19 Dec
2018
19 Dec
'18
3:09 a.m.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 12:03:56AM -0500, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
I repaired a Spectrometer for Morgan University in
Baltimore that had a
vintage computer at its heart, used for training purposes and perfectly good.
The computer just needed some TLC to get it back up and running. I think it
was a P-II as well, there was a control card that would only work with the
pre-PCI bus
For what it's worth, PCI-to-ISA adaptors exist. Virtualisation will let you
emulate all of the other legacy devices which tend to be expected by OSs of
that era but which now do not exist on modern machines.
Unless the software is really weird and relies on something weird like
undocumented side-effects of the 286 CPU or 8 bit ISA DMA[0], this may be a way
forwards to keeping it running when that crusty old Pentium finally croaks.
[0] So forget trying to bodge a floppy controller onto a modern PC this way.