Also, it could turn into a scene of enthusiasts for
one type of
machine butchering the last extant keyboard for some other
hard-to-find machine for these components.
This is another problem. And even though I am a PERQ-fanatic and would do
almost anything to keep my PERQs running, I really don't want to have to
ruin another rare machine to do so (now a PC clone keyboard is another
matter...)
To tie in to the collecting-ICs thread, the current issue of Elektor (at
least in the UK) has a meniton of rare ICs and the fact that some people
collect them. It also says they don't know of any major commercial unit
that contained the 8008. Many of us here, I am sure, know of such a
device, but I am not going to write in to tell them because I'd rather
those machines carried on computing _with a working frontpanel_.
Someone needs to come up with a solution using current available
materials.
Agreed...
-tony