Yea, to me anymore small 'control' computers are good fun. And big business for IoT and control systems. I wanted to do control systems (CompSci major and ME minor in college) but got sucked into doing busness apps then systems on mainframes. I started to get my own minicomputer back in the day when the Altair 8800 came out (8 bit Intel 8080 processor, 256bytes static ram, front panel switches to start with, in a kit from MITS) but I eventually maxed it out before moving to a 'big' z-80. Used full size floppies, 64K ram (another kit from Processor Technology, also their 3P+S interface board kit), a TV Typeriter 2 (kit from Southwest Technology in San Antonio), Heathkit Printer, even a DCHayes modem (300 baud!), but it all worked. A friend and I put in a 2K EPROM board to put a bios in (Intel Intelec compatible) so we could run CP/M on it. Eventually had a AI Cybernetics speach synthesizer board, and a Cercia Circuit Cellar camera. Eventually more computers using the serial cable based $25Network (that did surprisingly well with little overhead).
Yea, memories. Now I have a pi or 3 around, some gathering dust, some being useful and more toys than I have time to deal with. So goes life. Thanks for bringing back some memories. On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 1:12 PM 'Michael Chaney' via NLUG < [email protected]> wrote: > My younger son is at Alabama working on an EE degree (you may remember him > as a baby 20 years ago when the wife and kids showed up to a meeting). > Last semester he had a class on microcontrollers, and they specifically > used PIC series microcontrollers. He (and I) bought this evaluation > package that comes with four different microcontrollers: > > > https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/DM330013-2/2802029?s=N4IgTCBcDaILYEsDGAnA9gZwC7INYAIEEQBdAXyA > > They're interesting because the package contains the CPU along with some > amount of RAM and a little bit of flash. All of the external pins on the > package are IO pins, except for the required power and clock pins. The IO > pins are remappable and come in a couple of flavors - some can do analog > and pretty much all can be digital. They have a couple of built in UARTs. > The whole thing is amazing. > > For the 16-bit versions the RAM tends to be a few K, program size is > 32-128K or so. It's a Harvard architecture where the program space and > data space are separated, so the program reads from flash. With that much > memory loading in libraries is iffy at best. I tend to write simple code > to handle cases that a library function would normally handle. It's the > opposite of modern programming where we go find a "module" or whatever to > handle every little task. > > Their programs are simple. The big one at the end was a clock with a few > buttons for setting the time and alarm. > > I've done hardware interfacing like this on an R-Pi, but there's something > just very different when doing it on a simple 16-bit RISCy cpu with limited > everything. I had to go all out because they were still doing some remote > learning and the kids weren't really getting it. > > I also have an arduino which is awesome, but someone has written code for > pretty much everything already and I'm not convinced that's the way for > kids to learn. It's a great way to get them involved, but the stuff I've > seen is the equivalent of putting together legos. If you learn it's a > side-effect. Of course, you can still write all your own code and all that > - just have to convince kids to do that if they want to learn. > > Anyway, it was interesting getting back to the basics. And kind of > cathartic to actually care about data and program space usage. > > On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 8:52 AM Jack Coats <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Welcome to 'data creep'. There was the day that we counted bytes of code >> in a program or data, now we just think in megabytes. >> >> IMHO, as we have more capability, we use it, sometimes squander it. >> >> One of my history examples, I came up with a cost analysis of having >> datacenters and terminals being cheaper than the gen1 (or 2) PCs on >> everyone's desk at the major company where I was working. My boss told me >> to trash the study because we were going to use desktops no matter what the >> facts were. ... Such is life. >> >> Since then the costs have changed and individual computers are now >> cheaper. Mainframes still have their place in real production (huge >> amounts of I/O or certain problems in engineering that can't be easily >> functionally decomposed for multiple small processors, etc, but their value >> for the more common efforts are dwindling as smaller/distributed machines >> make more sense on a case by case basis. >> >> Just my thoughts. ... I'm retired, so my opinion doesn't matter much to >> anyone but me. <<grin>> >> >> >> On Wed, May 26, 2021 at 7:42 PM Andrew Farnsworth <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Does anyone else remember when the trial size storage offered by >>> companies like google, backblaze, etc was actually useful? Today it is >>> still around the same 10 Gb size, but that is much less useful today than >>> it was 20 years ago :-). Back then, it was HUGE. Today it is so small I'm >>> not even willing to give it a trial as my personal NAS has 3 orders of >>> magnitude more storage. 10 Gb would let me store one small VM virtual >>> drive. >>> >>> More as it happens... >>> >>> Andy F >>> >>> >>> -- >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "NLUG" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected] >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en >>> >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "NLUG" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAB%2B-c-q4SL9k7mqs4AWPQ5dyVYO1vWzAYotvv19Nuzci5DfHTQ%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAB%2B-c-q4SL9k7mqs4AWPQ5dyVYO1vWzAYotvv19Nuzci5DfHTQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> >> >> -- >> ><> ... Jack >> >> If you are not paying for something, you are not a consumer, you are the >> product. - Chamath Palihapitiya >> >> "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." >> - Ben Franklin >> >> -- >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "NLUG" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "NLUG" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAFq0N1z%3D-eriAGT29LSZW3xaAaU2aCicSKxwtkMSPWLTO0WGVw%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAFq0N1z%3D-eriAGT29LSZW3xaAaU2aCicSKxwtkMSPWLTO0WGVw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > > > -- > Michael Darrin Chaney, Sr. > [email protected] > http://www.michaelchaney.com/ > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAAtfUtEON95u6oA833Aqz_dgssPtgXcXXxE6-yANLuTT%2BcwHAQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAAtfUtEON95u6oA833Aqz_dgssPtgXcXXxE6-yANLuTT%2BcwHAQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- ><> ... Jack If you are not paying for something, you are not a consumer, you are the product. - Chamath Palihapitiya "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Ben Franklin -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nlug-talk/CAFq0N1w%3Dpr-g%2B%3DJnZ2HT04S1-nb4VjS0VQw-vLYZNZWoe6xeYA%40mail.gmail.com.
