23 Oct
2004
23 Oct
'04
10:44 p.m.
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became commercially available? The
pair of Apollos that arrived at the museum yesterday both have
rectangular blue LEDs fitted alongside the amber and green on the front
of the machine - the systems date from 1990 though...
It's possible that someone's fitted them years later of course! They
certainly make the systems stand out though :-)
cheers
Jules
24 Oct
24 Oct
3:49 a.m.
Rumor has it that Jules Richardson may have mentioned these words:
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became
commercially available?
Available? I would think about 6-7 years ago...
Affordable? I would pare that guesstimate down to about 3-4 years; RatShack
only started carrying 'em about 2 years ago, IIRC.
It's possible that someone's fitted them years
later of course!
And they did. ;-)
They certainly make the systems stand out though :-)
I'll bet!
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | A new truth in advertising slogan
sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy...
zmerch(a)30below.com | ...in oxymoron!"
4:18 a.m.
On Sun, 2004-10-24 at 11:49 -0400, Roger Merchberger wrote:
Heh :) Despite the dates above it'd still seem that way to me too. Shame
though, I think they're the only machines that the museum have with blue
LEDs fitted :-)
cheers!
Jules
Rumor has it that Jules Richardson may have mentioned
these words:
Actually, you're way off :-) I just remembered that I had a 1993 Maplin
catalogue kicking around, and it turns out that they happily sold them
to the public back then (although only in round cases, not
rectangular).
But how long before then they were available to equipment manufacturers
with more money than sense, I don't know! I'd guess a couple of years at
most, which is still a year later than these Apollos (well, according to
IC dates in the machines anyway)
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became
commercially available?
Available? I would think about 6-7 years ago...
Affordable? I would pare that guesstimate down to about 3-4 years; RatShack
only started carrying 'em about 2 years ago, IIRC. It's
possible that someone's fitted them years later of course!
And they did. ;-) 
9:05 a.m.
>>>> "Jules" == Jules Richardson
<julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> writes:
Jules> Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became commercially
Jules> available? The pair of Apollos that arrived at the museum
Jules> yesterday both have rectangular blue LEDs fitted alongside the
Jules> amber and green on the front of the machine - the systems date
Jules> from 1990 though...
Sounds a bit early, but the silicon carbide ones go back a ways. I
wonder if the Cree website might tell.
I'm pretty sure a friend of mine showed me some back when I still
worked at DEC, which would make it 1994 or before.
paul
9:35 a.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became
commercially available?
I saw a blue LED waaay back in 1984, fitted to the disk controller
for a Newbrain. My friend got hold of one, somehow and fitted it
as a "power-on" LED in an early example of "case-modding"! He told
me that the blue LED was intended as a reference in spectroscopy.
It certainly formed a very narrow beam of light, instead of having
a diffuse "lens" as ordinary red LEDs do. It made a spot of light
on the opposite wall of the Uni halls-of-residence room when we
turned the lights out!
--
John Honniball
coredump(a)gifford.co.uk
12:34 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Does anyone know when blue LEDs first became commercially available? The
pair of Apollos that arrived at the museum yesterday both have
rectangular blue LEDs fitted alongside the amber and green on the front
of the machine - the systems date from 1990 though...
I tried to put them into a system around 1989-90 and found they were
*very* expensive. The person in charge of purchasing came back with
something like hundreds of dollers per led...
-brad
4:55 p.m.
I tried to put them into a system around 1989-90 and
found they were
*very* expensive. The person in charge of purchasing came back with
something like hundreds of dollers per led...
-brad
I remember seeing them in a catalogue (Cricklewood Electronics, possibly)
when I was still at school. I must have been in 4th or 5th year of high
school (Americans - the UK school system is very different from the US
system, and I have no idea how this relates to your high schools) so I was
probably 15 or 16. So, 1989-1990 seems about right. I do remember the
line in the catalogue:
BLUE LEDS ....................... ?40 (yes, forty pounds)
We were amazed at the time (Ooooh, blue LEDs, oooh $expletive, how much?!)
Gordon.
7316
days inactive
7316
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6 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
brad＠heeltoe.com -
coredump＠gifford.co.uk -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
pkoning＠equallogic.com -
zmerch＠30below.com