Hardlimit Museum

[cobito]

I bring you another chapter, this time about artificial intelligence. In 1984 this technology was still in its infancy and the programs that came out were quite simple, but they were the first steps. It was based exclusively on logical tests and was very far from what is seen today. But that's where it all began. We see a couple of representative characters, like the creator of Lisp.

[cobito]

Well, I think the file search engine has reached a sufficiently mature level. In the end, it didn't turn out as I had imagined because of the enormous size it has reached.

It can be accessed from here.

Only the CD-ROMs of PCManía and Total DOS Collection have been indexed. I think it's an acceptable selection of programs, tools, drivers and games.

The search results are divided into these sections:
· Thumbnail: a thumbnail image of the file, if available.
· Location: places where the file was found. From here, you can navigate the directory tree using the museum's file explorer.
· Downloads: options to download the file. Normally, you will have to download a larger file (an iso, a zip, etc.) to get to the file you are looking for.
· Content: a snippet of the ascii content of the file. In binaries, you will often see meaningless content mixed with character strings.
· Other details: Size, MIME, date, specific details and an MD5 hash.

One thing to keep in mind is that the search time is quite high. It's a chore, but for now I can't do much to improve it.

If I see that the topic has moderate success, I will look for ways to expand the content and improve the speed.

[Sylver]

@cobito Many thanks for the piece of work, mayor

A question, the elevated search time ¿is it due to the storage medium used? ¿Or is it a more complex issue? To think of ideas that could help...

Best regards!

[cobito]

@sylver The main reason is that the server has been busier than usual for a few weeks now because of the video section.

The index is quite large and resides entirely in RAM. When there are no transcoders running, the wait time is acceptable, but when there are a couple of them, it becomes too slow. Looking at the behavior of the processes when there are one or the other, what I see is that there is a lack of bandwidth to memory.

I think this is one of the cases where DDR5 (despite its high latencies) would come in handy, but it will have to wait.

[Sylver]

@cobito I understand... Thank you very much for the explanation.

Maybe @jordiqui could donate one of his almighty servers to the cause...

Best regards!

[Yorus]

What a marvel!. I don't even want to imagine the amount of time it takes you to do all these things.

As for the necessary hardware, I imagine that at a certain point it is difficult for a single person to handle, whether it's the level of hardware needed, bandwidth, power consumption, noise...

[cobito]

Yes, in the end the hardware is limiting. I had to stop indexing due to lack of RAM but if I had more, the speed would be even worse, so with DDR3 in particular or a conventional machine in general, you can't scratch much more.

Thinking about it a bit when I've come across the limits during development and indexing, I think a "rig" of Raspberry Pis would be a viable option. Something like that would be relatively inexpensive, relatively simple and very scalable. But of course, there is always a significant initial outlay that has to be justified by intensive use of the tool.

For now, let's see how it's received because in the end it still has a niche audience.

[jordiqui]

@sylver Don't doubt it - If needed, I grant remote access and voila. I just read it, sorry for the delay.

[cobito]

@jordiqui said in Museo Hardlimit:

@sylver Don't even doubt it - If needed, I grant remote access and voila. I just read it, sorry for the delay.

Thanks for the offer. It won't be necessary, even though I'm envious of your 64GB of RAM

[jordiqui]

@cobito

[cobito]

[Sylver]

@jordiqui Jejejee I would go and set up a hosting service and offer it to websites like this one, you can make a lot of money from that great server

Best regards!

[_Neptunno_]

@jordiqui said in Museo Hardlimit:

@cobito

Buah!! you already have us all more "excited" than a child in a candy store hahaha

Greetings!!

[jordiqui]

@sylver I have to install the windows server on the two HP proliant mount several ssd with TB of storage and the cluster will have to be installed by them. And I will test it locally with my chess web. to see how it works. Then we will see, because if I can save myself the hosting service of the other web (it weighs a lot because of photos, etc.) we will see. But they have confused me to study anthropology and my brain can't handle everything...

[cobito]

I leave you here a new episode of The Computer Chronicles subtitled for you to pass the sweltering night:

[cobito]

@cobito To kick off the season, the Hardlimit translation team has subtitled another episode, this time dedicated to the controversial version 6.2 of MS-DOS:

[cobito]

In the coming days, the Hardlimit translation team will subtitle another episode of The Computer Chronicles.

The following titles are proposed:

1. Internet (1993)
2. Atari ST (1989)
3. The Megahercios Race (1989)
4. Virtual Reality (1992)
5. CD-ROMs (1988)
6. Amiga and Atari (1985)
7. Windows 3.0 (1990)
8. Windows 95 (1994)
9. Pentium Computers (1993)

You can vote by replying to this toot: https://social.hardlimit.com/web/@cobito/109325523271022485

[cobito]

The fifth generation of x86 processors was a big leap from the 486s. At a time when competitors like PowerPC and Alpha were starting to appear, Intel wasn't worried because they were confident that the Pentium's backward compatibility and the extensive software library would work against the new options. But with the Pentiums and their 3.1 million transistors, a new problem appeared: excess temperature. To solve it, manufacturers mounted a fan on top of a heatsink, something not seen to date in home computers. Upgrading to Pentium cost $2000 of the time, which didn't sound so bad when compared to the $4000 of a new PC. But this investment had to be justified, so performance comparisons between Pentium and 486 were the order of the day.

[jordiqui]

@cobito What times! And yes they cost a fortune, I don't think I could have bought a pc a few years later. Of course I didn't need it, but the thing with the fan has left me baffled, I didn't know that. Thanks, one more curious and interesting fact.

[defaultuser]

@jordiqui a cousin of mine had to get a pc to study, it had a turbo button on the front, and I'm not sure but it seems to me that it went from 33 to 66Mhz, or it was something in the range below 133Mhz for sure.