Fender Tonemaster Reliability

**jzucker** · 09-07-2020, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by sgosnell

Yes, but the computer isn't slower than it was 5 years ago. It just hasn't been upgraded to deal with more demanding software. An ancient i386 computer would still be as fast as it was back in the early 90s, but couldn't transcode 4k video. When I started dealing with computers, the maximum memory addressable by DOS was 640k. When it became possible to address a full megabyte it was a big deal. Hardware improvements have happened almost exponentially. Some of the software in use in the 90s is still in use on the latest hardware, where it runs almost instantaneously in many cases. It never ran that fast on older hardware. We get used to the speed of the newer hardware we acquire and forget the speed, or lack of it, of the older hardware. The current modeler amps should continue to work just as they do now, but probably won't work as well as newer models in 5 or 10 years. Technology improves apace.

the software isn't more demanding. The video resolutions are.

**Michael Neverisky** · 09-07-2020, 07:38 PM

No one needs more than 640k. Or something like that.

I joined Digital Equipment Corp in '97 and everyone there at the time liked to say that the DEC Alpha sank the Titanic. The company rendering the movie scenes previously used SGI.

Improvement in technology enables innovation. Faster hardware increases the scope of what becomes possible in software. I wouldn't be surprised if the engineers at Fender had to make compromises in the functionality of their software due to real-time throughput capabilitiy of the hardware.

**Ray175** · 09-08-2020, 05:39 AM

As another example of "old-tech" still working, one of my doctor friends still uses an old 286 computer and DOS-based software to run his (very basic) accounts.... works just as well as it did 25 years ago and suits his needs.

**Doctor Jeff** · 09-08-2020, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by Ray175

As another example of "old-tech" still working, one of my doctor friends still uses an old 286 computer and DOS-based software to run his (very basic) accounts.... works just as well as it did 25 years ago and suits his needs.

But is it HIPAA-compliant?

;-)