8 Oct
2007
8 Oct
'07
12:29 p.m.
Al Kossow wrote:
"William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at
gmail.com> wrote:
What data did you use to figure out that this process was worth doing? I think
Will's implying that the need to reform caps that new is not necessary,
because there's no data available to say that it actually does any good...
Presumably someone somewhere's done some real tests on old caps of different
vintages and come to the conclusion that it does indeed have some benefit.
The caps from 1960s seem to be of little concern,
and those from past
1970 are of no concern. If the cap decides to die, its going to die.
--
This was not the experience of the PDP-1 team during the restoration of
that machine. Detailed records were kept of every cap that was reformed.
This process took several months to perform. Blowing up a cap in the machine during restoration was
not an option.
I don't think anyone can say that it just won't happen - so it all comes down
to a question of how much risk there is.
cheers
Jules