Re: MLDL2000, Clonix/NoVRAM/NoV32, PILBox ... Users/Owners? New stuff? Message #2 Posted by 聲gel Martin on 24 Oct 2009, 2:13 a.m., in response to message #1 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)
Hi Luiz,
As you well say the new devices are instrumental (and the only real way) to put the new software to work on real 41's. I have sound copies of both the 41Z and the SandMath modules running on my MLDL2k and NoV32, as well on the V41 PC emulator. I don't have an iPhone but I must admit having been tempted to get one just to run them on it as well :)
There are other new modules, with fantastic features and intriguing possibilities. Peter Platzer's Multi Precision Library is a good example, and Doug Wilder's DISASM and BLDROM roms are a must-have on every serious 41 user. And there are many others I'm not using or just forget about right now... even a TCPIC rom! (How about " Control your fridge over the internet with your 41" ?? :)
In fact this is perhaps the success of the 41 platform, being an open environment where people can extend and expand things as they need or just feel like. By releasing the VASM to the open public HP allowed this sustained loyalty to the system, and was the trigger to establish the 41 as something worthwhile using 30 years later... a remarkable move, bold and not exempt of risk those days.
Unfortunately that was also the end to the hope for "revival editions" of the 41. I've been reflecting on this lately, and have come to the conclusion that we'll never see a 45S machine similar to the 35S building on the 35. Besides, what's to be revived? Certainly not the HP-IL bus, which remains as one of the finest examples of clever and ingenious engineering from HP. Not the SW either, as the programming examples amply demonstrate. But the speed of a new CPU of course that'll be a superb gift, not to mention a more capable display... Beyond that, I'm not sure.
And this is letting aside all the other real-world considerations about what companies are like these days, compared to how things (the world, really) was 30 years ago. I don't mean to sound nostalgic (hey, I'm the one programming MCODE versions of NPR and NCR on the 41, remember?) but let's face it: HP is not a philantropic organization, and arguably they shouldn't be!
But (and this is the saddest part of all) even if they were, I very much doubt they could do it nowadays. I know this will sound foolish but I'm convinced they've lost the capability to reproduce something like the 41 system in all its splendor. I don't even believe there are archived copies of the source documents anywhere to be found anymore... let alone people left who could do anything with them. Of course you could run emulations over simulators over replicators over... you get my point, but would that be consider a feat? Let's face it: a quantum leap occurred from the 67 to the 41, but that's just impossible to replicate.
Enough said, of course just my own opinion and probably not valid to anyone else. Sorry it's kinda long - hope it strikes some good discussion as your message has already.
Best wishes,
'AM
Edited: 24 Oct 2009, 2:25 a.m.
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