Bought in March 1976 in Berkely. 2Mhz 8080, and 4K RAM with only the front panel for about 2 months. Then added the Processor technology VDM-1 16X 64 Video card, 3P+S I/O card and a CUTS casette tape interface. When I added the GPM memory board with a 2K byte ROM Monitor, it was actually easy to read a game in from casette and actually use the computer for something. (Target and TREK-80 for the win!) I eventually added some more RAM - 16 K Dynabyte cards and a North Star micro-disk floppy system. The system eventually evolved to a Z-80, CP/M 80, 60K RAM and a Morrow 16 Megabyte Hard disk.
       

Nope, not concurrent. I worked at a fairly large supercomputer center in the S.F. Bay area. We had to build all of our own I/O systems and networks as this was before CISCO etc.

OZ

Actually, for long-haul bulk power, HV DC transmission lines are more efficient than HV AC lines. I took an on-line college class in power generation and distribution systems last year and was surprised to find out that HVDC did not have as much loss as the AC lines. The losses were due to distributed reactance in the lines, both capacitance to ground and series inductance in the wire. These effects are important at the 230KV level.

OZ

In the 80's we built custom interfaces for large computers using wire-wrap Standard Logic Inc. wiring modules. The planes of wiring were assembled into rackmount chassis which were fed DC power via a vertical bus-bar system in the rack. The busbars were about .5 X 1 inch solid copper, insulated by shrink tubing with holes cut for the threaded holes in the busbar. The power supplies were rackmount 100 or 200 A Lambda supplies providing either 5 volts or 12 Volts. It was occasionally a pain to be called into the computer center in the middle of the night to replace one of those heavy power supplies - at least they were at the bottom of the rack.

OZ

John DeArmond has a good article on his site about the $100 1KW Chinese-made generators sold at Northern Tool.

http://www.johndearmond.com/2008/12/24/the-generator-that-could/

Enjoy,

  OZ