176
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] match@pawb.social 5 points 10 months ago

now I'm curious what the most powerful MS-DOS machine ever made is

[-] DdCno1@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

You can still buy new MS-DOS computers, for use with legacy equipment and software, like industrial machinery. The most powerful CPU this company is offering is a Pentium D from 2006:

https://nixsys.com/legacy-computers/ms-dos-computers

For an extra $95, they'll pre-install MS-DOS 6.22 for you, but it will of course only use 64 MB of the 1 GB RAM the machine comes with. That's a luxurious amount already. I've never used more than 48 MB with MS DOS and it was already more than plenty.

Motherboards for the LGA 775 socket were among the last to support ISA cards, which are why companies buy these new legacy computers in the first place. There's machinery out there worth millions and running entire factories, complex scientific instruments or medical equipment that requires interfacing with ISA cards. I've seen this myself and fixed a few of these systems. It's fun to take a machine off the factory floor that has been quietly doing its job for many decades. You wouldn't believe how much of the world is running on truly ancient hardware.

While it would be theoretically possible to e.g. create a new hardware interface and compatible software, this would not only be prohibitively expensive on its own, but require costly and lengthy certification on top, which just isn't feasible most of the time. That's where PCs like these come in. They may seem outrageously expensive given the ancient hardware they consist of, but compared to the equipment they'll be used with, they might as well be free - and on top of that, they come with a warranty, support hotline, etc. - unlike cobbling something together from old parts found on ebay.

[-] brokenlcd@feddit.it 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Last week i had to fix a cut and bend machine of that kind ( essentially it cuts steel sheets to a specific lenght with a guillotine and bends it into shape with an hydraulic press); it was originally just a cutter and the bending half was added afterwards: the cutter with the HID ran on a 486 board with a dos clone and was connected to the bender's controller board via an isa card; i checked the bender's board and it turned out to be a 6502 board... Talk about ol'reliable. I ended up needing to replace the 486 board with a pentium board( thankfully there are "industrial" boards with isa slots still made for older pentiums) and running everything trough freedos because someone slammed the steel sheets in the control cabin while feeding them in the machine. I was surpised to find a 6502 based embedded computer running with equipment that came standard with a flat panel monitor for the HID, but i guess when the machine's minimum lifespan is marked in decades you go for well tested stuff.

I am still resisting the temptation to go back there, dump the roms and reverse engineer the whole thing though

[-] glennglog22@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I would reckon it would be as powerful as the last most powerful machine to support Windows 9x (WinME falls under that category) since they were DOS-based.

[-] wrath_of_grunge@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

for those curious, it would be something along the lines of a AthlonXP and a Geforce 6000 series. there were Win98 drivers for that stuff.

[-] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

Or WinME. It's also DOS based... sooo 🤔... PIII I guess.

this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
176 points (100.0% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

26884 readers
1361 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS