On Thursday 24 April 2008 15:50, Jules Richardson wrote:
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Thursday 24 April 2008 14:45, Jules Richardson
wrote:
But yes, fair point about the expansion boards. I
expect it was unusual
to see a 5150 without floppy drives, and I don't think the things would
even boot without a display adapter (something that's plagued server PCs
ever since!)
Heh. I have one machine (the firewall/router) that's built around a 486
board that although it does indeed have a monitor attached it's almost
never turned on. I can see the utility of some boxes here that wouldn't
even have a monitor attached at all, too.
Well, it goes beyond that - what's the point of having the video circuitry
there at all if your access to the system is always via serial, network, or
some other 'remote' means. The problem was that the PC was designed as a
single-user workstation, and no thought was ever given to server mentality
(no fault of IBM at the PC's launch - it's just a shame that every modern
machine I've tried still needs a video card installed and running, even if
I don't actually use it)
Yeah, I haven't found one yet that won't complain with beep codes if you
leave it out. I guess one that has stuff on the MB might be least intrusive
if you don't plan to use it, but still...
(Snip)
The
company I worked for at the time bought a PC on the day of release
(August 12, 1981), specifically to develop third-party peripherals and
software. The company was one of the first to market with a "combo
card", but was never as successful with it as AST, Quadram, etc.
I wonder how many such vendors there were? Every (IBM) PC I've ever
looked in seems to have a different multi-function board from a
different vendor in :) (and of course the documentation on how to set it
up is long gone)
I have actually a bunch of those old boards around _and_ docs for them,
if somebody needs some help with that, either in terms of taknig some of
that old hardware off my hands or getting something working.
I'd actually quite like to get hold of a 5160 on this side of the pond
sometime, whether it was stuffed with IBM boards or not (actually, I think
I still have a few boxed IBM memory and display boards in storage back in
the UK - just nothing to put them in :-)
Shipping such a beastie even within the US would be a nightmare though,
plus I'd be reluctant to leave a ST506/412 drive at the mercy of a shipping
company (I'm really not looking forward to getting the ones I do have in
machines back in the UK across the pond).
Maybe I should publish a wish list sometime and see what I can line up to
buy from people at one of the VCFs :-)
I was referring more to plug-in boards and not whole systems, but I might
have some of those around too. :-)
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin