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Re: For the fun of it
carbide@egine.com wrote:
Michael J. Mahon wrote:
Tom Osborne introduced the "algorithmic state machine" at HP Labs, but
you should know that it was the basis of Woz's Disk ][ Controller!
http://www.hp9825.com/html/osborne_s_story.html
Quite a few people in the mid- to late-1970's were figuring out that
ROMs plus latches made a nice programmable state machine. There was
even a school of thought that ROMs would replace most logic--which
was not exactly right, but not all wrong, either. ;-)
That was very interesting, I read the whole thing. What exciting times.
I was just a young tech, and didn't lift my nose from the production
grindstone to see what was happening around me.
I found it very familiar. When I went to HP Labs in 1981, the mood
and experience were just as Tom described it. I can only imagine that
Bell Labs and a few others were similarly amazing.
Many people don't know that HP encouraged employees to spend a
percentage of their time (10-15%) working on projects of their own
choosing, using parts from lab stock. Lots of great hi-fi amplifiers
were built, including one designed by Barney Oliver, and, of course,
a personal computer we all know by a young tech called Woz. ;-)
When I looked inside my first Apple II+, every part in it was available
from HP lab stock!
Heady times, and now mostly gone.
-michael
New, faster SUDOKU v2.0 solver for Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."