Re: Turning the thing off (was Re: BESM-6

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2 total messages Started by roe... Roeber Frederick Tue, 25 Sep 1990 10:44

#4633

Author: roe... Roeber Frederick
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 1990 10:44

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In article <3289@mindlink.UUCP>, a80@mindlink.UUCP (Greg Goss) writes...
>On some machines it's faster to turn the thing off at the OFF switch.
> 
>In the middle of a Hack game (critical data, eh?) I accidentally kicked the
>plug out from my Amiga 1000.  I managed to get it plugged in again before the
>power supply gave up.  The benefits of not having hard disks or extra memory.
>I can't imagine it taking me any less than 6 seconds to realize what happenned
>and getting under the desk to replug the computer.
> 
My father has an IBM AT clone made by a tiny company in Idaho (Isotropic).
One thing this company got right was the power supply.  When you flip off 
the switch, or pull the plug, (or the transformer in the street blows up again)
the computer *just keeps running* for a few seconds.  Fan, hard drive, 
everything.

Frederick.

Re: Turning the thing off (was Re: BESM-6

#4634

Author: r... bob nutter
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 1990 15:25

22 lines
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In article <1990Sep25.1...@nntp-server.caltech.edu>, roe...@portia.caltech.edu (Roeber, Frederick) writes:
|> In article <3289@mindlink.UUCP>, a80@mindlink.UUCP (Greg Goss) writes...
|> >On some machines it's faster to turn the thing off at the OFF switch.
|> > 
|> >In the middle of a Hack game (critical data, eh?) I accidentally kicked the
|> >plug out from my Amiga 1000.  I managed to get it plugged in again before the
|> >power supply gave up.  The benefits of not having hard disks or extra memory.
|> >I can't imagine it taking me any less than 6 seconds to realize what happenned
|> >and getting under the desk to replug the computer.
|> > 
[stuff deleted]

Yeah, apart from the power supply storing charge, those dynamic RAM chips can hold data for a long while too, often a couple of minutes, which is enough to confuse the user who just hits reset or switches on/off quickly, and then 
wonders why the machine is still buggered. I seem to remember Texas selling 4ms (not 2ms) refresh chips. I bet they just tested them. Do they still reduce the RAM refresh time on PC's to speed them up?

bob
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bob nutter, computer officer    | There's a time to live,
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