Sources for 8b TTL keyboards (Keytronics)

[Chuck Guzis]

On 4 Dec 2008 at 21:17, Tony Duell wrote:

 
> This makes no sense commerically, I agree. If I was going to make this as 
> a product, or part of one, I'd use a microcontroller. Period. But classic 
> computign is a _hobby_ for me, and darn it, I get to do it the way I 
> enjoy. And if that means a board of TTL chips. that's my business.

Perhaps a good place to start would be to replace that pesky uC in 
the keyboard itself with a bunch of TTL--if you could still get the 
result inside the enclosure.

This is very similar to the engineers who resisted using LSI (then) 
ICs.  I recall having a long conversation with an engineer who was 
designing a serial interface (nothing special) for an existing mini.  
I pointed out that there were MOS UARTs available that would do the 
job just fine, but he inisted on designing his own UART using some 
flavor (DCTL, ECL?) of SSI--and taking 6 months to do it at company 
expense.

Before that, there were those who mistrusted ICs and prefered to roll 
their own using discretes.

When I was working instrumentation in the steel mills, there were 
many who distrustred transistors and insisted on the the reliability 
of vacuum tubes.

The beat just goes on...

Cheers,
Chuck