N Cook wrote in message
...
CheetahHugger wrote in message
m...
Complicated one, let's say i have a need to keep certain programs/data
in running order for the next 50 years.
Don't discuss upgrading, converting ect, it's not applicable in this
situation as the actual structure hard and software have to match each
other and you cannot emulate.
I see a lot of survivors among early PIII slot 1 machines, may sound
strange but i have seen quite a lot of those that are still in use and
work just fine.
So if i need a computer for the following 50 years based on either PII
PIII PIV or similar (AMD/CYRIX...) (isn't that called I865 architecture)
what machines/brands of components i would source that could last that
long, storing units for spares is possible until certain level but i
think aging on stored components could be a problem as well sudden shoch
when becoming operational again?
Or am i paranoia and should just get myself a batch of PIII machones
from a recycler and strip them down, pack and vacuum seal the parts and
stock them?
I was thinking of aquiring a few older generation workstations as i
assume those ones were still built to proper industrial specs.
Any suggestions?

Cheetah


"have you counted your spots today?"

No one has considered the software in this thread.
The ferrite material , whether on a hard disc platten, floppy or tape
streamer tape can debond from the backing.
With optical media the code carying metal surface can oxidise/ part
company
from the plastic media,
Unless anyone knows of the ideal storage media that is incorruptible, is
this the best procedure ?
Store the original media plus copies on perhaps more futureproof media in
an
evacuated container. Then another repeat of that collection at another
site
, in case of fire or flood at one site.
Is long term optical storage more reliable as far as it cannot
spontaneously
change magnetic state by coalescence of neighbouring magnetic poles or
whatever the corrupting process is.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/





A recent newspaper article on this matter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ytechnologysec
tion.news
part quote
"I always end up doing really interesting work with the data conversion," he
says. He spent almost five years working with treasure hunters on his own
salvage mission, trying to access photos of tens of thousands of Spanish
coins retrieved from a wreck off the coast of Florida.

"There were 65,000 of these doubloons that were pulled up, and the
archaeologists took digital photos of the front and back of each individual
coin because they were all unique," he says. "It was very early digital
technology back in the mid-80s, and they had all these tapes and discs that
they couldn't access. All this was before jpegs and gifs and today's
standard formats."

On another job Ismail had to go back in time to resurrect the dead from a
huge graveyard in California. The cemetery records stretched back to the
1950s and 60s on 50,000 punch cards, and staff no longer knew who was buried
where and what plots were already taken.

"None of the data was printed on the top of these cards, so you could not
have had a human doing the job," Ismail says. Instead, he hooked up his
technological time machine and came up with a system that could read up to
200 cards a minute.

Resurrecting classics

Ismail's talents stretch to his own computer workshop, where he has built
replicas of some of the earliest machines from scratch. "The one that's in
demand is Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP 1 from 1961," he says. "It
stands for program data processor and it cost $120,000 (£60,000) new, but it
wasn't called a computer. Budgets were scrutinised and if it had said
'computer' on the request it would've been turned down."

The PDP 1 featured the first ever video game, Spacewar!, before there was
such a thing as a gaming industry. Ismail has made a replica for a Japanese
display on the history of computers and gaming, and he is working on another
one for a touring exhibition of videogames.
end quote

Presumably Sellam Ismail
http://www.sellam.com/
would be worth contacting as he is going to know more than most , how to
archive/futureproof hardware and software


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/