Front Panel Theory

< Not trying to be a snob here, but true "Front Panel Theory" can only be < practiced on a computer where the 'innards' are exposed. Most < microprocessors are too integrated to support a "real" front panel. This < one of the reason they died out fairly quickly in the micro world but li < for quite a while in the mini-world. Wrong, wrong wrong. They died because of a multitude of things one being ROM monitor is cheaper to implement than 16-22 switches and more flexible. That and after you've baned the loader in 5 times and basic still isn't up and your finder hurt... Plus it made the machine intimidating and complex looking compared to say a KIM-1 The 8080 altair had one and it was quite useful but there were more switches and TTL on the board than the CPU, RAM and IO combined! Allison