What did computers without screens do?

[Eric Smith]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
> Short version is, even the cheap and simple 555 has been replaced in
> many products with a cheap-as-or-cheaper-than microcontroller, not
> because it's simpler, but because it allows for greater flexibility
> and reduces the overall product cost.

I got a bit of somewhat tongue-in-cheek flack recently over using a
PIC for my four-phase clock generator, where dedicated logic would do.
        https://github.com/brouhaha/4phaseclk

I was only planning to build one or two instances of the circuit, so
it wasn't particularly cost-sensitive, but still, it seemed like using
a PIC was both the simplest and least expensive solution.

A TI SN74LS362/TIM9904 would have done the job, but I don't have any
on hand, and they're now relatively expensive and hard to get. (Anyone
have one or two pieces spare?)