One for us old farts who have been around computers too long.

[LittleGreyCat]

Did you ever turn a plastic drinking cup into a helicopter to float above the vents?

 

[Revolvor]

I sent my son the link to the YouTube video in the OP, and he promptly ordered a bunch of Z80 chips " just in case they came in useful"!

He is currently designing and building an installation that includes 64 Arduinos, all interacting with each other.

 

[Bill-H]

That is still the way lots of data centres do it where the data centre is shared. My racks at a data centre had a big hole at the bottom of each rack which blasted cold air into the cabinet. This then left the top of the cabinet where the hot air was taken to the conditioning unit.
The data centre floors were noticeably cold when you entered.

The heat some of the big old units created - even though spaced several feet apart meant you could work in there in a shirt ( and trousers as well...). Everything was powered through a very big rack of lead-acid batteries and chargers, inverters etc, to guard against any power outages, some of the older stuff needed several hours and lots or procedures -including re-running all the previous days backup tapes through them just to perform a re-boot. Not much fun when there's only you there half way through a 12 hour night shift.

 

[swemmy666]

That is still the way lots of data centres do it where the data centre is shared. My racks at a data centre had a big hole at the bottom of each rack which blasted cold air into the cabinet. This then left the top of the cabinet where the hot air was taken to the conditioning unit.
The data centre floors were noticeably cold when you entered.

and the big IBM's, Amdahl's were water cooled, had chillers the size of a large double wardrobe, peripheral cables the diameter of your forearm

 

[Brains]

I'm a newbie, I did not get involved until 1984.

We were dealing with Stride Micro 68000 computers, where you could run 4 x VDU's (12" green screens) AND and dot matrix printer all off the same 'server' at the same time !

At the time, it was the fastest computer on the planet, beating anying Bill Gates had to the power of four.

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[Insider]

We had a VAX system in our college that I started messing around with as an undergrad. I do remember a cute post grade leaving the table in the dining hall and as she was halfway across the room turned around and shouted to me asking could I "finger" her later. It took a few seconds for it to sink in.....for everyone in the room. That's what got me into computers. Been downhill ever since.

 

[Gromett]

We had a VAX system in our college that I started messing around with as an undergrad. I do remember a cute post grade leaving the table in the dining hall and as she was halfway across the room turned around and shouted to me asking could I "finger" her later. It took a few seconds for it to sink in.....for everyone in the room. That's what got me into computers. Been downhill ever since.

I think you may need to explain the finger command so the few who have read this who haven't been around computers for so long know what you meant

 

[swemmy666]

I'm a newbie, I did not get involved until 1984.

We were dealing with Stride Micro 68000 computers, where you could run 4 x VDU's (12" green screens) AND and dot matrix printer all off the same 'server' at the same time !

At the time, it was the fastest computer on the planet, beating anying Bill Gates had to the power of four.

not really, there were IBM mainframes with 10's of thousands of green screen users

 

[G-RMPS]

And DEC launched the 32-bit VAX 11/780 in 1977. So 32-bit was already four years old when Stride launched theirs.

 

[Gromett]

And DEC launched the 32-bit VAX 11/780 in 1977. So 32-bit was already four years old when Stride launched theirs.

Yeah, but there is a hell of a difference between a mini and a micro computer in cost and size. The 68000 was a game changer for the home computer market and for small businesses. Must have been at least 10 times the cost at a bare minimum?

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[swemmy666]

IBM had introduced 32 bit registers in the late 70's/early 80's but continued to use 24 bit addressing until they announced the XA OS's. MVS/XA and VM/XA (extended architechture). These used 31 bit addressing with the high order bit as a "MODE" indicator, allowing older subsystems, ISV products, user code to run as 24 bit programs, whilst allowing the subsystems CICS, IMS, DB2 that needed it (and the OS) to use 31. This extended the memory range from 16 Megabytes to 2 Gigabytes for those subsystems