7 Oct
2007
7 Oct
'07
10:51 a.m.
Tony Duell said:
[...]
I cna understnad why people are interested only in old
software, not
hardware, and want to run it under emulation on a modern machine
My puzzlement is with people who want to run the old hardware (not have
to run the old hardware becuase it is part of some machine tool or
something) but don't want to understand what's going on inside. What more
do you get over running the software under emulation?
[..]
Maybe nostalgia. Maybe they had such a machine earlier in their life and
now want to *have* it again. That's not your more engineering-like
approach; fascination about tractable technology - nowadays, you are
almost out of the game with understanding and/or repairing modern gadgets.
There is also rather the attitude of the art collector who wants a VanGogh
painting not because he likes the artwork of the painter but is aware that
it is worth hundred thousands or more. Why would one want an original
KIM-1
with 1,25K memory? And then, why would one want a replica of a KIM-1? That
is not better than a MESS emulation; it lacks the originality for the art
collector type.
I for my part are of the kind of being interested in the software; the
operating systems, not actually the original hardware, so I am satisfied
with emulators in this area. Systems like PDP-11 or VAX-11/780 which I had
worked with were black boxes for me that time, but today as an electrical
engineer I probably could read the schematics, and with enough time,
money, and the right parts, I could even bring defective ones back to
life. But then, what would it demonstrate? Like painting a certain
arrangement of sun flowers on a canvas? Not my original work - it is
VanGogh's one. More interesting is crafting an own computer; that's one of
a kind, and others might laugh pointing at the Intel Quad Core they just
bought for the same money and less time -, and its 1MHz clock whatever is
ridiculous, but it is *mine*.
--
Holger