Recycle/Maintain Old Hardware & Software Pt1/4

Recycling (or maintain) old hardware and software may not just be: let’s recover the precious metals that went into construction of our 10-25 y old laptop or workstation. There has been resurgence in "gaming" of using old games or software that can only run on older Chips sets and hardware, or simply to run the original software under original OS.

The software for my PhD and my MS was written 25 years ago - I am constantly faced with a fact how to run my software on new hardware or simply maintain older OS, software and hardware. About 10 years ago I made a decision to create VM (Virtual machines of old hardware and software). The background image is Windows 7 Ultimate or Professional running VM version of Windows XP SP3. The Windows XP although not supported comes as free licence in some versions of Win7 ( 8 and 10 ).

Fig01. Win XP SP3 running inside Win 7 Pro (or ult). Software running inside WinXp is 1996 version of Matlab. Although it was written for Win95 - Win XP was a real revolution in memory management and is computable with many data exchanged protocols running today. I probobly need a whole publication on VM level of harware and data sharing - that will be covered in pt2 publication.

Fig2 This is my PhD Wavelet Tool Box from Matlab 1998 running as a native application, albeit VM disguised as win7 application. One can see that the XP desktop has been supressed and interface for WaveDemo GUI is running and opening windows on the Win7 desktop. No loss in processing speed.

Fig03. This is Matlab Wavelet demo box running different versions since 1996 and 2017. The 1996 version is running as a full Intel CPU hardware VM implementation. Interesting feature of 1996 software is full accessibility to base code. this allowed my PhD to progress as I simply changed to Tool box supplied to my topic of "Shape" based orthogonal Wavelets [ 3 ]. That was new back then and it’s still new tech today. I need that maintenance mode of “old hardware” as VM.

Here is some background on that topic.

I see more old laptops as "give always". They are from reputable firms like Toshiba, HP and few others. Most of them has old CPUs like Celerons. The reason why the computers are being "given away is” battery pack is gone. Most battery packs cost $70-120 to replace on those older laptops. Although the HDDs are ATA and not SATA - they run relatively slow even under Win XP SP3. The have relatively few cores and hence cannot run VM or Linux to satisfaction. I have used an old laptop for a network control using small Linux distro. But keep in mind that is an area of expertise. Most win7 professional and Up will run XP as a second OS layer on Win7 (10x the speed). One gets the processing speed of SSD and multi core CPU. Aim is not to wait around for a "HDD blinking light" ..But I would only run it as VM - make a boot iso of its hdd and run it in i7 version of the computer.

How many ways can you run old software on new hardware?

There are many ways - but keep in mind that modern Android phones or Apple can not run desktops. The desktops require large amount of background computing. However VM running on VM hardware implemntation chips do well ( Do not fall for YouTube clips that talk about running Win10 or XP on your phone ).

Here is an example of my Android running DosBox and AutoCad14 using ADI 1024x768 last of the DOS Autocad implemntations. It worked well on my quod core Android. This was my original CSIRO work in worsted combing. And it runs at good speed - perhaps even quicker then it did in 1993.

Fig04. DosBox 0.74, running Autocad14 on a 10" Android in 768x1024. There is bit of a scaling pixel discrepancy, but once it was expended to a full Android screen scaling was 1:1.

Fig05. This is a SamSung T670 18" Android running same Autocad VM in 768x1024. This version had 8 core CPU and allowed full glass keyboard not to obscure the drawing. It would be nice to find a ADI 1920x1080 ( or 1050 as it was the norm in its day ).

Fig06. This is a HP Dragon 9800 laptop running extreme core CPU and SL6 ( Scietific Linux - an IBM RedHat free version - running my final 1994 software from my CSIRO biggest patent ). Point here is that VM can run under non Windows OS.

Fig07. This is a HP Dragon running fibre and CNC simulation - software that I ended writting in 1994 after my position at CSIRO was made redundunt. Now running on a 10y old extrem Intel CPU as hardware implemntation without windows OS. CSIRO lost our major patent much like they did Wifi or many other developments. Key point here is we ( CSIRO Dr.Kirby and I were doing this work in early 1990's)

Fig.08. Here is the same software - part of the suit developed in our quest to overtake Sclumberger in the area of Worsted combing. This software running on a $120 Android tablet purchased on ebay is writting a CNC code fro CSIRO DM4400 CNC machine. It was interesting time CSIRO mangment was purchasing equipment but not the software - expecting the staff to write what they needed. This is simply another VM running old software.

Fig.09. Here is my 1600mm work space for running my VMs - this is one of my CAD workstations using Tesla video card.

Fig.010. If one is looking for a good CPU - this is a minimum requirement.

Fig011. This is Oracle VM - free software. It allows your OS and software to be tested in a "sand box" that allows OS cloning.

Fig012. Oracle VM running under Win 10 full hardware and software implementation.

Fig013.This is Windows VM running everything from Dos6.22 to Win7. Note use x32 version as it runns faster. This allows the OS to grab the full desktop and hardware. I used this implementation to run my cam digitizer using software I have written in 1990's - as it allowed filtering of noise sensors and reconstruction using Fourier and later Wavelets - it was part of my PhD program in Wavelets or "Shape based analsysis" of signal.

Fig.014. Running Maple V Symbolic tool box - this is a fantastic math package producing orthogonal polynomials for my shape based function transfer - much like Fourier Transform but in Wavelet Domain.

Fig.015. This is simulation using a Matlab Simulink demo of "compound pendulum". All running as a VM. This is DosBox running Matlab 4c on 10" and 17" Android Tablets. T670 is an LG 17" Tablet using 8 core CPU. One can have 1 CPU dedicated to running windows.

Conclusion:

Do not waste time with old hardware when one can get a VM version. Keep in mind that it needs to have VTx and VM hardware implementation. I have not found a good android implementation for WinXP VM. Windows and Linux Distro run on a more powerful CPUs and hence offer great VMs from Windows and Oracle.

How to coordinate data and old OS VM operation?

Since 1995 the servers and LAN traffic has made an improvement. Having your own cloud or simply a NAS server is helpful. At speeds of 1 and 10Gbit allows VMs to be updated quickly. 

References: Consider Reading my other posts..there are 50 titles on my LinkedIn profile publication list.

2 Oct 30, 2014 Wavelets v Heisenberg uncertainty (part 1)

1 Jun 26, 2014 HPC-MPI Super Computing Cluster

Please also read my series on constructing your own bussines to make R&D products. "What does it take to start your own innovation business? Pt1" , Published on December 8, 2016.

References: Consider Reading my other posts..there are 47 titles use my LinkedIn profile.

30 Jan 1, 2017 Guide to CSIRO Pt.10/12 Change of Title - and other pitfalls

29 Dec 7, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 9)

28 Dec 7, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 9)

27 Nov 17, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 8)

26 Oct 30, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 7)

25 Oct 21, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 6)

24 Oct 10, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 5)

23 Sep 28, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO (part 4)

22 Sep 27, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO ( part 3 )

21 Sep 10, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO ( part 2 )

20 Sep 10, 2015 Young users Guide to CSIRO ( part 1 )

19 Jul 5, 2015 Mining Fan modal analysis

18 Jun 29, 2015 Mining Fan Failure and analysis

17 Jun 22, 2015 Cam linkage motion analysis - Front comb

16 Jun 10, 2015 Flash Furnace model, method & Gauss solution

15 May 30, 2015 Rod Mill failure analysis

14 May 17, 2015 Art of 3D CNC/CAD/3DP

13 May 4, 2015 WiFi & RF noise

12 Apr 26, 2015 Flash Furnace - Sensors

11 Apr 11, 2015 Mechatronic project and automation (Part 2)

10 Jan 4, 2015 Furnace - Venturi scrubber improvment

9 Dec 20, 2015 Mechatronic project and automation (Part 1)

8 Dec 12, 2014 FIFO to work - my best commute.

7 Dec 8, 2014 Be Green - LCD monitors recycled

6 Nov 28, 2014 Navigate 6DOF CAD in 3D printing

5 Nov 25, 2014 Worsted Combing - Rise of Computing (part 1)

4 Nov 2, 2014 Mechanical Computer - prime numbers

3 Oct 30, 2014 Wavelets v Heisenberg uncertainty (part 1)

2 Jul 14, 2014 UAV CH47 remote control with Saitek X52Pro.

1 Jun 26, 2014 HPC-MPI Super Computing Cluster