Every story tagged Retrocomputing, curated for CIOs and IT leaders — ranked by source credibility, engagement, and freshness.
2 stories · open in the command center
A developer has created a novelty project that emulates a 1970s-era 8-bit microprocessor entirely within PostgreSQL using stored procedures and database tables, demonstrating extreme database misuse for educational purposes. While technically interesting as a proof-of-concept, this represents an anti-pattern that violates fundamental architectural principles by implementing application logic in the database layer with no practical business value. This project serves as a cautionary example of technical experimentation that should never be replicated in production enterprise systems.
The picoZ80 is a modernization solution that replaces legacy Z80 processors in vintage computers with a cycle-accurate, FPGA-like implementation using modern microcontrollers, adding capabilities like WiFi connectivity, expanded memory, virtual storage, and cloud management—all configurable via JSON without code changes. For IT organizations managing legacy systems in industrial or heritage computing environments, this enables extending the operational life of critical Z80-based infrastructure while adding contemporary connectivity and management features. The technology's plug-and-play nature and centralized configuration approach significantly reduce operational complexity and modernization costs for organizations dependent on aging hardware.