Re: [LINUX-KERNEL] HDD Noise stopped with cat /dev/zero
Erik Mouw (J.A.K.Mouw@et.tudelft.nl)
Fri, 18 Oct 1996 09:25:08 +0000 (GMT)
In article <Pine.LNX.3.95.961017215042.498A-100000@gytha.demon.co.uk>,
Bryn Paul Arnold Jones <bpaj@gytha.demon.co.uk> writes:
>This isn't as silly as it sounds, the first sound cards were just detuned
>AM radios put on the top of the box, and I mean the metal box (I saw this
>on the TV, so it must be true ... Oh, and I'm looking to buy a ... ).
>
>The box had no kbd, no printer/screen/..., all it had was a row of
>switches for programming, and a row of lights for the output. It was (one
>of) the first micro computers tho ...
>
>All you had to do was program the thing to do differnant ops, loops, with
>differnat delays, and the radio picked up the interferance produced.
>
>Unfortunatly as they had no permanent storage, the instrment never cought
>on due to the half hour walm up (programming) time while the musician
>twiddled the switches (one mistake, and it's start again time) ....
I know about a more serious application:
Somewhere back in the '50 or '60 Philips also made mainstream computers.
They got a patent on a method to monitor the CPU performance: they
connected an amplifier and a speaker to one of the address lines of the
CPU. In those days the CPU clock wasn't that fast, so it was possible
to hear the address lines switch. If the sound stopped, you knew that
your program crashed and you had to start all over.
Any volunteers to design such hardware for PCs? Not that Linux crashes
that often... If we also modify gcc to generate nice tunes:
$ gcc -O2 -fharmonic -fd-flat -Wdissonants -o foobar foobar.c
foobar.c: In function `main':
foobar.c:42: warning: can't generate correct symphony
Erik
PS: I can hear lmbench's memory test; it sounds like a sweep.
--
Erik Mouw
email: J.A.K.Mouw@ET.TUDelft.NL mouw@elektron.et.tudelft.nl
WWW : http://elektron.et.tudelft.nl/~mouw