r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖

There's always going to be a trade off between speed, practicality, and energy efficiency. But for some long-duration tasks, it's probably best to use a microcontroller that doesn't need active cooling

Commodore 64 systems were used in industrial settings for decades. Some are probably still running

If the heat and power budget is bigger, probably something like a TTL (or modern CMOS equivalent) chip based basic computer can keep things running for just as long. And still be user serviceable

Sep 29, 2020 at 12:39pmTootle for Mastodon
Show thread0xdeadbeefSep 29, 2020
@cypnk The DEC PDP-11 was used heavily in industrial settings, and is planning to still be used in nuclear facilities until 2050.
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKSep 29, 2020
@cypnk in UK the BBC Micro and other equipment derived from it was also widely used (British Rail used it a lot for electronic timetable displays on monitors, Cleartone (who make emergency services radios and ANPR/speed monitoring equipment) were an Acorn contractor and also used the tech in their own kit - 1990s crime documentaries always show police traffic cars with video displays overlaid with "Mode 7" graphics for the speed, GPS etc..
Show thread0xdeadbeefSep 29, 2020

@cypnk
We were doing realtime graphics on 100Mhz computers, now we have 3Ghz computers with multiple cores but somehow the web browser pauses.

If you design your code properly you can get away with much smaller hardware.

Show threadleah & tigers & bears, oh my!Sep 29, 2020
@Binder @cypnk it's virtually impossible for anything that's been growing by accretion for 25 years to be designed - or even redesigned - in any kind of sensible fashion
Show thread0xdeadbeefSep 29, 2020
@thamesynne @cypnk
Thats the secret, don't let it grow by accretion.
Show threadVertigoSep 29, 2020

@Binder @thamesynne @cypnk Ironically, the hardware is rarely the issue here. Yes, there's still 8088 XT compatibility bits here and there, but on the whole, the core of modern PC architecture is relatively clean.

The problems as I see them stem from:

1) standards bodies (like PCI, USB, etc.) which imbue their projects with "features" designed solely for vendor lock-in (and I'm not even getting into DRM yet), and,

2) Software. It's always the f####ing software.

Show threadleah & tigers & bears, oh my!Sep 29, 2020
@vertigo @Binder @cypnk indeed, i was really only thinking of software when i wrote that
Show thread0xdeadbeefSep 29, 2020

@vertigo @thamesynne @cypnk The software isn't too big of a deal as long as you plan ahead.

ie: what technologies are you sure are going to still be around in 20-30 years?
C++, TCP, Ethernet, SQL

Show threadVertigoSep 29, 2020
@Binder @thamesynne @cypnk The examples you list are exemplars of things you can plan for, yet are dumpster fires each and every one of them individually, much less taken together.