Re:Show HN: Homemade 32-bit CPU and OS (2015) [video]
by fit2rule on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:00AM
(#11845442)
I've worked for some characters in my time, and some of my elderly bosses were hardcore on this subject. As it happens, in various industries - rail/transportation, for example - there are often available large surpluses of electro-mechanical relays, in copious quantities sitting in large bins, which .. by way of practical application of apprentices .. become a new 'test subsystem rack' waaaaaay in the back of RailtrainCo.'s, computing facility. What I'm trying to say is, "don't power off the back racks, ever, because they are the bosses little relay-CPU project, and its computing .. something .. (actually its running the model railway switching system, upstairs in the lobby)" ..
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Re:Show HN: Homemade 32-bit CPU and OS (2015) [video]
by arethuza on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:40AM
(#11845557)
That sounds like something from a Charlie Stross Laundry novel.
Edit: I have encountered systems that were designed in the 1960s where they wanted to rely on tried and tested technology - so pretty much clockwork! This was for sequencing operations during the emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor, so being conservative in technology platform was perhaps understandable!
Re:Show HN: Homemade 32-bit CPU and OS (2015) [video]
by VLM on Monday June 06, 2016 @09:23AM
(#11846552)
Remote reprogramming requiring a metal lathe, milling machine, and a cooperative operator onsite is not necessarily a bug with nukes. Expensive, but accidents are more expensive.
Re:Show HN: Homemade 32-bit CPU and OS (2015) [video]
by fit2rule on Monday June 06, 2016 @07:37AM
(#11845958)
In my case, it was just so that the Boss could prove the point: even his relay-CPU could handle the train signalling/switching systems, sometimes, better than the 'modern' versions we were all sweating on developing. Technological prowess runs deep in the train-nerds world.