PCs - 1980 to 1994

Back to exhibit sections

In the late 80s and early 90s personal computers started to become mainstream. Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) had the vision of putting a computer on every desk in every home and every office. This was delivered through the mainstream adoption of operating systems such as MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows.

This period also made mainstream the "LAN", or "Local Area Network". Way before the internet came commonplace it was ambitious to have a local area network which connected all your office / school / home computers together on a network with a centralised server. To demonstrate this we use a Netware 4.11 server to connect most of our PCs from this era which was the leading server platform in the day.

Our exhibit list is currently being populated and isn't yet complete so please watch this space.

	Amstrad PC-1512 Year: 1986 Status: Hands on exhibit Two disk drive IBM compatible Amstrad PC
	Amstrad PC-1640 Year: 1986 Status: Hands on exhibit Classic 80's PC running MS-DOS and GEM Desktop 3
	Compaq DeskPro XE 466 Year: 1993 Status: Hands on exhibit Connected to our Netware 4.2 network with various games and apps. Runs MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11
	Elonex 486 33Mhz Year: 1993 Status: Being restored Connected to our Netware 4.2 network with various games and apps. Runs MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11
	Elonex 486 66Mhz Year: 1993 Status: Being restored Connected to our Netware 4.2 network with various games and apps. Runs MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11
	Siemens Nixdorf PCD-4L Year: 1994 Status: Hands on exhibit Connected to our Netware 4.2 network with various games and apps. Runs MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11
	Wang 286 PC Year: 1988 Status: Awaiting restoration Runs MS DOS 3.22 and Windows 2.11. Black & white monitor