Christoph MüllerMar 17
Charlie Balogh

I said it before, and I'll say it again: These cheap mid-90s, late 486 systems are like cockroaches - disgusting, but will survive just about anything, including a nuclear apocalypse.

This one was first used as some desktop machine in a library. When that life ended, it ran 12 years 24/7 as my first Linux server, until the HDD died. Then the next 15 years it rot in corners of various basements. Almost got thrown away several times.

And it lives. 1995 World Domination. 😅

#retrocomputing #msdos

Mar 17 at 2:08pmWeb
Show threadMetin Seven 🎨Mar 17
@chainq Ah, good ol' demo scene nostalgia. 🤩
Show threadJohn Francis 🇨🇦🦫🍁💪⬆️Mar 17
@chainq good 'ole high-lead solder. By today's standards.
Show threadJake in the desertMar 17
@chainq so amazing. Yeah, I've had/done things like this. Amazing how tough they are. Permacomputing for sure hahaha
Show threadAnkh-Morpork Parks and Rec 🌱Mar 17
@jake4480 @chainq That BIOS startup screen is *deeply* etched into my memory. 👏
Show threadJake in the desertMar 17
@coreysnipes @chainq SAME!! hahaha. Ah, old machines. I have an XP one and a 2000 one - one of them just died, forget which. But it worked FOREVER. And the other still goes.
Show threadAnkh-Morpork Parks and Rec 🌱Mar 17
@jake4480 @chainq Wish I had more room for stuff like this. Actually, it's probably best I don't :)
Show threadJake in the desertMar 17
@coreysnipes @chainq ha! Organizing all of it is... a lot. Been doing a TON of that these last few days and it's really tough to keep it all organized haha
Show threadAnkh-Morpork Parks and Rec 🌱Mar 17
@jake4480 I believe it!
Show threadIsaac Ji KuoMar 17
@jake4480 @chainq Most of the perceived toughness is just a matter of the luck of being manufactured before the lamentable "capacitor plague" era.
Show threadCharlie BaloghMar 17

@isaackuo @jake4480 Well, indeed, that plays a big role, but also the fact that basically none of the components in these were bleeding edge any more, yet they still needed precise enough manufacturing to count. These together create kind of a Goldilocks-zone for reliability.

Oh, and also the fact that this one has a CR2032 battery holder from the factory. No barrel battery to leak everywhere, which is what killed so many of the earlier generation motherboards... 😅

Show threadCoach Pāṇini ®Mar 17

@chainq @blogdiva

I can’t hear this picture over the sound the modem handshake.

Show threadJean-Sébastien GuayMar 17
@chainq Still remember the satire response to these in another demo... "Larusse pixel" with one red pixel on a black screen hahaha
Show threadcpmMar 17

@chainq
funny

i skipped the 386
went from a 286 (with a 287 math coprocessor) (which would boot coherent, only took an hour) to a 2nd gen 486,
and clung to that thing like oxygen for *years*

Show threadGrant_HMar 17

@chainq these cockroaches still run the Hubble Telescope...

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6275/Hubble-Space-Telescope-uses-386-processor/ which includes the upgrade 486.

NASA launches the Hubble Space Telescope - Event - Computing History

At launch, the Hubble telescope used a DF224 system, from Rockwell Autonetics.At launch, the Hubble telescope used a DF224 system, from Rockwell Autonetics. This system contained three redundant CP...

Show threadG🦡MonkeyMar 17
@chainq The chipset that uses is actually emulated in 86Box under "[1994] i486 (Socket 3 PCI)" / "[SiS 496] ..." but I don't think that particular BIOS is in there yet. You might be able to get it somewhat preserved that way.
Show thread@CAWguy has movedMar 17
@chainq Those 486s ran almost all of the robot controllers in the plant I was at. I wish I had a record of the hour meters on them because they worked out to decades of nearly trouble free uptime.