Demography?

From: Jack Peacock <peacock_at_simconv.com>
Date: Mon Mar 2 16:38:19 1998

My name is Jack Peacock. I'm 42, based in Las Vegas (Nevada, not that other
place in New Mexico). I got started in computers way back in 1971, on a
Univac 1106, with fixed head and moving head FASTRAND drums. Back then the
programming medium of choice was punch cards (yes, I even learned how to
program 026 keypunches using drum cards), and if you were lucky a turn at
the ASR33 teletype. Does anyone still remember that "other" character set
besides Baudot, ASCII and EBCDIC? (Hint, 6 bit Univac character set,
started with an F)

I got started in the hardware side while working for Lockheed, building
environmental monitoring instruments (LIDARs, multi-spectral scanners, low
level radiation sample counters)). We needed a cheap data logger with some
intelligence that could run unattended for long periods of time, or in
aircraft. We had tried HP9830s (ever try flying one in a 2 seater
helicopter?), and looked at National IMP-16s and DG Novas, all too big or
expensive. Then one day a guy brought in the now famous issue of Popular
Electronics, with the Altair kit. We got one, put it together in the lab,
and promptly blew up the CPU board. In the early kits there was a tiny
defect, seems all the gold fingers on the CPU card were shorted together
with a hairline plating error on the card edge, almost too small to see.
Know what happens when you put -12 on the +5 line in an 8080? Pieces of it
almost hit the ceiling. From that point on, whenever we first turned on an
S-100 kit, the warning to everyone else was "Flame On" so they could duck.
MITS replaced the board (when 8080 CPUs were still $400 each) and the Altair
worked! We actually used it for one project, but it was quickly retired
when the IMSAI came out. We bought #17 from IMSAI in December 1975.

The IMSAI was very cheap compared to what the other engineering sections who
still used minis (DEC and DG) were doing in their projects. We outfitted
the IMSAI with a floppy, paper tape, and a VDM CRT display, and we used it
to write 8080 code for several years. The board that went into the
instruments was the single board 8080 eval kit Intel was selling at the time
(SDK-80?). Years later I found out some of the data loggers went more than
10 years in the field without repairs. Intel built good stuff even then.

Freshly overconfident from getting an IMSAI to run at work, I bought one
myself in 1977 after trying out my skills on a National SC/MP eval kit
first. It took a lot of work, and some assistance from the E.E.s at work,
but I got the IMSAI running. Virtually all my knowledge of digital
electronics came from wire wrapping proto boards for the S-100. In my
opinion, it was one of the best platforms for learning real-world electronic
design, especially when it's your own money that goes up in smoke when you
don't double-check the voltages first.

I program for a living these days, incredibly dull accounting applications
and tech support. I still have the S-100s, including that original IMSAI
(even have the CPU chip left from the SC/MP board). I don't have too much
opportunity these days to do electronics, but I keep a hand in designing
8051-based controller boards. Chances are you've seen one of the 8051
boards if you ever come to Las Vegas, they are inside some of the big casino
signs on the Strip.

The collection is modest:
my treasured IMSAI, complete with 22 slot board and front panel, lovingly
hand assembled, running CP/M 3 off a 5MB hard drive, Ithaca Z80B, 256KB RAM
(still used for production once in a while, it's not a museum piece yet)

The rest:
an IMSAI VDP, which I work on once in a while
several generic 8086 and 286 based S-100 boxes running Concurrent DOS
an original IBM AT, circa 1985, upgraded first to a 386 with a Jet adapter,
then to a Cyrix 486DR2 (the world's slowest 486, 8Mhz)
a MicroVax II (KA630) in a BA-23 pedestal, with an RD54 and 16MB, VMS 5.3
a Vax 3600 (KA650) in a BA-123 box (upgraded MV II), 24 MB, VMS 6.2
several generic 386 PC clones, recycled as controllers on router tables in a
machine shop for the moment
Received on Mon Mar 02 1998 - 16:38:19 GMT