5 ms·

As part of my job I frequently have to work on very old PCs that are part of manufacturing tools. I started working in this area in the early 90s so I have both

As part of my job I frequently have to work on very old PCs that are part of manufacturing tools. I started working in this area in the early 90s so I have both nostalgia for the old days but still excited about new stuff we're coming up with. Things I don't miss: - Managing IRQs on the ISA bus or more generally messing with the BIOS - dedicated keyboard/mouse connectors - physical serial and parallel ports - large plug-in cards - incompatible monitors (Hercules, CGA, VGA, ...) Nowadays most of our external equipment (motion controllers, sensors, barcode readers, etc.) is either USB or Ethernet and I think that transition happened maybe 10 or 15 years ago? It's just so much easier now with fast-enough external busses. I think part of the problem with a 100 yr scheme is that you really only get economies of scale with highly integrated memory and other support chipsets with physical standards that change as manufacturing capabilities get better. So at the two extremes there's the hobbyist track (RPi/Arduino) and there's all the amazing tech crammed into our phones for a ridiculously low price.

ink_13 6y ago
The number of new motherboards that still include PS/2 connectors while also offering a piddling 4 USB ports is quite surprising.
- moyix 6y ago
  I think the presence of PS/2 ports is to satisfy gamers – the PS/2 port has a dedicated interrupt line, which (allegedly) gives you lower latency on keypresses than USB, which uses input polling.
ghaff 6y ago
A few things to add: - Big connectors with lots of easy-to-bend pins - Motherboard jumpers - Customizing autoexec.bat and config.sys files to have enough program memory
smoyer 6y ago
In general I agree with you but I do in fact miss the dedicated physical serial and parallel ports (there's more you can do with them than what can be done on a dongle). EDIT: A couple examples: You can use a dedicated parallel port as GPIO at what I'm remembering to be LS/TTL voltages (and currents). I've also used a serial port with a few diodes and resistors as an RS-485 port (not all that specification can be realized but enough for compatibility with some devices)

ink_13 6y ago

The number of new motherboards that still include PS/2 connectors while also offering a piddling 4 USB ports is quite surprising.

moyix 6y ago
I think the presence of PS/2 ports is to satisfy gamers – the PS/2 port has a dedicated interrupt line, which (allegedly) gives you lower latency on keypresses than USB, which uses input polling.

ghaff 6y ago

A few things to add: - Big connectors with lots of easy-to-bend pins - Motherboard jumpers - Customizing autoexec.bat and config.sys files to have enough program memory

smoyer 6y ago

In general I agree with you but I do in fact miss the dedicated physical serial and parallel ports (there's more you can do with them than what can be done on a dongle). EDIT: A couple examples: You can use a dedicated parallel port as GPIO at what I'm remembering to be LS/TTL voltages (and currents). I've also used a serial port with a few diodes and resistors as an RS-485 port (not all that specification can be realized but enough for compatibility with some devices)