RCA's prediction from 1964

More like the mid 60s.
First integrated circuit was developed in 1958, 11 years after the first transistor.

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Yep, we had TI calculators with integrated circuits in the early ‘70s.
1972 SR-10:
image

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Another culture change w/ no integrated circuits: Every morning we’d wake up, stumble outside, and pick up our newspaper laying in the driveway.

There might be something like a car talk Amateur radio net! Or we could write in to a mainframe, or something like a PDP11 with external disk storage, on a telephone line connected terminal. If new diseases didn’t progress past the late 60s, Tom Magliozzi would probably still be around and on the air since Alzheimer’s disease was more rare back then.

More like a device no more powerful as a Palm Pilot running on a something like a PDP11 that is the size of a refrigerator!

With small surface mount technology, all the PDP11 discreet components would probably fin in less than 1/2 the size of the original refrigerator sized PDP11!

Yes that’s more realistic. But the PDP11 came out in 1970 and used all discreet components. The IC version came out in 75. We would be stuck in 1970 at the latest!

With radio and TV! I think a color TV set would cost a fair amount more than a black and white set without the help of ICs.

We would have CB radios in our cars too!

1970 seems like it had the right amount of technology, without us getting addicted or starting to have our privacy violated.

I still do that (front porch, no driveway).

We used to do that but the cost of home delivery is so high that we went to digital delivery. The cost is an order of magnitude less. The only thing I miss is having newspaper for the table when we eat steamed crabs, and that isn’t often given the price. You probably read the Post, I don’t. I have a couple of neighbors that still have the Post delivered though.

I am about to do the same thing. I did manage to get a price reduction for home delivery a few months ago, after stating that I intended to cancel my subscription. (Just as with cable TV and some other services, the price IS variable–if you make enough noise about wanting to quit.) But, even with the price cut for home delivery, I intend to switch to digital-only prior to the next billing cycle.

I get my newspaper digitally, on the same device that im typing this.

I can’t bundle up my laptop and throw it in the woodstove (I am tempted sometimes!)

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I fed two woodstoves for 12 years. Never again. But I found that fatwood was the best at starting fires compared to newsprint. As sold, the stick sizes are way too large, I used to section them down into half a dozen smaller slivers and then they are easier to ignite and you get 6x more fires from the package. I still have some, we use them for the outdoor firepit. I used my car to transport them home from the store :wink:

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That’s cool, must have been very challenging work! I was designing using COTS parts for the most part. My experience at that point was in embedded control for primarily industrial control electronics. I have been fortunate to stay abreast of the trends in subsequent jobs and still working, although resource management is 95% of the job versus technical development.

It’s all about integrated mixed signal now; digital and analog features on a single die. The construction of analog circuits has changed along with it. Mitigating electrical interference has always been tough but manageable using tried and true techniques. I haven’t had to design a truly low noise analog front end in a long time. Back then, it was separate ICs, distance, decoupling, filtering, separate ground planes, impedance matching and other PCB design techniques etc. I imagine that is a huge task in these new chip designs.

Here’s something briefly describing the trends- The state of analog design industry in 2021 and beyond - Planet Analog

I’ve been burnin’ for 26 years.
Going to family members nearby wooded homes and gathering firewood is part of my exercise program.
I did not mean to imply I start my woodstove with newspaper.
I use Duraflame Firestart blocks, cut into quarters.
They used to be bigger and I could cut them into 6 pieces.

Just to keep this post automotive, don’t need no thirsty pickup either:

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26 years! Dang! My hat’s off to you.
I still have an electric wood splitter I used to keep in the basement to split kiln dried I would stack down there for the really cold times I didn’t want to do it outside.

I probably have 40 or more cords of downed wood out back. The ants and termites can have it. In this house I have a fake fire scene in the fireplace complete with steam smoke and a crackle box :grinning:

I have a wood burning fireplace that i sheetrocked over years ago.