> It does worry me that there's not a single microcomputer system made
> today that I actually want to own....
But that just leaves space for the stuff you *do* want :-)
> More of a problem is that modern machines are plain
> unrepairable. Spares
> are unavailable even now (when the machine is in production
> -- you try
> getting an ASIC for an Imac or similar...), so %deity knows
> what it'll be
This has been true for quite a while now and it's only going to
get worse. 10 years ago DEC used its own fab to churn out
custom chips (but at least docs were available for these).
Now there are plenty of custom fabs that will knock out as
asic cheaply if you need them in large quantities. Everyone
else uses an fpga. I cannot see this trend changing: the
economics will dictate this.
> like in 10 years time. Technical manuals don't exist. The chances of
> being able to keep these machines running is minimal :-(
The chances probably would not be much better even with a technical
manual! Reworking those smt devices is a skill I've not yet needed
to acquire (but, hey, how hard can it be!) but a 768 ball(pin?) BGA
is probably something that needs a specialist (i.e. expensive)
workstation (and even then the success rate seems not to be
that high).
But as long as there is plenty of old stuff kicking around, I'm
not too bothered about the modern stuff. I suppose if my Ultra 5
goes belly up, I'll become more bothered!
Antonio
--
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Antonio Carlini arcarlini_at_iee.org
Received on Fri Jul 18 2003 - 13:51:00 BST