Wayne Parham wrote:Sadly - at least to me - by the 1980s, computer manufacturers were abandoning front-panels because of the cost. They replaced them with ROM monitors that would expect commands from the "master console." This was true for both microcomputers and minicomputers. Data General called this a "soft console" and it was used on the Nova 4, the MP/100 and MP/200 microNovas and all their 32-bit Eclipse systems. So I think probably MITS would have abandoned their front-panel too.
Wayne Parham wrote:Sadly - at least to me - by the 1980s, computer manufacturers were abandoning front-panels because of the cost
Wayne Parham wrote:Look at the front-panels of 16-bit minicomputers. Take the Data General Eclipse S/130, for example:
The way you used its front-panel was similar to the Altair. And in fact, the Altair was patterned after the Data General systems. It was actually patterned after the Data General Nova 2, but the 16-bit Eclipse's had a very similar front-panel.
As an example, to set memory location 000100 octal to 177777, you would do this:
- Set switches to 0 000 000 001 000 000 (000100 octal)
- Toggle examine. Address lights will now show 000100 octal.
- Set the switches to 1 111 111 111 111 111 (177777 octal)
- Toggle deposit. Data lights will now show 177777 octal.
So you can see it's pretty similar to the Altair.
You could also use the front-panel to set the boot device code of a storage subsystem you wanted to boot from. So, for example, to boot the tape drive, you set the front-panel switches to 22 octal and then toggled program load.
Sadly - at least to me - by the 1980s, computer manufacturers were abandoning front-panels because of the cost. They replaced them with ROM monitors that would expect commands from the "master console." This was true for both microcomputers and minicomputers. Data General called this a "soft console" and it was used on the Nova 4, the MP/100 and MP/200 microNovas and all their 32-bit Eclipse systems. So I think probably MITS would have abandoned their front-panel too.
Wayne Parham wrote:IBM had the Series/1 and then the AS/400. They might have had other minis that completed with DG and DEC, but those are the ones I remember. Seems like all the IBM shops I knew used 'em.
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