24 Dec
2003
24 Dec
'03
2:41 a.m.
On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, Rick Parrish wrote:
That would be the birthplace of the IBM PC. You know
the one - Intel
8088 microprocessor with 64k DRAM, choice of monochrome or CGA graphics,
As somebody who cut his teath on the 6502 I can say I am well aware
of that... However, I tend to use the term PC as only "IBM PC" and the
term computer for everything else. I am certainly no lover of that
architecture, the electrically ugly ISA bus, 4-bit latch DMA hacks, and
inept firmware that is the PC.
Actually it *was* a great architecture because it was
so open and easy
to duplicate. We've enjoyed commodity "beige box" pricing on most of our
hardware for most of the last two decades because of it.
I dunno. It may have been open, but it certainly wasn't good. Electrically
the ISA bus had problems (which don't show up at 8MHz -- but the layout of
the signals on the connector sure cause problems); the BIOS is pretty
dumb. Had it been designed correctly we could have had multi-tasking in
8086 real mode... The DMA hacks on a PC are only now being somewhat
removed.
The flaws in that system architecture have been kept around far too long.
Actually, I use Apple & Sun hardware at home (and mostly Sun 4m's for the
Sun's), so PC hardware isn't helping me much with cost. PCI is nice but
really came out of a somewhat unexpected area at Intel and is amazingly
portable and clean -- in partiuclar the clever use of reflection for
switching.
But the IBM Boca Plant housed many other projects besides the PC. In
particular I happen to posess the sign that was at the front hallway: "The
Home of OS/2" -- I passed on the "Birthplace of the PC" sign below it. ;-)
And I was certainly a big OS/2 fan back in the day (the workplace shell is
far superior to Windows Explorer, IMHO).
L8r,
Mark G.