10 May
2007
10 May
'07
5:38 p.m.
Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
I always find it funny to see a modern day computer
"engineer" -- ask
them the mem port and irq of com1 on a PC and usually you'll get a
stuttering response, blank stare or the typical - "well plug and play
will set it up" --- technology has become so far removed from the
user and even the tech, that many have no idea how the h*ll the things
even function on the most rudimentary level.
While I would agree with the overall statement, hardware EIA-232 ports
themselves are an anacronism along with IRQs and memory ports. As an
example ad absurtum, if my COM port is hanging off of a USB dongle, what
is it's IRQ and memory port? Bet you wouldn't know either. However, I
can bet the same modern-day engineers who couldn't answer that question
could step you through the entire USB negotiation session, in some cases
down to the bits on the wire.
Knowledge is relevant to the era in which it is acquired. "Eras", for
purposes of computer science, are measured in single digit years...
maybe a decade at the most. Hardware IRQs and memory port locations are
about as relevant today as vacuum-tube electronics was in the early
microcomputer era, when knowing what IRQ your serial card was on really
was important.. but knowing how to diagnose a blown vacuum tube wasn't.