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1500 questions
23
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11 answers
Did any European computers use 10-line fonts?
Most 8-bit computers implemented hardware text mode, and most of those used 8x8 fonts. This was logical for American computers; the title safe area on NTSC is about 200 scan lines; font height 8 gets you 25 text lines, which is the de facto…
rwallace
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23
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5 answers
Why did mainframes have big conspicuous power-off buttons?
Some fascinating stories in this discussion thread.
It starts with discussion about computers overheating, but about halfway through the thread, it switches to discussion of mainframe installations in which it was apparently typical to have an…
rwallace
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23
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3 answers
Distinction between scientific and business computing
Wikipedia's page on the IBM System/360 family claims that a distinction once existed between business and scientific computers. The model 44 in particular was designed for scientific work and was set apart by lack of decimal instruction and…
Q3El58
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Main board of the original Game & Watch (Ball)
The Game and Watch was a series of single-title games consoles created by Nintendo from 1980 until 1991. Each machine contained a custom LCD screen (containing images related to the software), some sort of ROM (containing the two games and the…
wizzwizz4
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23
votes
21 answers
8-bit home computers without BASIC
All the 8 bit home computers I'm aware of, had BASIC in their ROMs. A notable exception was Jupiter Ace, a British home computer which used Forth.
Were there any other 8-bit home computers that came with other languages in their ROMs? Or perhaps…
Krackout
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Was the Atari 400/800 internal speaker of any use besides key click?
Sounds from the Atari 8-bit computer line came through the RF video cable into your television much like video game systems from the time. The original Atari 400/800 also had a built in speaker, though from what I can tell it only produced the…
bjb
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23
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4 answers
Where did the the term "chrome," referring to onscreen decorations, originate?
To most people today "chrome" probably sounds like a reference to the web browser; but at least in Microsoft contexts I've read "chrome" to refer to window decorations - like the border, maximize button, etc.
For example, here's a 2008 article which…
StayOnTarget
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23
votes
11 answers
Was it possible to write a novel on a BBC Micro 16kb/32kb memory era computer without expansions?
BBC Micro model B has 32k memory. An average book, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, has about 350,000 characters in it. So you'd need over 10 times the memory to load it in, plus the software to edit it.
If people wanted to use a BBC Micro era…
NibblyPig
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Which is the minimum set of interrupts/functions I should implement in a replacement BIOS for a home made IBM PC class computer?
I'm at the early stages of implementing a home-made IBM PC class computer (maybe AT class, I don't know yet). The CPU will be an actual 8088 chip, but everything else (except memory) will be programmable logic.
In order to provide it with a…
mcleod_ideafix
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23
votes
1 answer
Was the IBM S/360 Responsible for Popularizating the 'A'-to-'F' Notation in Hexadecimal Numbers?
In the early history of computing before the mid-1960s, there was no universal, de-facto standard for the written representation of a hexadecimal number, different computer systems used their own written presentations. Wikipedia has some…
比尔盖子
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How did large .COM files work?
An MS-DOS .com file is just raw code/data without header, thus no linking information, and was limited to be loaded into just one segment (64kB). That's the reason corrupted binaries would print "Program too big to fit in memory". But I remember…
DarkDust
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Could you manually eject a floppy quick enough to prevent data loss?
I have the vague recollection of "Panic Ejecting" floppy disks by lifting the latch on the drive after immediately regretting a command I had typed. At the time, I was young, impulsive, and blessed with only enough computing knowledge to be…
Brian H
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23
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6 answers
Does the "Amiga Client for Novell NetWare" exist?
On page 139 of Brian Bagnall's book "Commodore: The Final Years", there is the statement that at CeBIT Hannover in March 1989, Commodore announced (amongst other things) "Novell Netware for Amiga".
I had not previously heard of any way to connect an…
Richard Downer
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23
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Was Locomotive BASIC significantly better than Sinclair BASIC?
The Amstrad CPC range of Z80 machines shipped with
a ROM BASIC, designed and implemented by Locomotive Software. The most well known competitor was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, also a Z80 machine, with similar capabilities.
I'm aware that both…
Mark Williams
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23
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5 answers
What is the hex versus octal timeline?
When and why did hexadecimal representation become more common than octal for displaying and printing out multi-bit binary fields?
hotpaw2
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