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Topic: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch) (Read 370 times) |
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ClusterChuck
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30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 2:18am » |
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OMG!!! Read this link!! This writer started with computers in 1974. I started in 1972, on a Honeywell DDP-516. It was state of the art (at the time). It was the FIRST totally solid state (no tubes) computer.
We fed data, into the unit by paper tape, using a teletype machine as the command module. In order to program it, we had to "fat finger" (punch buttons on front of the machine, making it either a 1 or 0 --- basic binary data) the commands into the computer, two commands per location. Commands had to be converted to octal code, and then fat fingered in as binary numbers. Due to the fact that two octal numbers were entered per location, it made a basic hexidecimal number written in binary code. What fun! All commands were in basic machine language. No such thing as C++ or anything like the languages used today.
That computer took up half a room, yet my wrist watch, of today, (even though it cost less than $10.00) is faster and smarter than that whole, huge, monster was!
Unknown terms at the time: CRT (cathode Ray Tube - what they used to call the first screens - several years after this time); Screen; floppy disk; hard drive; Mouse; keyboard; touchpads; and hundreds of other terms we use whenever we are talking about computers.
Ya might say, things have changed slightly since then!
Any how the first part of this article really brings back memories!
http://msn-cnet.com.com/Thirty+years+with+computers/2010-1001_3-5221124. html?part=msn-cnet&subj=ns_5221124&tag=tg_ns
Chuck
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KingOfPain
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #1 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 7:01am » |
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Chuck,
I have no idea if this [above] is the type of computer
you were describing.
It looked kind of like what you had mentioned
so I went with it.
The picture is from this site:
The University of Virginia's Computer Museum
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/museum.html
*Edit:
I found a picture & some information
on/about the Honeywell DDP-516.
Honeywell DDP-516 info:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=551
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| « Last Edit: Jun 3rd, 2004, 7:21am by KingOfPain » |
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Cerberus
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #2 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 11:05am » |
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interesting....
Ya know, I heard somewhere (discovery channel) I think that a nintendo game boy has more sophisticated technology in it than the entire lunar landing mission had in '69....something like 10000 times more...that is kinda scary.
Ramon
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Karla
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #3 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 11:50am » |
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Being a mainframe programmer all I can say is I am glad punchcards were before my time.
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Karla
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Ueli
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #4 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 1:21pm » |
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OMG, these youngsters!!!
Our institute got the first computer in 1962, a Zuse Z2. It had 16 magnetic core memory registers, only 3 of them being free for the user. The rest of the memory was a huge magnetic drum storage (the size of an oil barrel). We used to get together on Monday morning and allocated computer time by half days to each user, LOL. But we did binary machine programming only for a short time, we soon got an Algol interpreter. (For the newbies, Algol was later developed into Pascal). Debugging a program was a real drag: When the paper tape reader stopped reading you could assume an error. Then we took the tape out of the reader and back to the teletype and printed some lines around the bad spot and tried to figure out what went wrong. It usually was some typo or a missing semicolon. Then copy the tape up to the bad spot, type in a few new characters and copy the rest. The worst thing about the teletypes was that ther were only 4 small time slots per second when you could push in a key (with great force). If you hit a key outside the gating you could easily sprain a finger. Correcting an error took about half an hour, and the next one was usually a few inches further down the tape. The biggest improvement we got in the first year was an optical tape reader for input, at a lightening speed of 80 characters per second compared to 4 per second of the mechanical contraption.
PFNADs
Ueli 
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ClusterChuck
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #5 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 1:21pm » |
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on Jun 3rd, 2004, 11:50am, Karla wrote:| Being a mainframe programmer all I can say is I am glad punchcards were before my time. |
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Heehee!!! Most people used to call them "IBM cards" ... That used to piss me off!!! Also, it was from those cards that the phrase "Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate" came into widespread use!
Chuck, who would not mind a little folding, spindling or mutilating ....
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floridian
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #6 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 1:50pm » |
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My first was an IBM 1620 in 1976. Our Explorer Scouts group spent weekends and evenings rewriting text games like Hammurabi and Trek. No monitor - all the input/output was through an attached selectric typewriter terminal. Those were the days.
Notice the hard drive on the lower left table - that was booted by putting on the desired disk platter, locking it down, and pumping some of the air out of the chamber. Then it could be spun.
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| « Last Edit: Jun 3rd, 2004, 1:54pm by floridian » |
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echo
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #7 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 2:13pm » |
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I got my Masters in Communication Technology when 300 baud was standard, 1200 was a possibility, and 2400 was thought to be an unattainable goal.
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Charlie
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #8 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 3:55pm » |
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Quote:
When I was little, Brainiac was still used in jokes and referred to in movies. Now that's old 
Shades of running around with a bushel basket full of vacuum tubes?
Thanks for the thread kids.
Charlie
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Root
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #9 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 7:29pm » |
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Makes ya yearn to make VAX-100 Token Ring network in the garage don't it.
Oh well can't say as I miss 22 MM 9 track tape cabinets and PDP-11s.
Kind of miss the MANIAC machine they had at the Pt. Magu range in the 60s.
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fubar
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #10 on: Jun 3rd, 2004, 8:58pm » |
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This all makes me laugh now. I may not have a head full of grey hairs, but I can remember when:
1) you biggest fear was that you made one mistake in a stack of 3000 punch cards and the operator would just tell you to find the error because it failed to load. back then, you had to submit your 'program' as a stack of cards and wait for a printout of the results. And that was PROGRESS.
2) Entering programs by flicking toggle switchs was considered 'normal'
3) we all thought a disk with 10 million bytes of strage was unrealistically big and probably would last a lifetime.
4) acoustic modems were fancy gadgets that connected you to BBS systems (or the telephones companies switch if you knew the number)
5) Wozniak officially became a God
6) Vint Cerf and crew were certainly raised to sub-diety level
7) The 'Internet" was not the network, it was the systems that were communicating over a new protocol called TCP. We referred to the systems themselves as 'the internet'.
 USENET was low traffic, high interest and the only real way to communicate with massive like-minded folks
9) knowing X.25 commands pretty meant you could connect to anything in the world if you had access to an X.25 PAD (packet assembler/disassembler)
10) war-dialing worked
11) PDP-11's were rocket science, literally.
oh my God, it's all changed now. Been a fun ride. Along the way, I've had the honor to be right next to the biggest pioneers in the industry, and have participated a little myself in defining/crafting big parts of this thing we call the Internet now. I built the world's largest private network at the time. By the early 1980's, I had over 10,000 hosts on my network that routed IP, IPX and AppleTalk (as well as a number of experimental protocols). We even crafted a couple protocols along the way. I also prototyped and built the first incarnation of AT&T Worldnet (won a big award for that one) and put a famous hacker in jail (Kevin Mitnick). Then I helped get him out. Long story. The Internet, sad to say, has been my life. I guess I was born at exactly the right time.
-Fu
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Miklos
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Re: 30 (plus) years of Computers (Not ch)
« Reply #11 on: Jun 4th, 2004, 2:19pm » |
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1971. IBM 360 Model 20 Card system. Then we added BOS and TOS.
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