Author Archives: M. Eric Carr

Highway Robbery

Posted on 2009-01-14 by M. Eric Carr

Sometimes it pays to be a dinosaur. One of the AET students at Drexel sent me an email asking about a serial add-in card for an older CNC milling machine. The manufacturer’s site listed a used one that was available … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital, Nostalgia | Leave a comment

Windows 7

Posted on 2009-01-09 by M. Eric Carr

What could the newly-released beta of Windows 7 have to do with paleotechnology, you ask? It has everything to do with it, when good ol’ DOS is looking better and better all the time! I don’t know about you, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Digital Citizenship, System Administration | Leave a comment

Energy Star — Paleotechnology style!

Posted on 2008-12-15 by M. Eric Carr

A while back, I realized that the Z80 was drawing (relatively speaking) a lot of power. I know modern CPUs can both crunch your numbers and cook your dinner; the Intel Core i7 datasheet specifies a maximum of 145 AMPS … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital, DrACo/Z80, Drexel | Leave a comment

Prime Time

Posted on 2008-12-14 by M. Eric Carr

…and now, for something completely different. (By different, I mean almost useful!) The Z80 computer is now busy computing prime numbers! I wrote a straightforward BASIC program, which I then compiled using Oshonsoft‘s Z80 simulator suite of utilities. The resulting … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Digital, DrACo/Z80, Drexel, EET325 | 2 Comments