4 ms·
Ask HN: Was wireless data transfer possible with the Altair 8800?
The Altair 8800 could "play music" by exploiting the lack of radio frequency shielding, which was then picked up by a nearby AM radio.
http://kevindriscoll.org/projects/ccswg2012/fool_on_a_hill.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgYhVnmeWrk
Could this technique have been used to transmit data between two Altairs, using "technology of the day" - whatever that may be, presumably some sort of AM receiver that could then feed data back in to the Altair?
- davelnewton 10y agoOf course; anything that could generate input could have been used to transmit information, if slowly. Could have used Morse Code, baudot, etc as well. Note packet radio has been around since the mid-70s, too.
- __d 10y agoMany early microcomputers (including the MITS Altair) used standard audio cassettes for persistent storage. The CUTS and Kansas City standards were common interchange formats for cassette data, far cheaper than punched paper tape or magnetic tape reels. The computer/cassette interface converted binary data to and from audio tones, which were then written and read via the microphone and headphone interfaces (usually 3.5" jacks) on a cassette recorder. Sending this audio over free air would have resulted in "wireless data transfer" ... See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_standard