4 Aug
2006
4 Aug
'06
7:48 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
Well, I'm not the person you're responding to, but I have some
possible suggestions.
I'd forgotten that. Yes, an ISA board can be built from junk-box parts in
an hour or so.
Another thing, it's a lot easier to interface to the parallel, serial or
joystick ports than to Useless Serial Botch. I guess a 386 machine is
very likely to have at least the first 2 of those, modern machines might
well be USB only.
I wouldn't say "emotionally attached" myself, since I exibit no
emotional response to... well, anything! I like old hardware, mainly
cause it's more dependable than today's workstations and desktops. Why?
Because companies actually put thought into creating parts that were
durable back then. Compare it to cars (my favorite analogy against
computers), A 1969 Ford Mustang is usually more durable, dependable, and
will survive a crash with substantally less damage than, say, a 2005 Kia
Optima or Saab xB.
The only reason I show a likeness to a 386 is because the oldest piece
of computer hardware I have is a 386. In fact, all of my usable hardware
is x86.
--
The real problem with C++ for kernel modules is: the language just sucks.
-- Linus Torvalds
I perfer to
work with older systems (386s are fun!) [...]
I am curious as to what is 'fun' about 386s (I assume you mean PC
compatibles, and not, for example, Sequent multi-processor machines). So the real low-level hardware/software
hackability of these machines
would seem to be little different from a more modern PC.
I'm not so sure.
While I've never tried, I'd lay decent odds that it's a good deal
easier to cobble together a working ISA board than a working PCI board. Also, wasn't 386 instruction execution time
predictible to the
clock-cycle level (as opposed to more recent machines with caches and
I thought even the 8086 did some pre-fetching of instructions. Which
means even that chip is less predicatable than, say, a Z80.
And, of course, it's entirely possible that
16-year-old happens to be
emotionally attached to 386s for reasons completely unrelated to their
technical merits or lack thereof - perhaps there's some cherished game
Sure. That's why I'm curious about why he's interested in such machines.
-tony