I too have an old spectrometer that requires a PC with an ISA slot,
[Bomem MB series] and the interface card is ISA form. It has been a
challenge to find old PC's with an ISA slot, most are recycled for
scrap. The ones I have came from thrift stores, but now the thrift
stores are reluctant to carry old PC's. No one wants them except a few
people with specific hardware/software requirements.
I also use an old PC that still has the ability to run both 3.5 and 5.25
inch floppies for transferring data to Vax/PDP-11 machines using PUTR.
The 5.25 inch floppy was dropped from most late model PC's, the
controller chip wouldn't support it.
Doug
On 12/19/2018 12:03 AM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
I repaired a Spectrometer for Morgan University in Baltimore that had a
vintage computer at its heart, used for training purposes and perfectly
good. The computer just needed some TLC to get it back up and running. I
think it was a P-II as well, there was a control card that would only work
with the pre-PCI bus
b
On Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 11:54 PM Jason Howe via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
Indeed.
Just this year, we pulled our Pentium Pro box off our museum shelf and
did a fresh install of NT4 for a faculty member and their scientific
instrument.
--Jason
On 12/18/18 5:48 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:
On Dec 18, 2018, at 2:51 PM, ben via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I would take a guess for custom hardware or software that never
migrated to Windows 13 or USB IIV. Ben.
Being a photographer, I know there is a real market for this. Many
high-end scanners will only work with older Macintosh or Windows systems.
I have a scanner that originally cost $10,000, and the only software for it
runs on Windows XP (thankfully I can use Parallels Desktop to run XP and
use it). Other, even more expensive scanners require even older software
that requires physical systems. I also have some pretty high-end Macintosh
A/V HW & SW that won’t run on newer systems.
I’m sure there is plenty of lab type equipment in this category as well.
Zane
