Keywords are not false advertising

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Sun Dec 13 21:18:44 1998

> No, I think this comes more from a lack of integrity. He also implied it
> was an S100 emulator. Like I said, this item had nothing to do with
> emulating an S-100 bus, and didn't really have much to do with an Altair
> or IMSAI for that matter either.

Let's see - if you wanted to emulate early S-100 stuff, I guess this'd
be the way that it'd go:

1. Find an ad in the back of a 1975-1978 BYTE magazine for a neat
memory board.

2. Place order for board.

3. Begin assembling board. Supplier gives you low-grade chips; you must
test all 2102's by hand before installing.

4. Plug board into system. Front panel freezes up.

5. Hack around the front panel, changing RC constants in one-shots.

6. Discover you have to cut a couple traces on your CPU board, wire
in some JK Flip-Flops to synchronize the timing to what the memory
board expects.

7. Congratulations! After months of time, and weeks of effort, you now
have enough memory to play Trek under MBASIC!

OK, OK, I'm exaggerating a little bit. By the late 70's there were some
pretty solid S-100 based systems out there, if you were willing to
spend the bucks to get the good stuff (i.e. Godbout/Compupro/Cromemco/usw.)
But if you played it cheap, you got what you paid for!

Tim.
Received on Sun Dec 13 1998 - 21:18:44 GMT