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

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Jun 15, 2015, at 12:15 , tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> I am very worried that people would rather use a microcontroller than change
> a couple of passives. Can't anyone read a schematic and think????

The exact same argument could be made for somebody using an NE555 instead of discrete transistors to blink an LED, or discrete transistors instead of vacuum tubes to blink a neon glow lamp. For that matter, I might call somebody a slacker for blinking an LED with an NE555 instead of an LM3909. But LM3909s are no longer manufacturer or stocked. An NE555 only costs $.50 vs. about $1 for an ATtiny, but these days, folks under the age of 40 are a lot more likely to have an ATtiny (or more likely, an ATmega on an Arduino board) sitting on their desktop.


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/