28 May
2009
28 May
'09
12:03 a.m.
On 28 May 2009 at 0:24, Alexandru Lovin wrote:
My big question is, would you buy remanufactured
vintage computers ? I
have all sorts of details regarding the line of systems I'd
manufacture (most of them from the x86 world). I spent time on the
internet looking at what is the best video card for ISA, for PCI, for
AGP 2x, for AGP 4x or 8x (you know, for the different voltages), what
would be the best processor for what system, who would buy it aside
from some vintage enthusiasts, etc. There is a follow up question, of
course. If you agree with remanufacturing the Harris 286 at 25 MHz in
a system with 16 CPUs and 16 MB of RAM per CPU, all connected in a
cluster acting as a multi-CPU computer, would you be able to find some
kind of investor who's willing to finance this ?
My interpretation of the word "remanufacture" isn't the same as
yours, apparently. When I buy a "remanufactured" alternator for my
car, I take it to mean that substantial parts of the innards of a
used one have been replaced and the result should be nearly as good
as new, but at a lower price. In other words, "to refurbish".
I think what you're talking about is either a reproduction or
emulation.
My feeling is that you'd be appealing to an extremely small market
segment, even on a planet of 7 billion souls. The NRE on something
like what you're talking about would drive the cost of the final
product (based on sales projections) way beyond what anyone in the
"classic computer" interest group would want to pay for the
opportunity to play on some old slow hardware.
It's not practical to reproduce some of the really antique systems.
Perhaps you could program an FPGA to emulate an IBM 709, but where
would you obtain all of the unit record (punched card) equipment to
make it realistic? Heck, just finding a ready source 1/2" 7-track
tape drives would be a bit of a challenge. I submit that without
those aspects, the experience would be too far from authentic so as
to be pointless.
Now, if you came up with a full-sensory holographic simulation, that
might be interesting.
My .02 only,
Chuck