From owner-freebsd-chat Sun May 17 21:27:56 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA29949 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Sun, 17 May 1998 21:27:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from softweyr.com ([204.68.178.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA29885 for ; Sun, 17 May 1998 21:27:41 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.com (localhost.softweyr.com [127.0.0.1]) by softweyr.com (8.8.8/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA28376; Sun, 17 May 1998 22:27:31 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Message-ID: <355FB8AD.E2779CDB@softweyr.com> Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 22:27:25 -0600 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr llc X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dan Janowski CC: Bret Ford , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SCO offers Ancient Unix Source Code License References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Dan Janowski wrote: > > I used to work on old SGI 3130's and when those > geometry engines were really working, you could hear > some very high pitched harmonic sounds eminating > from the box, seemingly right from the chips, > although this was difficult to confirm. I cut my 3D teeth on a 4D/60GT, later upgraded to a 4D/70. The funny high pitched noise actually came from the capacitors in the power supply; the current draw of the Geometry Pipeline would pull enough current through them to start the squeal. I helped install these machines in South Dakota; on cold (COLD COLD COLD!) winter days we would come into work, take our shoes off, and fire up the 'drip' demo to warm our toes and ankles. The 4D's had an 18-inch long squirrel-cage fan that would blow 180F air when the drip demo was running. ;^) > Where did the days of lights and sounds go? Sad, isn't it? No more blinkenlights. The actual hardware is becoming a complete mystery, not only to the users, but to most of the programmers. That's what the 'Dumming down of programming' article mentioned here a couple of days ago was lamenting. -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message