Trixter's blog on the PCjr can be found here:
http://trixter.wordpress.com/
There are some parts I disagree with, but we all know my bias.
http://trixter.wordpress.com/
There are some parts I disagree with, but we all know my bias.
There are some parts I disagree with, but we all know my bias.
Actually, I wrote that with you very much in mind -- I'd love to know what parts you disagree with. If opinion, I'm curious and if factual, I have no problem correcting the post. Let me know.
Now if you want to pick on a real design flaw, go for the keyboard using the NMI to deserialize the incoming data stream. That little flaw effectively limits the machine to around 2400 bps for serial communications.
The 'Chiclet' keyboard was replaced for free by a slightly better keyboard within the first few months of the machine's life. The keyboard issue is overblown when you take this into account. If you contacted IBM, you got the new keyboard - no questions asked. The new keyboard is internally the same as the original keyboard, including the rubber dome technology. The major difference is the shape of the keycaps, which more people are used to for touch typing - bigger with angled sides is better than small and rectangular.
Criticizing the machine for rebooting when a cartridge was inserted or removed is a little unfair. How many other machines of the time do you know let you hot-swap a ROM upgrade without powering down? Living through a machine reset is minor for what it allows you to do. And besides delivering software, those cartridges allowed for system ROM enhancements which were unheard of on other PCs.
Lastly, I took the liberty of posting a comment on the blog about the upgrade/hack culture that grew up around the PCjr because of these shortcomings. No other IBM machine (with the exception of the 6Mhz PC AT that was often bumped to 8Mhz) was ever so widely modified by owners.
Having had a recent epiphany, I feel a sacred obligation to preach the gospel as it was revealed to me (through a post in these forums). For many years I had unfairly judged the Peanut as an inferior machine because, like many other folks, I was intent on comparing it to the IBM PC. The only fair comparison, however, is vs other 'Home Computers' of the era, the market it was designed to compete in, and in that light, the PCjr outshines all others in it's class.
--T