Many things

From: Ashley Carder <wacarder_at_usit.net>
Date: Sun Jan 30 09:08:26 2005

> >Please don't take this as a flame, but I am always suprised by the people
> >who run classic computers (as opposed to running emulators) and who don't
> >want to get into the hardware. To me [1] that's one of the reasons for
> >running an old machine.
>
> Trust me, I don't take it as a flame, we just have different area's
> of interest. My area of interest is primarily in the Operating
> Systems that run on the various platforms, and I'm coming to the
> conclusion that I'm better served by emulators in most cases. I'd
> really like to dig in and learn the hardware on my PDP-8's, and even
> the -11's at a very low level, but I simply do not have the time.
>
> I think a lot of the problem is that a lot of us are software
> weenies, with varying degrees of competence on the hardware side of
> things.
>
> Zane

Zane, I fit into the software weenie category too. Back in the
late 1970s I practically lived on the PDP-11/40, but the computer
was behind a locked door. I did all my stuff sitting in another
room on a VT50 DecScope. I know enough about the hardware to
configure a board and install it, and hook up and test terminals,
drives, and other devices, but as of yet I have not taken
the time to figure out how to trace circuits and debug hardware
problems with individual circuitboards. I try to keep enough
spare boards, drives, power supplies, etc., so that I can replace
the whole board if something goes wrong. My pleasure is seeing
the old blinkenlights machines running the old operating systems
and programs on the old platforms.

Ashley
Received on Sun Jan 30 2005 - 09:08:26 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:37:45 BST