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Programmable Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD)
An anonymous reader writes "There is a review of a programmable Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD). It is used to monitor computer related stats e.g. temperture, voltages, uptime etc.
The article can be found here.
Looks like an interesting toy!"
I like the idea of being able to continually monitor some of the things they show in the article:
Sys Temp: ###*c
CPU Temp: ###*c
CPU Speed: ###Mhz
CPU Fan: ###rpm
Handy, especially when you're overclocking or don't have an operating system that supports software to give the same info.
Why is it that these hardware review sites never give the price? You would think that the price would be at least as important as Baud Rate or some of the other things they listed.
The coolness factor goes without question.
What amazes me is that mods that look cool and do little to nothing are becoming so popular. This product at least has some functionality unlike lighted fans and all that jazz. Now the dust bunnies can have a real time stock ticker. Just need to mount a retractable rotating disco ball so the dust bunnies can get down after a long hard day.
These displays have been out for at least 20 years now. I can hardly see how these are news. They are used in old pinball machines from the late seventies as one example. Just because someone released one with a serial interface makes it news? Please, some NEW technology for once!
> I mean, for well less than $100, I could
> pick up a crappy video card, and a 9"
> monitor to display status messages.
And for those of us that barely have space available for the PC we're using? I won't even get into the embedded applications of this... they *should* be obvious.