[...]
> yet to experience this problem with any of them. Unfortunately in our case 1
> of the chips, the MIOC or Memory Input/Output Controller is a rarity and
> apparently cannot be duplicated. Most of us have been stockpiling old ADAMs
Custom chips like these are a right pain to collectors/preservationists -
when (not if) they fail, you essentially have to find another machine to
raid for parts, and hope that one keeps going for a significant period (it
may well fail a week later if you are unlucky).
I decided to seriously collect only those machinews that were built with
standard parts. That means I don't really bother with home computers after
about 1980 (by that point, sales were high enough to make it worthwhile
for the manufacturers to use gate arrays, etc). I generally prefer
PDP11's, PDP8's, PERQs, etc which are built from standard parts.
I do have a lot of machines that use custom chips, but I don't depend on
them, and won't spend a lot of time hacking them, modifying them, etc. If
I did, all that work could be useless when the chip fails.
> -Ron Mitchell
--
-tony
ard12_at_eng.cam.ac.uk
The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill
Received on Thu Apr 03 1997 - 19:43:38 BST