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20-Yr-Old Compaq Laptop Is Still Crucial to Maintaining McLaren's Multi-Million Dollar Cars (jalopnik.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It may come as a surprise to many, but the 20-year-old Compaq LTE 5280 still plays a vital role in maintaining multi-million dollar McLaren F1s. Jalopnik recently visited McLaren's Special Operations workshop where it found several of Compaq's old laptops serving their masters. Why do they rely on these dated computers, you ask? A McLaren Special Operations staff explains, "The reason we need those specific Compaq laptops is that they run a bespoke CA card which is installed into them. The CA card is an interface between the laptop software (which is DOS based) and the car. We are currently working on a new interface which will be compatible with modern laptops as the old Compaqs are getting less and less reliable and harder to find." For those wondering, the Compaq LTE 5280 comes with a 120MHz Intel Pentium processor, up to "80MB" of RAM, and up to 1.2GB of HDD.
For those wondering, the Compaq LTE 5280 comes with a 120MHz Intel Pentium processor, up to "80MB" of RAM, and up to 16MB of HDD.
Remember back in the Pentium days when RAM was cheaper than hard-disc space?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
But please don't tell the wife!
Not as bad as DeLorean: it requires Mr. Fusion, which hasn't even been invented yet.
Table-ized A.I.
i think we could really use a car analogy here.
>> For those wondering, the Compaq LTE 5280 comes with a 120MHz Intel Pentium processor, up to "80MB" of RAM, and up to 16MB of HDD.
I bet it still runs faster than a modern PC running Windows 10 and Office 365.
A legacy dongle that requires use of obsolete systems to support it is like that Compac computer Mclauren's cars needed to run the custom interface card.
Just because it would be funny to see: Windows has detected the following new device: McLaren 675LT. Would you like to install a driver for this device?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Call McLaren, they would like to buy your laptop...
Unless his already runs a nuclear power plant