20 Jun
2000
20 Jun
'00
11:55 p.m.
Something's been puzzling me: when I look at my
CDC SMD drive, the NCR
applications processor, some smaller SMD drives, LEDs in my 11/44,
etc., there's something I just don't understand. Why did companies
begin hiding blinking lights, status displays, etc. behind covers, in
places behind the front panel that aren't obvious at first glance,
hidden in boards in a card cage, etc.?
Well, I know the only time I need to see the LED's on my /44 or /73 is when
I'm working the hardware, at which point I've got the card cages opened up.
It would have taken serious work, to get those LED's to show up somewhere
other than on the card itself, and doing that work would place restrictions
on the chassis. Besides who is to say I want controller 'X' with it's
particular LED scheme? Maybe I want controller 'Y' which has a totally
different set of LED's, or maybe none at all.
A better question might be, why not. It makes sense from both a design
standpoint, and a cost standpoint.
Note: All these comments are relative to PDP-11's and VAXen, I'm not
familiar with SMD drives or NCR applications processors.
Zane