WOW!!!! $15k DEC PDP-8 CLASSIC MINICOMPUTER SYSTEM DIGITAL PDP8

[William Donzelli]

> Even where IBM cards of that era used 'commodity' components, they were
> usually completely house-marked and impossible for a mere mortal to
> figure out.  This goes all the way down to resistor networks and
> resistors/capacitors (except those few that have color-code bands.)

Unless you get the cross reference...

For the pre-1978 (or so) machines, you can pretty much debug down to the
chip level. With the right Blue Binders, pretty much every last part is
detailed to a silly extent. WAY more detailed than DEC docs.

A number of the logic families are also really quite close to
off the shelf items, just in weird packages.

Of course, some would say the reason why IBM stuff is cool is BECAUSE it
is so alien!

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org