Iconic Hardware

[ajbritton]

I was clearing out some junk the other day when I came across an actual Novell NE2000 network card. It struck me that here was something that lived on through being a compatible standard, long after the device itself ceased to be available. Can anyone think of any other hardware that can claim this sort of longevity. I put forward the following;

 

Novell NE2000 Network Card - Many NICs NE2000 compatible for many years

 

HP LaserJets (II, 4) - Many printers compatible with these standards for many years

 

Anything other bits of hardware that if you suddenly found one in the back of the cupboard you would say to yourself 'Wow - here's something that was really important in some geeky way'

[Linfit]

I would have to say

 

Hayes Smartrmodem - the origin of the Hayes Command set that came to be used in all modems and important to those of us who used to have to solder custom RS423 leads for Acorn machines and send raw command strings to dial your local bulletin board. (Internet, whats the Internet ?)

 

Epson FX-80 9 pin dot matrix printer; anyone remember inserting raw printer command codes into View or Wordwise documents just so you could do this ?

 

You should remember those days Andy - I recall a certain amount of illicit on-line gaming taking place with our state of the art 1200/300 baud Hayes Modem at Siddal Moor !

[DMcCoy]

Intel 440BX, the basis for many generations of virtualized hardware.

3com 3c905

Intel Pro/100

Soundblaster 16

US Robotics Courier modem

[ajbritton]

I would have to say

 

Hayes Smartrmodem - the origin of the Hayes Command set that came to be used in all modems and important to those of us who used to have to solder custom RS423 leads for Acorn machines and send raw command strings to dial your local bulletin board. (Internet, whats the Internet ?)

 

Epson FX-80 9 pin dot matrix printer; anyone remember inserting raw printer command codes into View or Wordwise documents just so you could do this ?

 

You should remember those days Andy - I recall a certain amount of illicit on-line gaming taking place with our state of the art 1200/300 baud Hayes Modem at Siddal Moor !

 

It seems you have the advantage of me but yes, I do remember those days !!

 

Good call with the Hayes Smartmodem. I remember them well. I also remember hand-coding Epson command codes on the BBC Micro to print out custom inserts for the BBC function keys.