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Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg

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Originalas
07/18/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
I used it this year :D
here is some photos http://blog.topzone.lt/originalas/intel-8086-skaicialka
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Originalas
07/18/09

@Originalas: there was even a 8080
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
07/18/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
Serveral years from now I will travel a great distance to locate one of these.
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strider_mt2k
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
I learned DOS and BBSs on an 8086.

Really really good times...mostly. ;)
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
Heh, I learned to program (assembly) on an 8086 CPU.

Weirdly, the 8086 was a better CPU than the 8088...
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FreemanSekhmet
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
Ah, the kind that you could "flash" in the proper sense... actually expose to the right spectrum to erase, etc. Good stuff. Haven't seen one of those in forever...
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dingus
07/18/09

@FreemanSekhmet: I had a summer job in college doing some embedded programming on (then) Motorola 68HC11. The systems used EPROMs in ZIF sockets for quick swapping. We had an in-circuit emulator that could be used to run programs from a PC, but it didn't run exactly like a production system. So for most debugging and development I had to do plug-n-chug:

I had a tube of blank EPROMs (stickerless, natch), a UV bulk eraser that could erase 10 or so in half an hour, a programmer, and a tube of EPROMs waiting to be erased. As I built each test version, I'd plug a blank EPROM into the programmer and run the macro to program it, pop the old one from the socket into the erase tube, put the programmed one into the ZIF socket, and power the machine up. Every 1/2 hour I'd religiously swap out erased EPROMs in the eraser for clean ones.

Ten miles, uphill both ways.

Nowadays I attach a tiny cable going to a tiny USB dongle to the target system and don't even have to do so much as push the reset button.
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daqman
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
I had a look in my "spare parts" box. It still has an Intel 8080 in it. Beautiful chip, white ceramic with gold plated pins.
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dingus
07/18/09

@daqman: I ran across one years ago in a system monitor card for a PDP 11/34. I regret selling that board if only for that chip.
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artistpavel
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
Yet, the world still operated on that kind of technology back then, people listened to music, watched TVs, flew airplanes (with stewardess), not to mention space exploration. Turns out we don't really need computing power we have today to maintain civilized lifestyle?

It's not like people's habits changed with Moore's Law progression.
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dingus promoted this comment Edited by artistpavel at 07/17/09 7:28 PM artistpavel was starred artistpavel was unstarred

dingus
07/18/09

@artistpavel: I don't know about you, but nowadays I reference encyclopedias anywhere and any time the need arises, carry a significant portion of my music collection on me at all times, and engage in spirited written technical discussions with others from around the world from the can. And that's just from shrinking the storage, processing, and communications power of a 1998 vintage workstation to fit in my pants.
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strider_mt2k
07/18/09

@dingus: Oh.

I just thought you were happy to see me.
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dingus
07/18/09

@strider_mt2k: I'm waiting for the day when Jason will pants an SGI O2.
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GitEmSteveDave_IsNotLarryGaga
07/17/09

In reply to Intel 8088: The Chip That Gave Birth to the Borg
I have a card with an old Intel EPROM on it, and I took the sticker off just to see the chip through the window.
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dingus
07/18/09

@BoardShortin'_GitEmSteveDave: I hope you didn't need it for anything. The label keeps the bits in.
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