25 Aug
2006
25 Aug
'06
2:47 p.m.
What I'm wondering is if one's feelings about
"collectable" systems have
more to do with the level of exposure to the internals of the hardware than
with any intrinsic novelty of the hardware itself.
Well, I am really only interested in machines where I can 'get among the
hardware' -- the lower the level the better.And I do try to appreciate
interesting design. One reason I like the PERQ is that it's a
user-microprogrammable CPU, another is that the design is so darn
elegant. One reason I like the HP98x0 is that they're one of the few
common bit-serial machines.
Does this make sense? Since fewer folks are using assembly or machine
language, does this account for the indifference to modern hardware?
My dislike of modern hardware comes from the fact you can't get among it.
Big custom chips with no data sheets (and even if there were, I couldn't
put my 'scope proble on the point I wanted to look at because it's inside
an IC). Darn it, with BGAs I can't even probe the connections to the ICs.
-tony