21 Sep
1998
21 Sep
'98
1:07 p.m.
At 06:55 PM 21-09-98 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
Well some machines only exist in small numbers (or not at all) so a
simulator is one way of preserving the environment. Another difficulty is
that some desirable machines are a little large to own personally. The sort
of machines I'm talking about are Atlas, DECsystem-10s, CDC6600s and so on.
A simulator is at least better than just reading about them...
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
Simulators are
the single best way to preserve classic machines for
future generations. Of course, once the hosts the simulations run on are
OK, I'll be polite. I strongly disagree with that statement! (I could be
a lot stronger than that...)
A simulator (in general) preserves one aspect of the machine - a platform
on which to run the original programs. What it doesn't preserve is any
feel of the hardware, any of the hardware techniques that were in use at
that time, the construction methods, etc.