using new technology on old machines. Was: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

[tony duell]

> > We're talking about putting in a rather complex computer to generate
> > a baud rate. Are people really that handicapped when it comes to
> > building hardware nowadays?
> 
> Speaking for myself, yes.

Unfortunately I believe you. Use at least a thousand times more components than
you need to.

> Now, if the alternative is reading up on crystals, oscillators, dividers
> and related support chips, figure out where to buy and then wait for the
> parts to ship, which option do you think I will choose?

In general this worries me if you are restoring a vintage minicomputer. How on
earth can you hope to fix a TTL-built CPU without knowing the common TTL chips
and without having a few on-hand?

-tony