18 May
2009
18 May
'09
7:20 a.m.
I suspect that it's a combination of high-power
use and the quality
of the TO-220 packaging back then. I recall that on some MITS
boards, (was it the 4K DRAM board?) bridging the regulator with a
power resistor was done to keep the temperature down to that of a
slow bonfire.
Maybe old boards can be retrofitted with low-power chips? :o)