Thirty-year-old Amiga still provides climate system in schools

A Commodore Amiga has been controlling a climate system for nineteen public schools in the Michigan city of Grand Rapids in the northeastern United States for thirty years. The computer turns the heating and air conditioning on and off for the buildings.

The Amiga system is of great importance. It not only controls the climate systems that, among other things, operate the pumps and fans and measure room temperatures, but also the hot water supplies.

A student from one of the schools programmed the control system in the 1980s. For the schools it is fortunate that the former student still lives nearby: if something is wrong with the installations, he is still drummed up, WoodTV writes.

The Amiga 2000 has a 1200 baud modem and communicates using radio frequencies to send signals back and forth between the buildings. The only problem is that the frequency interferes with the frequency of some walkie-talkies used by the schools maintenance team.

It is clear that the system is now due for replacement. The monitor has already had to be replaced three times and the mouse is no longer of the last generation. Efforts are now underway to raise money from a $175 million tender that is due to pass in November. If successful, the entire system could be replaced at a cost of between $1.5 and $2 million.

Source: WIkipedia
http://up.anv.bz/latest/anvload.html?key=