User Chromatix

61 votes

Why was the return key symbol ↵ drawn differently from the motion of a CR-LF?

ibm-pc keyboards

answered Mar 19, 2020 at 5:32

60 votes

Why were relays prevalent in early 1940s computers when vacuum tubes were also available?

answered May 16, 2021 at 4:26

49 votes

Accepted

Why were optical drives not used as secondary storage instead of magnetic drives?

hardware hard-disk storage

answered May 16, 2020 at 7:26

36 votes

When did compilers start generating optimized code that runs faster than an average programmer's assembly code?

compilers

answered Sep 12, 2020 at 9:43

35 votes

Accepted

Why did the IBM PC have an internal power supply?

ibm-pc power

answered Oct 3, 2020 at 23:13

34 votes

What did the "programs" that "human computers" executed look like?

history

answered Jul 26, 2020 at 19:42

30 votes

Accepted

Did the 68000 separate A/D registers save circuitry?

hardware motorola-68000 architecture

answered Sep 7, 2020 at 12:21

30 votes

Accepted

Why does PAUSE key have a long make code and no break code?

keyboards

answered Sep 6, 2019 at 23:14

28 votes

How fast were BASIC interpreters in the 80s? (Is this optimization for speed really necessary?)

basic performance home-computers

answered Jun 20, 2021 at 13:49

26 votes

Accepted

3 beeps on a 486 computer with an American Megatrends bios?

x86 ram

answered Aug 5, 2019 at 20:43

25 votes

What is DRAM refresh and why is the weird Apple II video memory layout affected by it?

apple-ii dram

answered Mar 3, 2020 at 14:19

24 votes

Was it possible to write a novel on a BBC Micro 16kb/32kb memory era computer without expansions?

memory bbc-micro

answered Jul 3, 2020 at 14:51

24 votes

How did the "Programmer's Switch" work on early Macintosh Computers?

hardware programming apple-macintosh debugging

answered Apr 15, 2021 at 17:46

23 votes

Accepted

Why the change in layout of single and double precision in floating-point registers?

history floating-point architecture

answered Sep 13, 2020 at 14:02

21 votes

Could you create a loop in direct-mode with BASIC?

basic

answered Jul 20, 2020 at 5:33

20 votes

Accepted

How did 68k-based Macs (or other contemporary systems) detect how much RAM was installed?

apple-macintosh motorola-680x0

answered May 21, 2020 at 21:04

19 votes

Was it possible programmatically to manipulate the volume as well as the pitch on computers with no sound chip?

hardware programming sound

answered May 3, 2020 at 3:20

19 votes

Why is the keyboard and cellphone / telephone numbers in a different order?

keyboards

answered Jul 13, 2020 at 13:16

19 votes

Why was "C:" chosen for the first hard drive partition?

history ms-dos

answered Dec 4, 2020 at 16:54

18 votes

Accepted

Are the 6809 and 6809E different from a programmer's point of view?

instruction-set 6809

answered Oct 13, 2020 at 17:47

18 votes

Why did so many early microcomputers use the MOS 6502 and variants?

hardware history 6502

answered Jun 29, 2019 at 0:43

18 votes

Accepted

9-pin vs 10-pin serial port ribbon cables

ibm-pc serial rs232

answered Jun 14, 2021 at 20:54

17 votes

How did the Rush 3D engine in Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride work?

graphics game game-boy-advance

answered Feb 28, 2021 at 4:09

17 votes

Accepted

What was the 1 MHz bus used for on the BBC micro series?

bbc-micro ports

answered Apr 1, 2021 at 16:45

17 votes

Do the holes in Jacquard loom punched cards represent input data or program code?

file-format early-computer punched-cards

answered Nov 28, 2019 at 21:10

17 votes

Accepted

Cost of unrestricted sprites

history hardware video chip sprite

answered Jan 17, 2020 at 16:23

17 votes

Accepted

x87 trigonometric instructions

8087 80387

answered Mar 28, 2020 at 18:22

16 votes

Can special tools recover data from floppy disks when Windows Explorer fails to do so?

floppy-disk floppy-drive data-preservation

answered Jul 9, 2020 at 18:41

16 votes

What really is a sound card driver in MS-DOS?

ms-dos ibm-pc sound driver

answered Dec 31, 2020 at 5:16

16 votes

How slow was the 6502 BASIC compared to Assembly

assembly basic 6502 performance

answered Sep 29, 2019 at 0:36

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164 Answers

Why was the return key symbol ↵ drawn differently from the motion of a CR-LF?

Why were relays prevalent in early 1940s computers when vacuum tubes were also available?

Why were optical drives not used as secondary storage instead of magnetic drives?

When did compilers start generating optimized code that runs faster than an average programmer's assembly code?

Why did the IBM PC have an internal power supply?

What did the "programs" that "human computers" executed look like?

Did the 68000 separate A/D registers save circuitry?

Why does PAUSE key have a long make code and no break code?

How fast were BASIC interpreters in the 80s? (Is this optimization for speed really necessary?)

3 beeps on a 486 computer with an American Megatrends bios?

What is DRAM refresh and why is the weird Apple II video memory layout affected by it?

Was it possible to write a novel on a BBC Micro 16kb/32kb memory era computer without expansions?

How did the "Programmer's Switch" work on early Macintosh Computers?

Why the change in layout of single and double precision in floating-point registers?

Could you create a loop in direct-mode with BASIC?

How did 68k-based Macs (or other contemporary systems) detect how much RAM was installed?

Was it possible programmatically to manipulate the volume as well as the pitch on computers with no sound chip?

Why is the keyboard and cellphone / telephone numbers in a different order?

Why was "C:" chosen for the first hard drive partition?

Are the 6809 and 6809E different from a programmer's point of view?

Why did so many early microcomputers use the MOS 6502 and variants?

9-pin vs 10-pin serial port ribbon cables

How did the Rush 3D engine in Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride work?

What was the 1 MHz bus used for on the BBC micro series?

Do the holes in Jacquard loom punched cards represent input data or program code?

Cost of unrestricted sprites

x87 trigonometric instructions

Can special tools recover data from floppy disks when Windows Explorer fails to do so?

What really is a sound card driver in MS-DOS?

How slow was the 6502 BASIC compared to Assembly