The need to keep around the old hardware depends on your goals. If you're into historical preservation, then you of course would keep, restore, and maintain an old machine. If you just want to move the data and programs and exit the platform, then donate the hardware to someone who wants to use it.
I've written an emulator program that emulates an Altair 8800. Functional? Yes. Does it run old programs? Yes. Fun to use? I think so, if you like ASCII character-based games. Is it the same to operate as the real one? No, not exactly.
Once you've moved your data and programs from the old machine to the emulated machine, you don't really need the old machine. Yes, some formats are easier to move than others and don't require the original hardware, but others can't be read by modern PCs without rediculous amounts of effort. So, you use the old machine to continue to move programs to another media so that the bits can be preserved.
But, there are reasons to keep the old machine. First, it's the overall feel of operating the machine in person. Second, some programs and games just plain feel better on the original hardware. Thrid, it's preservation of computing history. Fourth, there's no better way to understand how a system works than to physically work on it. I want my kids to sit at my first computer, a VIC-20, and play the same games I played as a kid.
Along these lines, I set up an Atari 2600 along side of the Nintendo. Believe it or not, they play the 2600 as much or more than the Nintendo. Although the graphics are nothing in comparison, the games are engaging so they keep coming back.
I didn't appreciate the difference between an emulation and the real thing until I got my own Altair. There's no substitute for clicking the switches yourself, for swapping around boards, or for running tape through a paper tape reader.
Cease and desist! I own the patent for this. It's what I call CrackNet.
I had problems figuring out how to power it without the lithium
ion batteries burning the sensitive skin on the backside, so I use kinetics -- cheeks rubbing
together produces an amazing amount of energy. There's a thin
wire, like a bra underwire, that runs through the top that's connected to an 802.11g card.
The biggest problem is positioning the computer so it doesn't
make women's butts look big.
I've used Bob's emulator a bit, playing with the PDP-11 emulation
when I had an 11 in my basement that was failing. I now use the
VAX emulator running BSD. I've also used SIMH as inspiration for
my own emulation project for emulating a MITS Altair 8800 (with
the front panel).
The next version is done and will be released within the next
week or so after I update the docs to synchronize with the changes
made.
Not having read the actual trial documents, I was taking my cue from the original posting. You indicate that it's much more simple -- a contractual dispute and not paying one's bills.
Again, assuming there is no secured lender involved that has a valid and enforcable lien, the brothers indeed will share the pot of assets on a pro-rata basis with the other unsecured creditors.
If there is a secured lender, they get first crack at the assets in a liquidation.
I have to say that I hate those pop-under ads, so in one regard, I'm happy to see that X10 is taking it on the chin.
None the less, here's my analysis of the process. I'm not a lawyer (just a banker), so this analysis is only based on my experience and should not be taken as gospel.
Now let's discuss the reason for the filing. Relief under the Bankruptcy Code. In a corporate situation, relief from creditors through bankruptcy is available to those who are "insolvent", meaning simplistically that they are not able to satisfy their debts as they mature. If the liability created by the judgment renders X10 "insolvent" when looking at the balance sheet, then a bankruptcy filing would be allowed to proceed. If it's purely a move to avoid or prevent the execution of the judgment and X10 is still solvent, there is a risk that the judge might throw out the bankruptcy filing, allowing execution of the judgment to proceed.
Now, the thing I find curious is that since this is a patent infringement case, typically it can be settled by signing a license with the patent holder and paying a royalty going forward *plus* some sort of settlement for past infringement. The settlement is usually proportional to the economic harm experienced by the patent holder as a result of the infringement plus a little vig. So, why this case got this far is beyond me.
The automatic stay (section 362(a) of the Bankruptcy Code) lasts for 30 days and provides that all actions against the assets of the debtor be prevented from continuing, including the execution of a judgement claim (typically an unsecured claim, although the judge in the infringement case could grant a judgment lien. If it's a judgment lien, it would come after any other judgment liens previously filed), pending a Preliminary Hearing (followed by a Final Hearing some 30 days later).
Assuming it's the only judgment creditor, the attorney for the brothers would probably petition the Bankruptcy Court for a Motion to Lift The Stay (362(d)) in order to exercise its rights and have the Marshall execute on its judgment and seize the assets. If X10 has a secured lender, it would object because the judgment would be granted a priority to its liens.
If the debtor is reorganizing rather than liquidating, the lender may provide DIP financing, which would be granted an administrative priority (since the purpose of Bankruptcy, theoretically, is rehabilitation, and the way to provide ongoing working capital is through a DIP loan). The attorney for the judgment claimants may ask for some consideration (possibly a second secured lien) to place their claim to the assets above those of the other unsecured trade creditors.
Since the brothers are the largest unsecured claim, clearly they will chair the Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the group that speaks for the unsecured creditors) and will drive the process.
I'm not an OCer but I wonder about this...what about the heat generated by hard drives? Hard drives generate a huge amount of heat. If you cooled the hard drive using a water cooling setup, how much could you OC the CPU without water cooling it since the ambient temp in the case would have been reduced by some large amount.
If you water cool both, you could probably run the computer with only the evaporator fan.
I think that the reason why the 1802 was selected for space-going vehicles (like the Pioneer) was that it was available in a "rad hard" version -- radiation hardened, while processors like the 6502 were not. RCA was a major military contractor at the time so they had the capabilities to make Mil-spec stuff, while MOS was not.
Anyone have any ideas what other processors at the time were space qualified?
Todd Fischer is the "Fischer" in Fischer-Frietas, Inc. F-F purchased the assets (with his wife, Frietas, I believe. I don't remember her first name) of IMSAI when it went belly-up. Both worked at IMSAI; he in the serice department. Not too much later, F-F also closed (1983 I think).
In 1999, Todd started-up Imsai again to capitalize on the growing wave of nostaliga surrounding the early S100 machines, particularly the Altair. This wave was fanned by the increasing awareness of the general public of the history of early personal computing, particularly as a result of books like "Gates" and documentaries about the Valley starring "Robert Cringley".
These machines were showing up on eBay, with owners raking in mega-bucks...paying for vacations to the Bahamas with the proceeds from the sales of their formerly closet-bound computers to people with too much disposable income who saw an old Altair or IMSAI as a new investment vehicle.
It seems like he's recently made the leap to production, with July delivery. I still can't justify spending $1000 for a machine that's not even the "real thing." It seems like an excellent re-implementation of the original, but it's just not the same.
To get my fix of early computing, I've focused my efforts on running the Altair32 Emulation project. The project also has an IMSAI mode. The URL is http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Alta ir32.htm
My server room shares space with my workshop so that I have all of my toys in one place (in reality, my wife tole me to keep my, er, "stuff" all in one place).
Anyway, everything is in a 7' rack salvaged from a PDP 11/34 setup (that gives it some history). The rack has a 9" fan at the top which I don't run otherwise I couldn't sleep.
In the rack I have UPSes at the bottom and a monitor at the top. Below the monitor is a RAID enclosure, then a DLT drive on a shelf then a surplus Compaq ProLiant server.
Mounted in the back of the rack (facing out the rear) is a 24 port 10/100 switch, a firewall and the cable modem. This connects by 15' patch cables to the punchdown block on the walll. Almost all rooms in the in the house are wired.
On the shelves near the rack is my "technical library" and spare parts warehouse.
The rack has no side panels so I draped some carpet padding on the sides to cut down on the noise -- the loudest being the 4 fans in the drive array box.
Slashdot Mirror
The need to keep around the old hardware depends on your goals. If you're into historical preservation, then you of course would keep, restore, and maintain an old machine. If you just want to move the data and programs and exit the platform, then donate the hardware to someone who wants to use it.
I've written an emulator program that emulates an Altair 8800. Functional? Yes. Does it run old programs? Yes. Fun to use? I think so, if you like ASCII character-based games. Is it the same to operate as the real one? No, not exactly.
Once you've moved your data and programs from the old machine to the emulated machine, you don't really need the old machine. Yes, some formats are easier to move than others and don't require the original hardware, but others can't be read by modern PCs without rediculous amounts of effort. So, you use the old machine to continue to move programs to another media so that the bits can be preserved.
But, there are reasons to keep the old machine. First, it's the overall feel of operating the machine in person. Second, some programs and games just plain feel better on the original hardware. Thrid, it's preservation of computing history. Fourth, there's no better way to understand how a system works than to physically work on it. I want my kids to sit at my first computer, a VIC-20, and play the same games I played as a kid.
Along these lines, I set up an Atari 2600 along side of the Nintendo. Believe it or not, they play the 2600 as much or more than the Nintendo. Although the graphics are nothing in comparison, the games are engaging so they keep coming back.
I didn't appreciate the difference between an emulation and the real thing until I got my own Altair. There's no substitute for clicking the switches yourself, for swapping around boards, or for running tape through a paper tape reader.
Atypical for the girlfriendless ./ crowd of course.
Rich
Cease and desist! I own the patent for this. It's what I call CrackNet.
I had problems figuring out how to power it without the lithium ion batteries burning the sensitive skin on the backside, so I use kinetics -- cheeks rubbing together produces an amazing amount of energy. There's a thin wire, like a bra underwire, that runs through the top that's connected to an 802.11g card.
The biggest problem is positioning the computer so it doesn't make women's butts look big.
Get a free iPod...learn how here: freeipods.com
I've used Bob's emulator a bit, playing with the PDP-11 emulation when I had an 11 in my basement that was failing. I now use the VAX emulator running BSD. I've also used SIMH as inspiration for my own emulation project for emulating a MITS Altair 8800 (with the front panel).
The next version is done and will be released within the next week or so after I update the docs to synchronize with the changes made.
Anyway, the project page is here:
http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Alta ir32.htm
Not having read the actual trial documents, I was taking my cue from the original posting. You indicate that it's much more simple -- a contractual dispute and not paying one's bills.
Again, assuming there is no secured lender involved that has a valid and enforcable lien, the brothers indeed will share the pot of assets on a pro-rata basis with the other unsecured creditors.
If there is a secured lender, they get first crack at the assets in a liquidation.
I have to say that I hate those pop-under ads, so in one regard, I'm happy to see that X10 is taking it on the chin.
None the less, here's my analysis of the process.
I'm not a lawyer (just a banker), so this analysis is only based on my experience and should not be taken as gospel.
Now let's discuss the reason for the filing. Relief under the Bankruptcy Code. In a corporate situation, relief from creditors through bankruptcy is available to those who are "insolvent", meaning simplistically that they are not able to satisfy their debts as they mature. If the liability created by the judgment renders X10 "insolvent" when looking at the balance sheet, then a bankruptcy filing would be allowed to proceed. If it's purely a move to avoid or prevent the execution of the judgment and X10 is still solvent, there is a risk that the judge might throw out the bankruptcy filing, allowing execution of the judgment to proceed.
Now, the thing I find curious is that since this is a patent infringement case, typically it can be settled by signing a license with the patent holder and paying a royalty going forward *plus* some sort of settlement for past infringement. The settlement is usually proportional to the economic harm experienced by the patent holder as a result of the infringement plus a little vig. So, why this case got this far is beyond me.
The automatic stay (section 362(a) of the Bankruptcy Code) lasts for 30 days and provides that all actions against the assets of the debtor be prevented from continuing, including the execution of a judgement claim (typically an unsecured claim, although the judge in the infringement case could grant a judgment lien. If it's a judgment lien, it would come after any other judgment liens previously filed), pending a Preliminary Hearing (followed by a Final Hearing some 30 days later).
Assuming it's the only judgment creditor, the attorney for the brothers would probably petition the Bankruptcy Court for a Motion to Lift The Stay (362(d)) in order to exercise its rights and have the Marshall execute on its judgment and seize the assets. If X10 has a secured lender, it would object because the judgment would be granted a priority to its liens.
If the debtor is reorganizing rather than liquidating, the lender may provide DIP financing, which would be granted an administrative priority (since the purpose of Bankruptcy, theoretically, is rehabilitation, and the way to provide ongoing working capital is through a DIP loan). The attorney for the judgment claimants may ask for some consideration (possibly a second secured lien) to place their claim to the assets above those of the other unsecured trade creditors.
Since the brothers are the largest unsecured claim, clearly they will chair the Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the group that speaks for the unsecured creditors) and will drive the process.
I'm not an OCer but I wonder about this...what about the heat generated by hard drives? Hard drives generate a huge amount of heat. If you cooled the hard drive using a water cooling setup, how much could you OC the CPU without water cooling it since the ambient temp in the case would have been reduced by some large amount.
If you water cool both, you could probably run the computer with only the evaporator fan.
I think that the reason why the 1802 was selected for space-going vehicles (like the Pioneer) was that it was available in a "rad hard" version -- radiation hardened, while processors like the 6502 were not. RCA was a major military contractor at the time so they had the capabilities to make Mil-spec stuff, while MOS was not.
Anyone have any ideas what other processors at the time were space qualified?
Todd Fischer is the "Fischer" in Fischer-Frietas, Inc. F-F purchased the assets (with his wife, Frietas, I believe. I don't remember her first name) of IMSAI when it went belly-up. Both worked at IMSAI; he in the serice department. Not too much later, F-F also closed (1983 I think). In 1999, Todd started-up Imsai again to capitalize on the growing wave of nostaliga surrounding the early S100 machines, particularly the Altair. This wave was fanned by the increasing awareness of the general public of the history of early personal computing, particularly as a result of books like "Gates" and documentaries about the Valley starring "Robert Cringley". These machines were showing up on eBay, with owners raking in mega-bucks...paying for vacations to the Bahamas with the proceeds from the sales of their formerly closet-bound computers to people with too much disposable income who saw an old Altair or IMSAI as a new investment vehicle. It seems like he's recently made the leap to production, with July delivery. I still can't justify spending $1000 for a machine that's not even the "real thing." It seems like an excellent re-implementation of the original, but it's just not the same. To get my fix of early computing, I've focused my efforts on running the Altair32 Emulation project. The project also has an IMSAI mode. The URL is http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/Alta ir32.htm
My server room shares space with my workshop so that I have all of my toys in one place (in reality, my wife tole me to keep my, er, "stuff" all in one place).
Anyway, everything is in a 7' rack salvaged from a PDP 11/34 setup (that gives it some history). The rack has a 9" fan at the top which I don't run otherwise I couldn't sleep.
In the rack I have UPSes at the bottom and a monitor at the top. Below the monitor is a RAID enclosure, then a DLT drive on a shelf then a surplus Compaq ProLiant server.
Mounted in the back of the rack (facing out the rear) is a 24 port 10/100 switch, a firewall and the cable modem. This connects by 15' patch cables to the punchdown block on the walll. Almost all rooms in the in the house are wired.
On the shelves near the rack is my "technical library" and spare parts warehouse.
The rack has no side panels so I draped some carpet padding on the sides to cut down on the noise -- the loudest being the 4 fans in the drive array box.