Results 1 ... 52 found in asciilifeform for 'bolix'
dulapbot: (pest) 2024-02-19 asciilifeform: still of the pov that 'the Right Thing' would be an iron on which it'd be conceivable to slowly rebuild sane system, incl. in the ways demonstrated by bolix, but to this day not knows any plausible way to finance such an effort
asciilifeform suspects that to this day, no 1 person has 1) sufficient bolix dies + 2) the moneys + 3) the time/inclination for proper reversing. not knows how to fix this tho. aint about to send priceless irons to some rando without any obligations
asciilifeform: http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/asciilifeform/2022-06-24#1109082 << nope, and not in the bolix emulator either; whole fucking point is that it gotta work on erryday comp where errythingelse happens
asciilifeform: ( tho ftr 'thinking machines co' in its last yrs beat a hasty, futile retreat into off-shelf components. similarly for that matter to bolix )
phf: our common bolix acquaintance often times makes a point "why not best tool always", was the one who convinced me that i need hakko
asciilifeform: verisimilitude: likely even 1um is smallenuff (2um was good enuff for bolix) ; but it aint as if the old processes somehow cheap
phf: asciilifeform: i think schemexx cpu was a novel idea, traditionally wild pointer problem was solved at the level of ucode. at least for bolix i suspect by the time they were making a cpu (and they've poached everyone they could from schemexx project), they already had to deal with legacy architecture.
asciilifeform not aboutta 'hurrr, designers at bolix -- idjits!!' -- folx were working under obv. economic constraints, even at the peak of phree reagan moolah
asciilifeform: this is possibly 1 piece of the puzzle 'wai bolix died?' . ultimately was making slightly-fancier 'sparc' and the folx making unashamed 'regular' sparc etc. ate'em and laughed.
asciilifeform: http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/asciilifeform/2022-06-12#1106115 << btw bolix didn't use fiber, it went over triax (well, coax with coupla added strands), at one time asciilifeform tried to decode but in fact was too fast for his 200mhz scope, lol)
asciilifeform: ( bolix 3600 already iirc came with the spiffy triax megacable + remote console thing )
asciilifeform: sad pc folx still waiting to catch up to bolix here too..
phf: but somehow feels hacky. bolix "solved" this problem a decade ago :>
asciilifeform going for precisely 'bolix-flavoured' setup, instead of coupla kwatt of hot boxen in office and window ac year round lol
phf: i want a bolix like setup: terminals in various rooms that are running off the basement server, etc.
asciilifeform: iirc mit released 0 many yrs after bolix conclusively folded
asciilifeform: is wai asciilifeform moar into bolix archaeology than cadr; bolix was at least halfway into 'remove the wirewrap hacks and refine to logical design'
phf: asciilifeform: people who i know who solved that problem (the bolix guy you've met for example) run voip, not sure if that is "simply", but a solution. have both intercom and physical phones connected to outside
asciilifeform could be the last remaining who never once saw anyffin memorable imho on twatter. well maybe with the exception of rainier joswig's bolix screenshots, back when couldn't run the thing on own desk
asciilifeform: phf: many yrs ago i requisitioned acl ( in same shop where got the bolix... ) but shamefully must admit never had chance to properly put to use.
asciilifeform: (that is, whether 'appointed by pentagon to ensure 'putler' dun get bolix ip' or 'rockefeller, collected it with jade horses to keep in his scrooge mcduck gold swimming pool' )
asciilifeform: PeterL: at this pt, no one even knows if the still seekrit sources (to e.g. bolix's 'ns' cmos cad) even ~still exist~)
dulapbot: (trilema) 2017-03-10 asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: since '09 or so i was one of very few people publicly interested in reversing the bolix gear. and apparently ~all of the aficionados, saw me as 'dangerous fool' who 'might piss off dks'...
dulapbot: Logged on 2022-03-28 01:28:37 mangol: case in point, only now realized that "bolix" is a contraction of "symbolics"
mangol: case in point, only now realized that "bolix" is a contraction of "symbolics"
asciilifeform: e.g. i386 wouldn't. nor the bolix ivory, tho conceivably a compat. item sans the massive cache, could
mangol: asciilifeform: what's bolix?
asciilifeform: mangol: the bolix approach ~worked~. if carried out on current-day vlsi, would work over9000x. would dispute this in some concrete aspect, or simply pretending it 'unhappened' and doesn't merit discussion ?
asciilifeform: mangol: consider, as early as '70 cdc co was selling irons on which buffer overflow was impossible. (before bolix et al). today there are 0 commercially available. because, see, 'computer seekoority field' 'needs' to exist, and could not exist in anyffin like present form if such iron were avail.
asciilifeform: mangol: asciilifeform's position, informed by scheme79, bolix, etc. is that almost all of the apparent complexity is illusory
asciilifeform: this was before peak bolix, too
asciilifeform: to asciilifeform , the sexpr aspect is only '1 part of balanced diet' of bolix-like machine complying with 7laws.
dulapbot: Logged on 2020-08-06 19:09:24 asciilifeform: theoretically interesting -- there were concepts in interlisp that never appeared in mit cadr + successors (bolix etc) -- e.g. the 'structure editor'
asciilifeform: w/ entire 80MB of ram ! ( not counting even what's on the bolix board )
asciilifeform not sat ~that~ one on the lan; tho it ~does~ have a 10M eth jack, and the bolix stack ~can~ serve x11 over it. (for the obv reason)
asciilifeform: enuff friction, and it may as well be on an ancient bolix box 1 blown capacitor away from valhalla
dulapbot: (trilema) 2018-01-17 asciilifeform: fromloper: currently i suspect that many, possibly majority, of serious bolix collectors, ~do not want~ there to be an accurate emulator.
verisimilitude: Also, why is it called Bolix here?
asciilifeform: verisimilitude: well, bolix ivory was a 2um. approx. on par, transistorwise, w/ i486.
asciilifeform: as concrete example, the bolix people were able to have a working c (and even fortran) compiler on the box, and one which understood all data types of the os as well as all other softs present on the box, without compromising any 'lispiness' of any other component.
asciilifeform: it's rather like how i have a bolix box, but not insane enuff to publish proggies i wrote for it!
asciilifeform: verisimilitude: funnily enuff, the builders of e.g. bolix's lisp gnawed at the vn leather straps quite a bit. hence the inclusion of various oddball special-purpose cpus (the 1 in the FEP; the 2 (!!) in the console ; possib. others)
asciilifeform: gregorynyssa: for that matter, bolix's 'ivory' was a 2uM item.
asciilifeform: weinreb (rip) was shipwrecked when bolix closed doors
asciilifeform: gregorynyssa: the way 'macivory' worx -- it sits in that mac, and the latter boots normally, then you run their console proggy -- which handles screen, kbd, and disk i/o for the card, and gives you a standard bolix console on normal vga monitor.
asciilifeform: and no relation to project MAC. smbx sold several other machines based on same cpu ; the single-board 'macivory' was a 'budget' model (i.e. you didn't have to buy 40kg of golden toilet console from bolix, just 1 board)
asciilifeform: in wholly unrealated noose : sumbody's selling a bolix mcivory. ( and model2, at that, the mechanically-simpler kind w/ no cpld. i'd actually trade my 'fast' model3 for this type if knew someone in l2 who offered. )
asciilifeform: prolly for same reason bolix's attempt to repackage their os for dec alpha flopped
asciilifeform: theoretically interesting -- there were concepts in interlisp that never appeared in mit cadr + successors (bolix etc) -- e.g. the 'structure editor'
asciilifeform: adlai: bolix could not have built 'ivory' in 1980, the necessary vlsiism did not exist. so inevitably went through junkyard wars stage.
asciilifeform: 'ivory' series is imho the only interesting , even from archaeological pov, bolix product. but almost nothing is known about its internal design.