30 Mar
2002
30 Mar
'02
7:05 a.m.
On Sat, 2002-03-30 at 15:28, jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com wrote:
On Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:06:04 -0500 Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com>
writes:
A few years ago I took a hardware class at IU and we built a PDP-8 using
PLAs, a bit of static ram, a few 74LS chips, and a ton of wire
wrapping. There were about 600 wires in all, but luckily it was split
across the whole semester, so it wasn't too dramatic. It was pretty
cool to see the diagnostic software work correctly on that monster. The
final exam consisted of the lab instructor breaking the machine in 3
different ways (including rewiring, putting in known bad chips,
reprogramming the PLAs, etc) and giving us 2 hours to repair the
machine.
I kind of miss that class. The 2nd semester my project was an MMU for a
6809 machine running FLEX :)
Brian
On March 30, Loboyko Steve wrote:
Well yes, as a matter of fact, there are still many applications
where WW is really the best way to go. As a good example, bed-of-
nails test fixtures are typically wirewrapped. At the last
company where I was employed, I watched a re-work girl wire up
such a fixture (maybe 300 points or so) *BY HAND*, using a
manual wirewrap tool.
I brought in my squeeze-to-wrap wirewrap tool, and showed her how to
use it. This pleased her quite a bit (not to mention her supervisor).
For 500 connections or more, I'd a brung in my electric wirewrap
GUN.
Jeff
Well, no, it isn't. Because the cost of
getting a PCB
made is less than the cost of a good electronics
technician, I think it started to die in the late
80's. And, of course, its practically impossible to WW
BGA chips, etc.
Not commonly used, or not the "latest greatest thing"? I know of
several small outfits that do lots of wire-wrapping. And I mean
*lots*.
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