Questions tagged [cost]
Use this tag if you are enquiring about the cost of systems, either at a specific time-point in the past (such as when they were released) or now (if you're looking to purchase).
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How much did it cost to develop the 8-bit era graphics chips?
I'm interested in the development cost of different kinds of chips in the 70s and 80s, both for its own sake and because it aids in the understanding of historical events; in technology and business, ...
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What was the cost difference between single and double sided 5.25" floppy drives?
5.25" floppy disk drives for 8-bit computers were by and large single-sided, but the IBM PC used double-sided drives. It would be tempting to explain this by saying, well of course the double-...
- 58.4k
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Were cartridge slots cheaper at the back?
I'm remembering a difference in the design of Commodore computers like the Vic and 64, versus the Atari 8-bits, and game consoles from the likes of Atari and Nintendo: they all had cartridge slots, ...
- 58.4k
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What did CPU time and disk space cost at a CDC 6600 Data Center?
In the mid-1970s,there was a big time sharing CDC service center in Waltham, MA. I'm curious what it cost to run computer jobs there.
(My long winded story follows) In 1976, I had a summer job of &...
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Did ancillary LEDs trade arcade game design for manufacturing cost?
Looking at the 1974 arcade game Speed Race, I notice that the cabinet includes ancillary LEDs to show the scores.
https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=wide-flyer&db=videodb&id=4056&image=...
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What accounted for the cost of ENIAC?
I'm used to the fact that first-generation computers were very expensive, which I had always assumed was because they contained large numbers of vacuum tubes, each of which is a rather complex, high ...
- 58.4k
4
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Bill-of-material cost of early hard drives
Based on this topic (and continuing this topic), my question once again surfaced:
And what was the layout of the prime cost of early 8 and 5.25 inch hard drives? From Seagate and competing ...
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How much did the first hard drives for PCs cost?
I would like to know how much early PC hard drives cost but have only been aable to find adjacent or unsourced data.
According to the Centre for Computing History:
The "IBM 5161 Expansion ...
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1
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Why was the SWTPC 6800 Computer System cheaper than the Altair?
In 1974, Intel released the 8080, which basically was the first microprocessor good enough to build a serious computer around. That led to the Altair 8800 the following year, which was the beginning ...
- 58.4k
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Why was the golden game Ocarina of Time not given a golden cartridge in the PAL region?
Note: I'm unaware of the exact details for each region, but I vaguely remember people claiming that other region(s) got a golden cartridge. I'm talking about PAL/Europe primarily, since that's where I ...
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Price of original Apple ][ in 1980?
Apple introduced the "new and improved" Apple ][ Plus in 1979, but continued to sell the original ][ until early 1981. I speculate that some customers must have chosen the original Apple ][ over the ...
- 60.1k
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How many hours of labor did it take to assemble a minicomputer?
A minicomputer like the PDP-8 contained several thousand discrete transistors and other components, all of which had to be soldered by hand, and that was among the simplest computers on the market; ...
- 58.4k
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What was the cost of the PS2 chip in the last PS3 to have it?
The PlayStation 2 provided backward compatibility with the PS1 by essentially incorporating an entire PS1 on a separate chip. It kept this arrangement permanently.
The PS3 started off providing ...
- 58.4k
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Cost of dynamic versus static RAM in the early days
Early pioneers building memory cards for personal computers, tended to use static RAM, because it's quite a bit easier to get to work. Later, dynamic RAM became de rigueur, for the simple and ...
- 58.4k
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How much did it cost to develop the Z80 CPU?
How much did it cost, in dollars at the time, to develop the Zilog Z80 CPU?
According to Wikipedia,
The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. ...
- 58.4k
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How did the Sinclair compare on price with the C64 in the UK?
As far as I know, the popular low-end home computers in the UK around the mid-1980s were the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum ("Speccy") and the Commodore C64. I know the BBC micro also had a following, but my ...
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What was the Macintosh's BOM cost?
Andy Hertzfeld revealed that the CPU for the original $2495 Macintosh cost just $9.00. How much did the rest of the computer cost? Was the markup really greater than Pepsi's markup on sugar? How much ...
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C116 vs C64 cost
The Commodore 116 was the start of the ill-fated TED line of 8-bit computers, which sold poorly (for several reasons, particularly including lack of compatibility with the Commodore 64) until they ...
- 58.4k
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386SX, NES and how much did data lines really cost anyway?
In 1988, Intel introduced the 80386SX, most often referred to as the 386SX, a cut-down version of the 80386 with a 16-bit data bus mainly intended for lower-cost PCs aimed at the home, educational, ...
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How much did a serial terminal cost?
For many years in the mid-to-late twentieth century, user-facing computing consisted primarily of serial terminals attached to mainframe and minicomputers.
In the eighties and even as late as the ...
- 58.4k
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When did green LEDs become as cheap as red LEDs? [closed]
Blue LEDs in the cheap, practical form we know them today, arrived in the 90s; before that, the choices were red and green.
I want to say there was a time some years before that when green LEDs ...
- 58.4k
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What was the initial price of the Sharp X68000?
I can't seem to find out what the Sharp X68000 cost when it first available. Is there a reliable source for this information?
I'm looking for actual sales costs of a standard X68000 unit (preferably ...
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Labor input for manufacture of early personal computers
In the early days of personal computers, manufacturing was not as automated as it later became, and a factory would often consist of people sitting at tables placing components by hand.
I'm ...
- 58.4k
2
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2
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Cost of a chiclet keyboard
Early personal computer keyboards could be membrane (Atari 400, ZX80, ZX81), chiclet (PET 2001, ZX Spectrum, Oric, IBM PC Jr) or mechanical/full-travel (later PET, Apple II, TRS-80, Vic-20, and most ...
- 58.4k
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80286 pricing and availability
Most information online states that the 80286 (or iAPX 286 as it was initially known) was first available in February 1982. But information about it from this time is hard to come by, and famously it ...
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4
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1
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What was the retail price of CP/M?
In the early days of the IBM PC, it was offered with a choice of four different operating systems including PC-DOS for $40 or CP/M for $240. Customers looked at what appeared to be essentially ...
- 58.4k
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2
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What were the selling points of the Atari 800 over the 400?
Apparently when the two Atari 8-bit machines were released, the 400 outsold the 800 2 to 1, which is unsurprising considering they were priced at approximately $500 and $1000 respectively.
Indeed, ...
- 58.4k
4
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0
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Cost of Apple II switching power supply
Apple went to the trouble of designing a switching power supply at a time when they were still quite new and not widely used for consumer electronics, perhaps because Steve Jobs liked the aesthetics ...
- 58.4k
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Why plastic cases?
Early computers of the 'all in one' form factors, such as the Commodore PET, the early IBM microcomputers and later models of the TRS-80, as well as the 'box' form factors such as the Altair, used a ...
- 58.4k
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Component cost in historical ads versus wholesale
To get an idea of how much various components such as CPUs, RAM chips, disk drives and monitors historically cost, and therefore how those costs influenced design decisions that were made, a good ...
- 58.4k
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2
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Manufacturing cost breakdown for a 16-bit computer
The dynamics of the market, of what platforms end up being used at what times in what contexts, depend not only on what is technically possible, but even more on what can be done for what price, so ...
- 58.4k