NAIS Apple SE Computer, Early 1980's
In the early 1980's, Ralph Thomas walked into a friend's new business in Austin Texas who just opened an Alpha Graphics and rented time on what was called "Apple Desktop Publishing" computer system. He used a program called PageMaker 1.0 to lay out a newsletter for NAIS. Done in one hour, he promptly left the business, went down to a computer store, applied for an Apple Credit Card and spent $9,000 on a desktop publishing system. It took two years to pay off the new computer of the National Association Of Investigative Specialists but this was state-of-the-art! The computer had a 40 MB hard drive. Get a load of the nine inch black and white screen! For several years, both the newsletter of The National Association Of Investigative Specialists, the NAIS membership directory and the NAIS mailing list was done on this computer. Ralph Thomas has been using Apple Computers every since the first one and will not use anything else. Here are the specs on this computer which was state-of-the-art for it's time.

CPU CPU: Motorola MC68030 CPU Speed: 16 MHz FPU: 68882 Bus Speed: 16 MHz Data Path: 32 bit (not 32 bit clean) ROM: 256 kB RAM Type: 30 pin SIMM Minimum RAM Speed: 120 ns Onboard RAM: 0 MB RAM slots: 8 Maximum RAM: 32 MB Level 1 Cache: 0.5 kB Expansion Slots: 1 SE/30 PDS   Video Monitor: 9" built-in Max Resolution: 1 bit 512x342   Storage Hard Drive: 40-80 MB Floppy Drive: 1.4 MB SuperDrive   Input/Output ADB: 2 Serial: 2 SCSI: DB-25 Audio Out: stereo 8 bit mini Speaker: mono   Miscellaneous Codename: Green Jade, Fafnir Gestalt ID: 9 Power: 75 Watts Dimensions: 13.6" H x 9.6" W x 10.9" D Weight: 19.5 lbs. Minimum OS: 6.0.3 Maximum OS: 7.5.5 Introduced: January 1989 Terminated: October 1990 Price: $4,369.

Although the actual computer was only $4,369.00, a laser printer was another $5,000.00 and the latest software another $4,000. With several computers and printers NAIS had over $20,000 invested in computer equipment and software.

 

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