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Comment by hyperman1 | Hacker News Reader

Look at the referenced IBM docs: They included the actual schematics of the adapters. I don't know if they are 100% complete, but even so, that level of technical detail is almost unimaginable now.

(I hope the link works, otherwise, see e.g. page 19=28).

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpccardsptionsandAda...

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AT&T PC 6300 also had this level of detail-

https://www.pcjs.org/machines/pcx86/att/6300/

https://www.amazon.com/Model-6300-Computer-SAMS-Computerfact...

For IBM, service parts and information were available due to the famous 1956 consent decree:

https://www.gadgetreview.com/ibm-1956-consent-decree#what-di...

When I joined my church choir in 2006, we had an unnecessarily elaborate sound system, including "rock star" solo mics for every individual chorister and a 24-channel mixer that nobody knew how to use.

By 2010 we'd updated it to a correctly sized system with a more modest mixer that nobody knew how to use, either.

Therefore, I took it upon myself to search by model number, print out a pair of copies of the comprehensive user manual, and then I tucked one of them snugly into the rack mount for reference by any current and future directors.

that seems pretty typical for a datasheet?

Try getting that level of documentation for a modern or even just slightly older (as in a decade ago) GPU.

The fact that the public could get these at all. I have another one of these with the BIOS source code. I don't think e.g. HP would publish a schematic or BIOS source for one of their laptops today(I'd love it if you prove me wrong, of course) . Otoh, I have an old 1960's tube radio, and the full circuit is attached to the backplate, in the expectation that you might want to replace a resistor some day.

I was gonna say, "or tube", but then again, I think the tubes were standard models so you'd just bring your tubes in to the department store, test them in the tube tester⁰ and get your replacement.

0: http://oldradios.50webs.com/precision/

BIOS is still a shitshow; an ex-coworker of mine has been working on open bios for several decades now https://www.usenix.org/conference/als-2000/linux-bios

how does their effort relate to coreboot?

https://www.coreboot.org/

I was referring to the author of coreboot

you sure?

the Linux bios paper:

  author = {Ronald G. Minnich and James Hendricks and Dale Webster},
  title = {The Linux {BIOS}},

coreboot:

  Werner Zeh, David Hendricks, and Matt DeVillier.

  Felix Held
  Jay Talbott
  Patrick Georgi
  Stefan Reinauer
  Ron Minnich
  Martin Roth
  Tim Crawford
  Felix Singer
  Marshall Dawson
  Christian Walter
  Julius Werner
  Michał Żygowsk
  Piotr Krol
  Arthur Heymans
  Angel Pons
  Eric Peers

They came with the computer.

Tandy's machines came with similarly detailed information and schematics as a part of the purchase. Same for many of the rinky-dink 8-bit home computers like the Commodore 64. Today's machines, if their parts have tech specs at all, they're at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the leopard".

To be fair, to fully document a modern computer would require more paper than what a managed forest that covers an average rocky planet would be able to provide in a decade.

Lots of vendors provide documentation in PDF format on CD/USB/online. I'd settle for that.

Can a PDF have more than MAXINT pages?

These old radios often had little pouches inside where the documentation, usually including full schematics, was kept.

It's typical for a datasheet, but when was the last time you were able to get a proper datasheet for the electronic components and devices you use every day?

Don't worry. SZ is perfecting the art of zero information datasheets.

It is not typical for contemporary GPUs or ICs.

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