2026-04-22 12:14 UTC
@brouhaha @fae I mean, who knows. With a large enough backplane, and cards... The Matrox ALT-256 claims you can add up to 24 of them to get 24-bit color :)
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@brouhaha@mastodon.social 2026-04-22 12:28
@lynn @fae Even so... Most cards other than 8080 CPU cards had their main power draw on the +5V rail. Notable exceptions were dynamic RAM cards using 4K or 16K DRAMs, which drew a lot of current from the +16V (+13.5V IMSAI) rail. I could see having a 22-slot backplane full of fancy cards that each drew perhaps 3A of +8V. AFAIK, no stock S-100 chassis had a power supply that could handle that, nor could any stock backplane, and you'd need extra cooling fans blowing over the cards.