PDP 11 The Front Panel was a critical aspect of early computers. It was the dashboard of a car together. Just as a driver uses the dashboard to get his speed and fuel level, operators used this front panel so they could see inside the computer, and control what it did. That front panel was an invaluable resource that enabled them to observe everything going on inside the computer. So if anything went wrong, an operator could quickly diagnose and correct the problem. Consisting of several parts that all meshed together, the front panel was somewhat complicated.
Another key component of the front panel were the indicator lights. Besides telling me something completely different about what the computer was doing, these lights were very handy. Namely, whether the system operated normally or there was something that needed to be fixed. Others indicated the task or instruction that was currently being executed by a computer, helping to clarify and facilitate an understanding of what exactly is it doing inside.
The switches were another critical component of the front panel. The computer was told what to do by flipping switches on a large panel, much like pressing buttons changes channels with your remote control. Data switches, and address a two types of sitches. By using data switches the operator could enter information into memory of computer. Because the computer needed to know what it was doing. An address switch, however told the computer where to find that information in its memory.
Equally important were circuit and address switches. It was used to reference the numbers you entered, so that computer knows where to find them. For example, if you stored two numbers in the computer and wanted to add them together, your program typically would say "Add this number thats at location 99 with that other thing over there which is a distance away from it. In that case the computer would read from those places and sum those numbers.
Interestingly it was the toggle switches in front of a PDP 11. Understanding BASIC was significantly easier for someone who had not previously encountered a computer, and these switchesgte made them easy to use as well. These switches were designed to be easy enough for one simply to know whether or not they had been turned on. Different switches were color-coded as well to indicate the type of switch and prevent confusion.
Other cool thing about this front panel were the display lights. Lights were placed so that you could easily take a look and determine what the computer was doing. For example, when something went wrong the lights indicated in which part of computer problem came. The feedback of the compiler may be very useful to identify problems better than text.
The same front panel was also present in the PDP 11 which held utmost importance back then when computer technology has just stepped its foot. It was the 1960s, and no one else had ever touched or used a computer in our fee-free public experience. The PDP 11 front panel was designed to be very intuitive, as a beginner you could learn the system and operate this computer.
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