technicians to carry out repairs.