Some old circuit boards are so beautiful, I love when they're jam-packed full of microchips over every possible surface.

The common hardware of today is comparatively dull and mundane.

I humbly posit that the old PCI cards from the 90s and early 2000s with RAM expansion slots were (are?) about as sexy as a circuit board can get .^^.

And let's not forget the legendary 3DFX Voodoo 5 6000, which is just..

https://static.tweaktown.com/news/6/7/67383_01_legendary-3df...

https://static.tweaktown.com/news/6/7/67383_02_legendary-3df...

This blog is full of interesting stories - the secret history of ATAPI was previously on HN as well.

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-secret-history-of-atapi/ (discussed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29332807)

I wonder if a modern OS would be able to access that drive if the controller was plugged into a PCIe-ISA bridge.