24 May
2016
24 May
'16
9:34 a.m.
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.
The demise was really about money. All those lights, switches, wiring,
metalwork, etc. for a full panel was EXPENSIVE.
--
Will