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1500 questions
36
votes
6 answers
Why did the Bell 103 modem use a data rate of 300 bps?
Virtually every telephone modem in existence runs at a data rate that's a multiple of the Bell 103A's 300 bps. Why was the base 300 bps chosen in the first place?
Mark
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36
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4 answers
Why were those colors chosen to be the default palette for 256-color VGA?
Although subjective, I believe I'm not the only one considering default VGA 256 color palette to be hideous and ugly.
What is the story behind this, why were these particular colors chosen?
tuomas
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36
votes
4 answers
How did Multics make library calls available as shell commands?
I was reading Pouzin's comments on the early Multics shell, and I'm a bit confused about this passage:
In the same vein, I also felt that commands should be usable as
library subroutines, or vice versa.
Given changes in terminology over the years,…
Maury Markowitz
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36
votes
8 answers
Did they forget to add the physical layout to the USB keyboard standard?
USB keyboards must have been one of the first devices that could be connected to a USB port.
When you are from the US it's possible that you have never faced this problem.
But in all other parts of the world you have to select your keyboard layout…
zomega
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36
votes
3 answers
How does the CD audio connector work?
I am building a retro computer and found out that old CD drives have audio output connectors.
But how does it work?
The computer can read all data from the CD using ATAPI/IDE. Why is there an additional audio output?
zomega
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36
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1 answer
Why did the NES not allow rotated sprites?
I'm taking a look at the chapter on sprites from a NES programming guide at famicom.party. There is a little table which describes what the different sprite attribute flags do:
Bit #
Purpose
7
Flips sprite vertically (if "1")
6
Flips…
Jojo
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36
votes
4 answers
Why do Game Boy games have explicit save functions, instead of using battery-backed non-volatile cartridge SRAM to store the game state?
Game Boy games used a battery-backed SRAM module for their save states. Since the SRAM module retains its whole content, why do Game Boy games always need a manual save operation?
Wouldn't it be much easier for the game to just keep its persistent…
Dakkaron
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36
votes
17 answers
How fast were BASIC interpreters in the 80s? (Is this optimization for speed really necessary?)
I have a client who wants me to analyze a BASIC program from Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. I have never written a line of BASIC in my life as I was born in 1995 and started programming around 2010. The program isn't difficult to understand…
Gellweiler
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36
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1 answer
How can I create a split-scroll effect in an NES game?
Games like Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 were able to scroll the playfield but not the status bar:
The status bars are clearly too big to be sprites, yet they don't scroll with the background. How did they do this? How can I do this…
NobodyNada
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36
votes
8 answers
Does the industry continue to produce outdated architecture CPUs with leading-edge process?
Intel has named the i7-8086K in honor of the 8086 processor, though itself it is a 64-bit processor. And we still see in embedded systems or MIL-SPEC platforms there are old CPUs like the 80386 produced in the original, say, 1 µm process. However,…
Schezuk
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36
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8 answers
Why did DEC develop Alpha instead of continuing with MIPS?
I have been rereading a fascinating discussion about why DEC replaced VAX with Alpha based on talks with people who were there at the time; in a nutshell, in the opinion of the VAX engineers, it was no longer feasible to make VAX…
rwallace
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36
votes
5 answers
How was the clock frequency of the PS/2 keyboard protocol chosen?
The PS/2 keyboard protocol allows the keyboard to generate a clock rate between 10 kHz and 16.7 kHz.
At 11 bits per scancode, 10 kHz is a massive 909 scancodes per second. World-record holder Barbara Blackburn peaked at 216 wpm ≈ 18 cps ≈ 54…
Jacob Krall
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36
votes
1 answer
Is it true that Netscape Navigator eventually became Mozilla Firefox?
Is it really the case that Mozilla Firefox is a modern day version of Netscape Navigator?
Neil Meyer
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36
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4 answers
Why didn't Apple sue Commodore over the Amiga's GUI?
Famously, in the late 1980's Apple sued Microsoft over the "look and feel" of Windows 2.x. The claim was that Windows breached Apple's copyright by being too similar to the Mac UI. Apple ultimately lost, but as the Wikipedia page on the subject…
KenD
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36
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6 answers
Why did Windows 95 crash the whole system but newer Windows only crashed programs?
Example situation.
You are using a program in Windows 95 and screen goes blue only for you to restart the whole computer
You are using a program in Windows 7 and the program stops responding only to be stopped by the task manager.
Why was there a…
Delta Oscar Uniform
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