When it says "smart terminal," did it have any sort of CPU controlling a graphics chip? Or was it a true terminal interpreting serial data from the internal CPU as if connecting to a remote mainframe?
Sort of but only really to support the ever-growing levels of “pretty” on systems. The computational speed increases are important but only to do the sums quicker.
The computational speed and RAM increases are game changers. >1000x faster CPUs means a calculation that took overnight is now done in 30s. Add the RAM and now computations that had to store intermediate results out to physical storage now can access that data in us and that’s another massive boost
My first computer 1981:
Apple II, 48 kB ram, 5,25" Floppy capacity 128 kB, monochrome monitor, 4,844 DEM (~USD 2,100)
used for developping software, earnings some 25,000 DEM (~USD 10,800) in one year.
Even in the early '80s you couldn't buy even a basic assembled computer for less than $1500. Then you had to add a monitor, keyboard, printer if you wanted one... Even a hard disk your run you at least $500 for a 10 Megabyte drive.
Oh, and if you wanted to go online you needed an acoustic coupler (telephone audio modem) running at 300 baud (Later 1200 or 2400 baud).You might connect to a remote mainframe or more likely a BBS (Bulletin Board System).You could message the SYSOP (system operator) or maybe download a file or two.
Usually, your connections to remote computers meant a long distance phone call. The Internet hadn't been thought of then, except between a few military installations.
I actually ran a BBS, called The Blackboard.
In the mid 1970's the Z80 was the Cadillac of microprocessors and the H8/H89 were dream machines.
When I was 17, Heathkit was the cat's ass for building electronics gear. I still have several of my finished kits running.
Back in the late-ish '80s, a co-worker was so proud to notify us of his new acquisition, an IBM-clone computer with a 20MB hard drive. 'Twenty megs!!!', he exclaimed all day until everyone knew of this wonder.
My first PC included the terminal version of that. (H19 IIRC) connected to an H8. The H8 had an 8080 and the H19 had a Z80 so the terminal had a more powerful processor than the "computer." 😜
That was my first too. Since I don't build stuff, I bought a pre-assembled version of it, a Zenith Z-89, at a local Radio Shack.
Bought an external dual disk CD writer too & a $2,000 daisy wheel printer.
No inkjet or laser printers yet, so daisy wheel printers used an ink ribbon like a typewriter.
It's incredible how the prices of computers have actually gone down over the years. You can get a seriously good computer for that price today (not even adjusting the price for inflation).
Heathkit always had amazing kits - I still see their stuff every now and then, working away in a lab somewhere on campus. They were the Arduino and Raspberry Pi of the mid-20th century.
I came up when Heathkit was already in decline but I bought and built a CW ham radio from them. I learned a lot and it was very satisfying to use something I built myself.
Comments
Apple II, 48 kB ram, 5,25" Floppy capacity 128 kB, monochrome monitor, 4,844 DEM (~USD 2,100)
used for developping software, earnings some 25,000 DEM (~USD 10,800) in one year.
I actually ran a BBS, called The Blackboard.
When I was 17, Heathkit was the cat's ass for building electronics gear. I still have several of my finished kits running.
We wrote Hello World.
We drew a pram.
We loaded games from tapes - an opportunity to 'hear' data.
Would be really interesting to compare computing capability per inflation adjusted dollar. Must be a couple of orders of magnitude. 🤷♂️
Bought an external dual disk CD writer too & a $2,000 daisy wheel printer.
No inkjet or laser printers yet, so daisy wheel printers used an ink ribbon like a typewriter.
It's a Heathkit, meaning you had the privilege of building it yourself.
https://1000ff.de/1984-stiftung-warentest-testet-heimcomputer/