Setting Invention Dates

[David]

I found this link pertaining to digital computer CPU generations.

http://serdis.dis.ulpgc.es/~ii-pint/Rec ... essors.pdf

The new feature in the Digital Age DLC will allow for defining prerequisites for custom products that depend on the tech level of an input item.

For example:
Desktop computer (custom product 1) will require 80286 CPU
Desktop computer (custom product 2) will require 80386 CPU
and so forth

80286 CPU is also defined as a custom CPU product which requires a minimum tech level of 100
And 80386 CPU is defined as a custom CPU product which requires a minimum tech level of 200

You may check out the details at:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =42&t=3733

If any of you are working on a MOD and are interested in trying out this new feature, please let me know (you may reply here or PM me) and I will try to request the dev team to grant access rights of a work-in-progress version of the Digital Age DLC to you.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

p.s. the web page about the Technologies has been corrected.

[David]

As a side note the Tandy TRS-80 shipped with the entire schematic print set and since it was all cap letters and block graphics. I immediately set about changing the character generator chip out to a substitute character generator chip with simulated lower case characters with pseudo line descenders for characters with tails like lower case g, j, p, q, etc. This also required cutting into the electronic trace lines on the motherboard to enable the 8th bit for lower case letters. Tandy had tied the 7th and 8th bits together at their cheap all caps chip. Installing a small switch allowed me to switch between all caps when necessary and go to lower case when necessary for readability. This could be done on the fly (without rebooting) too. Pretty cool. Wouldn't have been possible without the furnished schematic prints. By the way even with prints now, a modification similar to this would no longer be possible as the motherboard lines are so intricate and close together as to preclude this type of user modification.

Very cool! I recently read the book Idea Man by Paul Allen (https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Man-Memoir- ... 1591845378) and he recounted how he and Bill Gates developed the BASIC interpreter for the first generation of 8086 computers. TSR-80 was among those computers that made owning a personal computer possible by an ordinary person.