front panels

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Tue Feb 24 14:36:24 1998

allisonp_at_world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote:
> [....] IO however while it would be nice to
> interogate or write to devices could leave the cpu "out of sync" since
> all IO is done from the accumulator.

You say that like there's something wrong with it.

Well, there could be, I suppose, if your hardware is such that reading
its registers changes them, and the operator doesn't realize this.
Was the latter really considered a problem in those days? Or was it
just that as a result it wasn't real useful to have the front panel do
that? (Or was it just the additional cost of having the front panel
do that?)

-Frank McConnell
Received on Tue Feb 24 1998 - 14:36:24 GMT