25 Mar
2005
25 Mar
'05
3:33 a.m.
On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 23:48 -0500, David V. Corbin wrote:
...
So what's the slowest classic machine to boot (to the point where a user
can start using the machine, say)? Modern paranoia checks for correct
PSU voltages etc. don't count! :-) I mean time as it would have taken
when the machine was new, including time to physically load any tapes
etc. (and standard period checks are of course OK)
Our PDP 11/84 was rather horrendous when it came to loading Ultrix from
its RA81, but I'm sure there must be *much* worse out there.
Seems to me that the 70's and early 80's were the worst; more recent
machines did a little better. Our Elliott 803 and Marconi TAC (both
circa 1960) take a while as everything has to warm up and voltages have
to be checked (via built-in panel meters though), but they're still
quick as there's no resident code to load... (although I suppose by the
book the first things done would be to run memory / CPU test progs,
which would take a while to go through)
cheers
Jules