I design computers for a living, but automobile engines are black magic. After realizing I'd be of no help at all, the mechanics began poking under the hood, pressurizing the radiator, tracing the path of the cooling-system hoses, unplugging connectors, and testing for leaks. I was struck by how his actions resembled a computer designer debugging a giant, grease-encrusted breadboard. The computer industry is not the only one with garage-shop hackers, I thought. Now, Tehachapi is chiefly a bedroom community for test pilots from Edwards Air Force Base, hardly a hotbed of computer system design, so the Mechanic's earlier question about PROMs had come as a surpise.
PROMs are how microcomputers store programs.
We're rebuilding the engine computer in that Taurus over there. Great, I thought. I thought you had to replace the whole assembly. Everything was soldered down and potted in resin, but no more. If you can get the box open, you can swap chips until it works.