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by systems_glitch 1036 days ago
Some of them! Some S-100 stuff is definitely cheese grade construction. We end up repairing a fair number of Altair 8800s of various models for hobbyists and collectors, and they are...not well-designed systems. It's pretty amazing how well S-100 progressed from the initial MITS design, given how slapdash it was.
1 comments
jacquesm 1036 days ago
I used some pretty beefy boxes for industrial systems in the 80's and what struck me about them - and of the PCs of that era - is that they were all built to last for decades. Modern stuff is built to last for a couple of years at best in most cases, with some rare exceptions. Flimsy cases, plastic instead of steel. Unserviceable, non-standard and proprietary instead of standardized and repairable. Miniaturized as much as possible instead of open frame. And finally, undocumented versus documented right down to the component level and the software source code.

From a longevity perspective that stuff absolutely rocks, much like I'd much rather have a car from the 90's than one built today. The 90's one will outlive me, the one built today will need at least one replacement.

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canucker2016 1035 days ago
One story I heard was about Compaq and how their early PCs were over-engineered.

The floppy drives of early Compaq PCs were rated/tested for a really high number of insertions/ejections. You'd have to be doing nothing BUT inserting/ejecting floppies 24/7 to even get close to the rated limit.

Some beancounter at Compaq realizes they're overpaying. They lower the rated limit of insertions/ejections by a couple orders of magnitude and let the savings flow through to the profit line with the customer none the wiser. Didn't help against Dell and the other cheaper PC manufacturers though.

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jacquesm 1035 days ago
I remember their Deskpro line around that time. Insanely heavy.
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systems_glitch 1036 days ago
Yeah, add on top of that you usually got full schematics, and logic tables if there were programmable logic devices! That's how we're able to continue offering service on these systems.

There's a pretty good hobbyist community around S-100, a fair number of folks are designing hobbyist-level new boards and such. A lot of that is centered around the following site:

s100computers.com

Some of their designs are...weird...and often "that's not a bug, we like it like that" is what you'll get for pointing out actual design issues...but! it's still cool to see people hacking on it.

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jacquesm 1036 days ago
There is a fair chance active use of the S-100 bus will outlast all of us :)
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