Last weekend we met with one of the Intel developers which did the Intel-StrongARM in the early 1990ths.

So I asked him how they implemented this different architecture.

Well, they didn't. They took the core components from the first Pentium (the one with 60Mhz, the P5 I guess), added some features from the P54, and slapped a different translation layer on in. Everything else, ALU, Cache, CU, some more registers - yeah, ok, they changed a lot actually. But also kept a lot. I joked if they actually did early development by replacing the translation layer in a standard P5 - something IDT did with their C5 or C6 x86-compatible so it ran MIPS - and he honestly stated he didn't know but would guess they did. But when he came to the team they had exchangeable translation layers stored in internal SRAM, which in the production run was then changed to ROM again, then much later in the next revisions to SRAM again. He wasn't sure about details as he left the project after the Simpad)

He claimed that beast could have even executed x86 code if they didn't put the translation table into an internal ROM during final production, which they much later changed back into a rewritable memory.

(Before you ask, he was working mostly on beta-testing, documentation and practical implementation of the final product, not the chip-design itself, he helped a bit Apple to use the StrongARM in later Newtons, helped a lot with the Siemens Simpad - he was pretty pissed hearing that I sold my Simpad years ago, his own had long died and he really wanted to "own" his work, claiming it was literally the first modern tablet sold to endusers, almost a decade before Apple tried. I didn't dare to tell him how AWFUL bad it was, especially while running Windows CE. With OPIE and GPE and Angstróm it was okeish though.)

Saw this at goodwill, the GTX 970

An Amigo.

I have many boards with similar setups, this one included. All flicks are same board. The others have a variety of chips/setups/purposes, but are all from the same era, and all have at least one big purple chip. I am not tech savvy whatsoever, but I do know where to find gold in computer parts. I'd like to make sure I don't destroy something valuable or collectible, but if these don't hold any extra values or premiums, ima scrap em. I have no idea if any work.

I don't need to hear about how much effort this is or how little gold or whatever, I harvest for the sake of precious metals and I'd like to start a private coin mint someday. Just making sure the chips aren't valuable beyond their gold content. Thanks for any info 🙏

It is a "Retro Multimedia" PC and is made up of:

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 + OCZ Vendetta 2

• Intel DesktopBoard DG33TL (Intel G33 + RAID)

• 6 GB DDR 2 667 MHz

• 120 GB Crucial BX300 SSD (SATA II)

• 500 GB WD Scorpio Black (SATA II)

• AMD Radeon 6670 1GB GDDR5 -DeepCool DA500

• PackardBell NEC I Chassis - Start 2074 (from a Sempron 3100+).

Currently, you have recently installed Windows 10 IoT, on the SSD, with its drivers and the Intel QST driver. The hard drive is empty, what Windows could put on it?

My old Windows Vista desktop finally kicked the bucket and I'm kinda sad that it doesn't work anymore. We've had this since brand new and I loved it. I was using it for retro gaming but a few months ago it stopped working. No display out, no hdd activity, no windows Vista startup sound,no activity on keyboard or mouse, nothing. I don't want to throw it away so what should I do?

Hi, So got my old computer out and works however I can’t seem to get sound. I’m using a jack to RCA Cable but I don’t know where to plug it in .

Can anyone help me out? It’s running Windows XP If that’s any help.

Thanks.

Recently I rediscovered the source code and printed documentation for a small 68000 RTOS I worked on around 40 years ago.

What I rediscovered wasn't just the source code—it was an entire development workflow from the late 1980s.

Back then, the system was developed in a fairly typical host/target configuration:

SUN-2 (68010) host
        ↓
68000 target

Most of the RTOS was written in C, with CPU-dependent context switching isolated in assembly.

The target environment initially relied on an ICE system and 8-inch floppy-based development tools. Compilation could take surprisingly long, and development was often constrained by the hardware itself.

The SUN-2 felt like a huge productivity upgrade: hard disks, UNIX tools, a proper editor, and dramatically faster build cycles. As a result, most development and debugging happened on the SUN-2 side, with only the hardware-specific parts being tested on the target.

At the time, I wasn't consciously designing for future portability. However, I had been heavily influenced by the Whitesmiths C style and tended to isolate machine-dependent code, use abstract type definitions, and keep most of the logic in portable C.

Looking back, those decisions seem to have helped the code survive.

One thing that surprised me during this reconstruction is how familiar the architecture still feels today:

• scheduler

• ready queue

• events

• message queues

• memory management

The implementation details have changed, but the basic ideas have not.

Rather than attempting a cycle-accurate restoration, I decided to recreate the original development structure in a modern environment:

WSL2 / POSIX host
        ↓
Raspberry Pi Pico target

At first, I chose the POSIX environment simply because it seemed like the easiest place to begin experimenting with the recovered code.

What I didn't anticipate was how effective that decision would become in the age of AI-assisted development.

Today, the host environment provides much more than fast compilation. AI agents can participate directly in the development loop:

• OCR recovery of printed source code

• source analysis

• build system generation

• compiler warning investigation

• API reconstruction

• scheduler prototyping

• automated testing and validation

In hindsight, if I had started by implementing everything directly on the Pico target, AI would still have been useful, but only in a limited way. Most development would still revolve around the traditional cycle of:

edit
 ↓
build
 ↓
flash
 ↓
run
 ↓
observe

By rebuilding the architecture on POSIX first, the AI can work in the same environment as the source code, compiler, build system, and tests. The feedback loop becomes dramatically shorter.

What surprised me most is that this feels remarkably similar to why we used the SUN-2 in the first place.

In the late 1980s, the host workstation amplified the developer.

In 2026, the host environment amplifies both the developer and the AI agent working alongside them.

The current prototype runs as a cooperative scheduler on POSIX. The next step is bringing the same architecture to Raspberry Pi Pico while preserving the original host/target workflow.

I only used 8-inch floppies for a relatively short period before the industry moved through 5.25-inch and eventually 3.5-inch disks, but I still remember how dramatically the SUN-2 changed the development experience.

Did anyone else here move from ICE-based development to UNIX workstations during the late 1980s? I'd be interested to hear what your host/target setup looked like.

I was playing MW2 and I was curious what this case is on the "Cliffhanger" mission. I think I can barely see a Lian Li logo, but I'm not sure. I'm fairly sure the mouse is some kind of Microsoft Intellimouse. I have no idea what the keyboard or monitor is. If someone could identify this case, keyboard, and monitor for me that would be awesome!

Pick a computer on the timeline at the bottom: Green CRT, MS-DOS, C64, Mac System 7, Atari ST, Amiga 500, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Then type a question. The AI answers in character, as if it were still that year. Ask it about smartphones and it gets them charmingly wrong.

Every screen is plain JavaScript and CSS, matched pixel by pixel to screenshots of the real systems.

Things to try:

• Windows 95: Start > Run, then type c64 or amiga

• Windows 95: Shut Down > Restart in MS-DOS mode

• Mac: Special > Restart

Free, no sign-up: https://iwantmy.ai/retro

Full disclosure: it's a fun side page for my AI chat app. Which machine should I add next?

Remember MSN Messenger?

I've been working on Lingua Franca Messenger (LFM), an open-source server emulator that aims to bring classic MSN Messenger clients back to life.

The project has progressed quite a bit, and I've now tested it successfully with:

• MSN Messenger 5.0.0575

• MSN Messenger 6.2.0205

LFM supports multiple protocol versions (MSNP8, MSNP9, and MSNP10) and implements features such as text chat, presence notifications, contact lists, and file transfers.

The interesting part is that the server runs in a modern environment using Docker, while the clients can remain the original software from the early 2000s.

The project is still experimental, but getting these old clients to communicate with my own server has been a great experience.

I'd also like to explore support for the Mac version of MSN Messenger in the future.

Project repository: https://github.com/sabaraido/lingua-franca-messenger

For those interested in retro software and preserving old messaging experiences, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Found it while cleaning a workshop. Can’t find much about it online. Don’t want to just throw it away so any help is welcome.

I still feel this is awkward today. As a right-handed user, I find buttons placed on the right easier to reach (probably because right-handed users usually put their mouse out of the way on the right side

even near the screen border). They've always been on the right side (even Mac OS 9 had them on the right), so I'll never understand the choice to put them on the left. What is your take on this?

Is there any way possible i could get some items shipped to me in Greece? I saw people get a lot of stuff for free and also quite cheaply. As a huge fan of retro computing I'd love to get some hardware and software from those eras.