From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jan 31 17:05:56 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id RAA01086 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 31 Jan 1996 17:05:56 -0800 (PST) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA01076 for ; Wed, 31 Jan 1996 17:05:51 -0800 (PST) Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id LAA20591; Thu, 1 Feb 1996 11:45:42 +1030 From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199602010115.LAA20591@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: Watchdog timers (was: Re: Multi-Port Async Cards) To: jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com (Joe Greco) Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 11:45:41 +1030 (CST) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199601311739.LAA07197@brasil.moneng.mei.com> from "Joe Greco" at Jan 31, 96 11:39:58 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk Joe Greco stands accused of saying: > > Depending on what parts were required, I'd guess at ~$60 or so (assembled). > > (My guess is a GAL and an 8254 would be the order of the day). > > Hmm. This goes along with one of my other "wish list" items that I've been > meaning to work on "someday"... a built-in POST code decoder. These are already available, and incredibly trivial to implement. _decoding_ the POST codes is a little tougher. > Now before you write me off as crazy, let me explain further... I don't > know how many of us had seen IBM's PC-RT from the late '80's, but one nice > feature it had was a POST code display on the front panel. Useful for > debugging. However, once AOS (IBM's 4.3BSD UNIX) was up and running, > something cute happened: UNIX started putting out the current load average > on the POST display. This tended to give a really warm fuzzy about what was > happening (or not happening) on the box, and when you have a machine room > with a dozen systems racked and stacked it would be nice to have it. > A POST code reader was described a few years back in one of the > computer/electronics rags, and I still have a copy of it. Basically a > GAL(?) or two tossed on a PC card. > > Just another nice feature missing from your average PC. Wanna build an > "all-in-one" card? :-) *sigh* Surface area costs (lots). So far the wish list is : - Watchdog. - High-resolution timer. - POST decoder. - NV console buffer. (- Prestoserv. *laugh*) Anything else people want? Maybe a soft-serve interface? 8) > Joe Greco - Systems Administrator jgreco@ns.sol.net -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] "wherever you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai [[