24 May
2016
24 May
'16
9:51 a.m.
On 05/24/2016 11:34 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
The
early PDP-11s had a diode matrix ROM for the boot
memory. You could change the boot code with a wire cutter
and soldering iron.
Jon
The improved
reliablity of LSI logic over discrete and SSI, and the creation of ROM chips of reasonable
capacity (to hold the bootstrap or a monitor), would bring about the demise of the
blinkenlight front panel.
Note that only a couple of the first microcomputers had blinkenlight front panels, and
they were pretty much gone from minis and mainframes by the late-70s.