New FEM Computer

Re: New FEM Computer

My $6000 computer almost 40 years ago (Heathkit version of DEC LSI-11/2) was fully loaded with 32k of ram... That RAM card cost $1000 all by itself. The computer could only use 28k of that RAM because of reserved addresses on the same bus.

The computers I grew up with were called slide rules. and pocket calculators were when we took our hands out of our pocket to count on our fingers. :-)

JR
 
Re: New FEM Computer

Yeah, being in my 30s, I missed all the early years of computing. I used to go to work with my Dad and help out with the MicroVAX they had, but I never personally had anything before an Apple IIgs, we just didn't think about buying a computer when I was younger. But even still, the orders of magnitude, in size and cost, are amazing to me.
 
Re: New FEM Computer

John Roberts said:
My $6000 computer almost 40 years ago (Heathkit version of DEC LSI-11/2) was fully loaded with 32k of ram... That RAM card cost $1000 all by itself. The computer could only use 28k of that RAM because of reserved addresses on the same bus.

The computers I grew up with were called slide rules. and pocket calculators were when we took our hands out of our pocket to count on our fingers. :-)

JR
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And now firmware engineers complain that 32k of RAM isn't enough for embedded systems...
 
Re: New FEM Computer

Computers were already pretty advanced by the time you were exposed to them... Back in the '60s I had to keypunch Hollerith cards to do my computer class homework. They would run them overnight in batches....

These days I have some microprocessor chips smaller than my thumbnail with more power than that old room-sized IBM mainframe. :-)

JR
 
Re: New FEM Computer

John Roberts said:
Computers were already pretty advanced by the time you were exposed to them...
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Yeah, I think about this quite a bit. I wonder how things would be different if my parents had been more computer literate and had exposed me to them sooner. What it would have been like to work as an engineer 70s when all of this technology was first being built. I always come to the same conclusion: I remember how much time I used to waste, just on computers.

For me, like most people, computers are a tool. We are so blessed now-a-days, that the technology has matured to the point where we can spend less time messing with computers, and more time using computers to solve problems. Even 10 years ago, the amount of time I had to spend fussing with the computer was an order of magnitude more than today. I can sit down, and in a single day program up a sophisticated engineering tool with analog and digital interfaces and a top notch GUI. It's just awesome where we are at, and I'm pretty excited to see what's coming next.
 
Re: New FEM Computer

What amazes me is that my computer has such an excess of processing power, ram, buss speeds, etc. and yet Microsoft still can't code a version of Word that doesn't lock it up.
 
Re: New FEM Computer

Mark DeArman said:
Yeah, I think about this quite a bit. I wonder how things would be different if my parents had been more computer literate and had exposed me to them sooner. What it would have been like to work as an engineer 70s when all of this technology was first being built. I always come to the same conclusion: I remember how much time I used to waste, just on computers.
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Well in the early '70 my work place provided me a slide rule... If you think about it the precision was more than adequate for designing filters using 5% resistors and 10% caps. Of course you had to calculate the ballpark value in your head and the slide rule just supplied the significant digits. Nowadays kids grow up trusting calculators to supply all the digits and to place the decimal point.

By the end of the '70s I had my own Heathkit/DEC 16bit computer. Another tidbit we take for granted today. I also had to write all my own software, so I created a mailing list and inventory control data base from scratch (BASIC). I even wrote a filter design program that allowed me to plug real component values into multiple stage filters and plot out the overall frequency response (I used the tab command on a dot matrix printer to make a graphic response plot). This was hugely helpful for some of my early BBD delay design work. Imagine trying to optimize a filter on an actual breadboard with that many variables.
For me, like most people, computers are a tool. We are so blessed now-a-days, that the technology has matured to the point where we can spend less time messing with computers, and more time using computers to solve problems. Even 10 years ago, the amount of time I had to spend fussing with the computer was an order of magnitude more than today. I can sit down, and in a single day program up a sophisticated engineering tool with analog and digital interfaces and a top notch GUI. It's just awesome where we are at, and I'm pretty excited to see what's coming next.
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Computer aided design has revolutionized manufacturing... Back in the last century we could count on a certain amount of trial and error with new product development. It was necessary to prototype all the sundry parts to confirm mechanical fit, often encountering fit problems due to mistakes and/or incorrect assumptions.

Now even using crude (cheap) CAD tools we can export models of the different parts to share between computer programs and test for fit in the virtual domain before making the first prototype. This saves huge amounts of time and cost, dramatically reducing human error from the process.

I've done it both ways and the new way is better....

JR
 
Re: New FEM Computer

John Roberts said:
Computer aided design has revolutionized manufacturing... Back in the last century we could count on a certain amount of trial and error with new product development. It was necessary to prototype all the sundry parts to confirm mechanical fit, often encountering fit problems due to mistakes and/or incorrect assumptions.

Now even using crude (cheap) CAD tools we can export models of the different parts to share between computer programs and test for fit in the virtual domain before making the first prototype. This saves huge amounts of time and cost, dramatically reducing human error from the process.

I've done it both ways and the new way is better....

JR
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And we can print the pieces to see how they fit before before we waste a billet on a mistake.
 
Re: New FEM Computer

Tim Padrick said:
And we can print the pieces to see how they fit before before we waste a billet on a mistake.
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+1.... solid modeling used to be expensive, but now it's done with 3d printers and they keep getting cheaper.

At some point in the future small volume manufacturing may use 3D printing for production parts.

JR
 
Re: New FEM Computer

John Roberts said:
+1.... solid modeling used to be expensive, but now it's done with 3d printers and they keep getting cheaper.

At some point in the future small volume manufacturing may use 3D printing for production parts.

JR
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My friends dual 6", 4x2" and 4x1" exit compression driver cabinets, about 25% is being printed by a small army of 3d printers. I'll have to see if it is okay to post a picture at some point. It is pretty cool.
 
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Re: New FEM Computer

Mark Funderburk said:
Or IE ...when I accidentally open it.
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That's strange, never had a problem with word (on go knows how many different spec machines) or IE. Strangely had more problems with firefox than IE.

Though I was lucky as my first IT experience was with Acorn A series computers, pretty much were the standard school computer in the late 80's/early 90's, and not only had RISC OS (their own GUI based OS c/w bbc basic) on ROM (so sub 20s bootup) but used their own processor (Acorn Risc Machine) which was about 4x the power clock for clock as the intel processors available at the time.
They have long since gone out of business but split their processor side of the business which is now doing rather well.
 
Re: New FEM Computer

Daniel Levi said:
That's strange, never had a problem with word (on go knows how many different spec machines) or IE. Strangely had more problems with firefox than IE..
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Most peoples problems with Word and IE is that they have: 1) third-party plugins installed which are out of date, poorly written or just plain old malware, 2) printer drivers which are out of date or poorly written, or network printer issues. I've seen both things cause terrible stability issues and/or long start delays with the Office products over the years. Yes I'm calling you out Adobe PDF.
 
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