Stickers On Boxes

[+Lathe26]

 

In the chip-making industry, emulation still means a big box of wires and chips. Only, instead of looking like this:

 

PIC_emulator_board.png

 

they look like this:

 

palladium.jpg

 

That second one is the size of multiple refrigerators. I've had the good fortune to play with a few over the years.

 

Man, I'd almost forgotten about chip-emulation. Back in the mid-90s, co-workers were using emulator for a 68040. They had to solder a surface-mount part, then use a 6 inch high stack of adapters, and then a thick cable to a PC-sized box that probably cost 5 or 6 digits of $. The setup was so physically fragile and top-heavy that if you bumped it, you might crack a solder joint. Oy!

 

JTAG isn't quite as powerful as the old chip-emulation, but boy is it easier (and hardware safer) to use.

[m-crew]

Years ago, my dad and his twin brother were in the comics collecting trade, and they'd go looking for all sorts of neat estate finds. Back then, it was neat finding 30+ year old rare comics in near mint, sometimes hiding in attics or old furniture. Now, it's finding 30+ year old unique Intellivisions (and other classic games) in near mint.

 

 

 

In the chip-making industry, emulation still means a big box of wires and chips. Only, instead of looking like this:

 

PIC_emulator_board.png

 

they look like this:

 

palladium.jpg

 

That second one is the size of multiple refrigerators. I've had the good fortune to play with a few over the years.

 

When I first started in the industry, I wondered why they called JTAG functionality "in circuit emulation." Turns out, it comes from its heritage within these big boxes-o-wires. With a true old-school box-o-chips-and-wires emulator box, you could look at register values and other internal state by physically connecting a logic analyzer or the like to the actual register, because it was actually a discrete chip (or chips) you could point to. "In-circuit Emulation" meant "we can give you the same visibility of those big boxes o' wires, with the actual chip." In the early days, they'd often make two versions of the chip, one with emulator functionality and one without. Later, transistors got cheap enough—and chips got complex enough—that they just make one version now.

 

 

Quite possibly. It'd be able to reuse the existing English documentation. Even if the UK got versions of the docs w/ Americanisms changed, that's still a shorter path than translating into other languages. I wonder how the regulatory paths differ in the different countries, and if the units vary much among Europe. (I know France is special, with their SECAM. )

Always neat and cool to find anything that old and mint. Back 10 years ago I moved in to my place here and this house is built in early 1800s and im still finding cool things around here. Plus only being the 5th owners of this place helps. One family lived here for 150 years or so.. Pretty cool

[Intymike]

 

 

 

 

Quite possibly. It'd be able to reuse the existing English documentation. Even if the UK got versions of the docs w/ Americanisms changed, that's still a shorter path than translating into other languages. I wonder how the regulatory paths differ in the different countries, and if the units vary much among Europe. (I know France is special, with their SECAM. )

 

 

I assume it's mainly because of different channels the Intellivision transmits it's content on. In Germany the channels are 3 and 4 (with a switch). My UK Intellivision is on channel 32 without a switch to chose. I don't now the specifications for other countries.

[mr_me]

I have a UK big box. It seems that the brits got the Intellivision quite early (no wonder there were many red Space Battles and Space Armadas). Maybe the first PAL Intellivisions that were released.

It was definitely in the UK in 1981 but my understanding is few people there bought it. British home computers were selling for less than half the price of an Intellivision in the early 1980s.

 

How about Germany, do you know when the Intellivision was first available there?

[Intymike]

It was definitely in the UK in 1981 but my understanding is few people there bought it. British home computers were selling for less than half the price of an Intellivision in the early 1980s.

 

How about Germany, do you know when the Intellivision was first available there?

 

 

It had it's first appearance at a HiFi exhibition in august 1982.