yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
b274874139
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
61 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
61 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: RCA Fred
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categories:
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- Computers
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params:
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name: Fred
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image: /media/museum/photos/rca_fred2-computer_1_450px.jpg
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company: /companies/rca
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company_name: RCA
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tabs:
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- photos
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- software
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forum_thread: 1273
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photos:
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- title: FRED "FUN1" PROTOTYPE
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subtitle: ''
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text: Picture courtesy of David Sarnoff library (digital.hagley.org)
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image: null
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- title: FRED "FUN1" PROTOTYPE
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subtitle: ''
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text: Picture courtesy of Joyce Weisbecker
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image: null
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- title: FRED PROTOTYPE - CIRCA 1972
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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The daughters of Joseph Weisbecker are posing for the picture. Joyse Weisbecker (right) will be the first woman to program games (for FRED and Studio II systems) and be paid for it. She was also the first independent game programmer of all time !
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Picture courtesy of David Sarnoff library (digital.hagley.org)
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image: null
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- title: RCA FRED 2 PROTOTYPE
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subtitle: ''
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text: The Sarnoff Collection, The College of New Jersey
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image: /media/museum/photos/rca_fred2-computer_1_800px.jpg
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- title: RCA FRED 2 PROTOTYPE - REAR
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subtitle: ''
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text: Thanks to Herb Johnson (http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/cosmac_fred2.html) for this picture
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image: /media/museum/photos/rca_fred2-computer_rear_1.jpg
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software:
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- /software/bowling-851
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- /software/deduce-also-known-as-deduce-sa
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- /software/tic-tac-toe
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oc_id: 1308
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230601001754/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1308
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date: '2023-06-01'
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---
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This Fred computer is a prototype designed by Joseph Weisbecker, engineer at RCA. He already imagined several early computer designs before this Fred model, such as the System 00 or the original Fred concept.
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Fred (Flexible Recreational & Educational Device) is in fact a concept imagined by Joseph Weisbecker for an educational computer able to play games. This concept emerged in several hardware versions through time. The first models could be dated as early as 1970 or 1971 !
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The first models (like the one code-named System 00) used only small-scale digital TTL logic chips, the Fred computer picture here is the first system of the project to use integrated chipsets, particularly the RCA's COSMAC 1801 chip set, which would later become the single-chip COSMAC 1802.
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All the incredible work initiated by Joseph Weisbecker eventually led to the RCA Cosmac line of computers (like The [Microtutor](/museum/rca-cosmac-microtutor/) or the [Cosmac VIP](/museum/rca-cosmac-vip/)) and the [RCA Studio II gaming system](/museum/rca-studio-ii/), among other projects.
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---
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*Photo of the Fred computer courtesy of the Sarnoff Collection, The College of New Jersey*
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<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>We need more info about this console ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>
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