20 Jun
2005
20 Jun
'05
4:33 p.m.
Hi,
Just wondering if you regard your classic computing skills as =
specialised or generalised?
Do you have lots of various old systems with different processors and =
architectures, or do you specialise in a particular processor, =
architecture or system?
Hmmm.. Generalist in the sense I've worked on most things, I will happily
attempt to repair anything. Specialist in the sense that I am a hardware
hacker, I don't do much on the software side (it doesn't even have to be
computer hardware, or even electronic hardware...)
Of course there are computers that I prefer to others. Coming from the
hardware side, the simpler the components, the better. Large LSI chips
are a pain :-). So I go for machines with CPUs built from TTL, small
PROMs and PALs ()PDP8/e. Unibus PDP11s, Philips P850 series, PERQs,
HP98x0 calculators, etc).
-tony