PDP-10

I disagree. It's "data" versus "instantiation of data". Exactly! The firmware is the data; the diode matrix embodies the data but is not the same thing as it - consider that, if they were the same thing, it wouldn't make sense to speak of saving a copy of the firmware in a file on a modern disk drive, because that's something you can't do with a bunch of diodes and PCBs and such. For most purposes, this distinction doesn't make much difference, but it's why it makes sense to speak of (for example) replacing those two boards with a modern PROM containing the same firmware. Same data, different instantiation. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B