Government Technology We See Now Is Really Old

In about 1998 I got a hold of an old IBM computer. It was supposedly a 286 when I got it.
I wanted to check it out, and it was free. So hey, 286 ain't bad if its free. Once getting
it home I wanted to check it out and plugged it in. It was allright, 286 as it said 1024K
memory. But I noticed something strange, it had what looked like PCI slots in it. I said,
"no, they have to be mca slots." Plus the date on the board and chip was 1982, which is
even wierder is that it had a math coprocessor on top of the CPU, kinda like a "piggy back"
setup, thats for any hardware programmers out there . I decided to go a head and run some
checks on it and knowing that PCI requires 32bit and that supposedly in 1982 32bit wasn't
used yet, then it shouldn't support it nor should a 286 support it. I had placed a 500mb scsi drive on the computer with a ISA card, I beleave a 1542CF card. Then installed DOS and Windows 3.1 on the drive, went smooth, allthough not for 1998, but it was a toy. Anyways, decided to try my 2900 series scsi card which is PCI, and expecting it not to work the card worked, and bios installed and booted as should. I called a friend and until I showed him, he didn't believe me. Well, I decided to call IBM, and see maybe if they had any info, because that was a rare relic, well in computer (ancient). They had me read the serial and model off the back of the system, then I got transfered to a few different people. Then a guy came on the phone and asked where I got the machine. I told him from someone throwing it away. He explained to me that the machine doesn't exist in their normal database and that it manufactured for the government. I asked if there was any info on it or if it was stolen even though it was ancient and then man told me what the machine was manufactured for. It was a print server for the government and should have been destroyed instead of going anywhere else. Usually you can find all sorts of things from DRMO auctions. I am not sure where the guy I got it from aquired it. But I thought it was a cool toy. I ran a whetstone check on it and it clocked almost as good as my 486 I had laying around at the time, it was a 486DX33. If I had it at the time I would have done the test with an SX33 also to see if the math coprocessor not being on the 486 made a difference. I just wanted to release this to all as I think it is proof that technology we see now is really old.

I'm no computer expert but I believe your on to something here.

If one were to take a hard look at aircraft technology for instance - every known project seems to be over 20 years old, is that because it takes that long to develop? or is it that we are not privey to the advancements made?
(example: Aurora or anti-grav)

Looking at new science published there appears to be a disconnect or time lag that is longer than required for new tech to become commonly available.

Incredible, but not surprising.... It's commonly assumed that military tech is about 30 years or so more advanced than the consumer market...

What is surprising, is that you even bothered with a 286 even for play, in '98??? Hehe...

That's pretty messed up, and I'd definitely keep such an artifact, if you're not yanking our chain.... Any pics???

Originally posted by Gazrok
Incredible, but not surprising.... It's commonly assumed that military tech is about 30 years or so more advanced than the consumer market...

What is surprising, is that you even bothered with a 286 even for play, in '98??? Hehe...

That's pretty messed up, and I'd definitely keep such an artifact, if you're not yanking our chain.... Any pics???

Not yanking your chain, but if I can get my dad to dig it out and take a picture, I will post it. I am in the Air Force, I live in South Carolina, he lives near Reno, Nevada, and I think its sitting in his storage shed. I ended up forgetting a lot of crap back home when I moved. hehe But I will say my wife forgot it being she did the packing. J/k For the other reply, I decided to play with it because its free. And even if someone handed me an old atari or 8088 I would play with it just to see such an old item work. I will post another reply tonight or tomorow about Aircraft technology in reply to another post. Wife leaving tomorow and trying to spend some time with her. If you know what I mean.

I heard that theres something like a 12 year lag between civilian and military technologies. They have things in use that we can only speculate about developing. Crazy stuff.

Not only government technology all the IT/electronics firms want to milk the consumer for as much as possible so they dribble stuff out rather than release their latest stuff and arms manufacturers probably make the most money. The 'free Market' is the biggest monopoly around.

Originally posted by valnrick
I just wanted to release this to all as I think it is proof that technology we see now is really old.

Good thread... There's a lot of truth to the conclusion you have drawn... 'nuff said~

does it really suprise you that the government doesnt make everyone aware of what new technologies it has? why would they? that would be dumb: attention world we have stealth fighters so be sure to upgrade your radar systems ok, or you wont be able to see them

Originally posted by spangbr
does it really suprise you that the government doesnt make everyone aware of what new technologies it has? why would they? that would be dumb: attention world we have stealth fighters so be sure to upgrade your radar systems ok, or you wont be able to see them

Stealth technology has nothing to do with hiding computing technology from the general public. Stealth technology has to do with certain types of paint, ECM pods, right angles on the airframe, radar signatures, sensors, design, sound silencing, magnetic field, etc... Most hidden computing technology is used by governments around the world including major corps. I am saying that why should the tech companies wait and suck our money on old technology just so we can line their pockets. If we had more technology released to the public than they wouldn't make as much as they could. So their not hiding from other countries, their hiding it from the general public.

It makes sense for manufacterors to sell the latest to government agencys because the government is gonna buy a lot of it at one time.

The reason that AMD is the only company with a 64 bit processor out there is because all the other manufacterors are waiting for the market to appear before they jump in. The market for ultra-new and 'next level' technology is small.

It is very possible that PCI stuff was around in the when the mobo was bought, but there was just nothing to put into the slots!

[Edited on 14-3-2004 by Saleb]

nothing to put in the slots? thats what we know but what they had behind closed doors is another thing indeed.

Originally posted by Saleb
The reason that AMD is the only company with a 64 bit processor out there is because all the other manufacterors are waiting for the market to appear before they jump in. The market for ultra-new and 'next level' technology is small.
[Edited on 14-3-2004 by Saleb]

While not disagreeing with you conceptually Saleb, I would like to point out that AMD is not the only chip manufacturer with a 64 bit processor.
Examples of 64 bit processors currently being used are the Sun UltraSparc, DEC Alpha, IBM RS64 (as used in the RS/6000 and AS/400), HP's PA-8000 series (utilizing PA-RISC 2.0 architecture which has been around since '96), and I'm sure there are others.

Of course none of these are used in your standard PC, but they are used and in fact the Sun, IBM and HP boxes, are used quite extensively in the US defense industry and over at the DoD.

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by valnrick
I just wanted to release this to all as I think it is proof that technology we see now is really old.

Good thread... There's a lot of truth to the conclusion you have drawn... 'nuff said~

I'm not sure you can say that tech is old...

We can easily actually know the state of art and knowedge of a particular research sector, and so, we can have an idea of the tech used for military researches.

So, I won't say "tech you know are old" but "tech you know and tech they have or trying to have are different."...

I don't know that it's new and advanced technology. Did you look at the age and manufacturer of the motherboard?

What usually happens (according to friends who work for the government) is that older machines get repaired and refitted and put to use as a fax server or a print server. My friend tells me that the fax server in their MIS area is actually a refurbhised 386 running Windows 95.

You don't need much technonogy for a modem pool host or print server or private network servers.