29 Feb
2008
29 Feb
'08
10:46 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I'm curious why anyone would want a front panel with lights and
switches. Except for some early IBM mainframe stuff, the number of
systems that I've worked with that had no front panel vastly
outnumber the ones that did.
Indeed, the front panel on the MITS 8800 seemed to be a waste of good
components and an anachronism at that. Better to take the costs of
the panel and roll them into a good diagnostic ROM with loader. The
S-100 followup machine that I used, an Integrand box, had only a
reset button on the front panel. I never missed the switches. After
the MITS box, I never owned another system with a blinkenlights-and-
switches front panel.
Just trying to understand.
As much as the Altair and IMSAI panels can be considered unnecessary (the
contemporary SWTPC 6800 went straight to a two-button panel (power and reset)),
one might consider how much the Altair/IMSAI front panels influenced or
hastened the take-off of the PC/computer-hobbyist market/revolution. Those
front panels said: 'Look, you can have your own computer just like the ones the
big boys have'. Would it have been the same if the cover of Popular Electronics
in 1976 pictured a blank box with two switches?