Historical computers...

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TheGreenGoblin
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Re: Historical computers...

#21 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Oct 05, 2020 4:54 am

jimtherev wrote:
Sun Oct 04, 2020 10:06 pm
Harwell had a LEO - or something very close to one - and my then fiancée wrote programs for it in '58 or '59 it must have been. Being low-priority - fast breeder reactors were still a bit in the future - she could only get machine time after 22:00, so we used to schlep in together for a few hours whilst the programs ran. Nice and quiet & not much to do - well, not computing, anyway.
Eventually skirted staff were banned from the computer suite: the fashion was then for wide-skirted 'frocks' with lots of petticoats, and so much static electricity was there that the machine frequently crashed. (Crashed quite often without human interference, for that matter) And so, since she was of the persuasion which would not wear trousers, our happy midnight hours ceased.
Other abiding memory was the ferrite core store - all 16k of it - which occupied a portable building about 20 ft by 10 ft.
One of my tutors at UCT was J M Coetzee who taught a course in generative grammar which included insights into how this field had affected the evolution of the design of compilers etc. Coetzee had worked on advanced programming projects in Britain during the 60's. During the day he worked on various programs on the Atlas 2 Super Computer, including running aerodynamic simulations of the TSR2 aircraft on the machine at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Aldermaston.
Ferranti sold two other Atlas installations, one to a joint consortium of London University and British Petroleum in 1963, and another to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (Harwell) in December 1964. The AEA machine was later moved to the Atlas Computer Laboratory at Chilton, a few yards outside the boundary fence of Harwell, which placed it on civilian lands and thus much easier to access. This installation grew to be the largest Atlas, containing 48 kWords of 48-bit core memory and 32 tape drives. Time was made available to all UK universities. It was shut down in March 1974.

In February 1962, Ferranti gave some parts of an Atlas machine to Cambridge University, and in return, the University would use these to develop a cheaper version of the system. The result was the Titan machine, which became operational in the summer of 1963. Ferranti sold two more of this design under the name Atlas 2, one to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (Aldermaston) in 1963, and another to the government-sponsored Computer Aided Design Center in 1966.
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Re: Historical computers...

#22 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Oct 05, 2020 4:55 am

It appears that Coetzee also spent some "down time" at night using the computer to generate poetry. Coetzee's sparse but incisive writing style had clearly been influenced by his forgotten computer career.

Coetzee's computer poetry
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Re: Historical computers...

#23 Post by jimtherev » Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:27 am

The AEA machine was later moved to the Atlas Computer Laboratory at Chilton, a few yards outside the boundary fence of Harwell, which placed it on civilian lands and thus much easier to access.
Actually, they moved the fence! Much cheaper and it did guarantee that the thing continued to work as reliably as before. (which wasn't very...)
Half of UKAEA Harwell was in fact in Chilton parish.

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Re: Historical computers...

#24 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Oct 15, 2020 6:18 pm

ERNIE, the fastest random number generator in the West...
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Re: Historical computers...

#25 Post by G-CPTN » Thu Oct 15, 2020 6:34 pm

Now was it named Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment - or after Marples the head of the Post Office?

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Re: Historical computers...

#26 Post by Pontius Navigator » Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:11 pm

I was astonished to see the Nimrod 8k core storage. It was a wooden frame with a grid of wires. Where each wire crossed was a metal washer. What was most surprising was the wood was quite crude and the wires and washers were rusty.

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Re: Historical computers...

#27 Post by Boac » Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:34 pm

Those were not 'washers' =)) they were probably ferrite cores.

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Re: Historical computers...

#28 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:14 am

Boac wrote:
Thu Oct 15, 2020 8:34 pm
Those were not 'washers' =)) they were probably ferrite cores.
Given that a washer was more expensive than a copper ha'penny with a hole in it, I shudder to think what Ferranti had charged for a 'core, ferrite, non-rustproof'.

I know BAE could charge £18 each.

4ma will probably know.

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Re: Historical computers...

#29 Post by ian16th » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:54 pm

When the IBM S/360 was new in 1965 core memory in the UK was £1 a byte.
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Re: Historical computers...

#30 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:06 pm


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Re: Historical computers...

#31 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Fri Oct 16, 2020 11:25 pm

Abacus.

On a Hong Kong posting had a flight engineer who learned to use a Japanese style abacus, and used it to keep his flt. log going. We had to stop him, the constant clicking of the keys kept us awake on long night sectors !

Mrs. ExS. was an early programmer, using something called Cobol (?) She said that because of the small amount of memory available they deliberately reduced the depiction of the year date to just the last two figures, knowing that at 00.01 on 01/01/2000 the world would end in confusion, but assumed that before then "someone" would have worked out how to avoid this. We can all remember the panic that set in as that date and time approached, and the eventual non-event. She was contacted to go back and help old colleagues re-draft all the programmes that she had helped create, but refused on the grounds that she had forgotten most of by the algorithms by then, probably not, and a pity that she didn't, she could have commended a small fortune to assist.

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Re: Historical computers...

#32 Post by Alisoncc » Sat Oct 17, 2020 4:04 am

When I parted company with Aunty Betty's flying circus, I went for a job interview at English Electric at Crewe. Failed because I couldn't do octal arthmetic in my head fast enough. We were supposed to check the accuracy of the computer manually. "umans were faster than the computer, 'cept machine could work 24/7/52, we needed to eat and sleep. EE Computers became ICL in due course. Turned out DEC were a lot more fun. The intricacies of RSX11 - Yay. As for RSTS/E - ***** software for the technically stoopid/extended no less.
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Re: Historical computers...

#33 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:46 pm

The millennium bug was generally a damp squib but my garage fell into in. My car was registered in 1999 and therefore due is 3 year MOT in 2002. They sent me a reminder a year early.

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Re: Historical computers...

#34 Post by unifoxos » Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:55 pm

When the IBM S/360 was new in 1965 core memory in the UK was £1 a byte.

I remember being sent to Perkins Engines to add some core memory to their S/360 mainframe about 1967. They freed up the machine in prime shift for this, treated me like royalty and dined me in the directors canteen after I'd done the job. It was a major upgrade for them - IIRC it doubled the memory capacity - 8K to 16K!
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Re: Historical computers...

#35 Post by ian16th » Sat Oct 17, 2020 4:02 pm

unifoxos wrote:
Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:55 pm
When the IBM S/360 was new in 1965 core memory in the UK was £1 a byte.

I remember being sent to Perkins Engines to add some core memory to their S/360 mainframe about 1967. They freed up the machine in prime shift for this, treated me like royalty and dined me in the directors canteen after I'd done the job. It was a major upgrade for them - IIRC it doubled the memory capacity - 8K to 16K!
I think it must have been a Mod 20 as I think a 30 was at least 16K.
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Re: Historical computers...

#36 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:45 pm

Back in the late 50s 'someone up the road' I think possibly the son of someone my father knew had gone into banking. He was doing computers. That meant nothing to me but my father said it waz the future.

On the quiet my father was well up on technology. I remember him firing up a ships radar in the early 50s, marvelling at the accuracy of the Decca Navigator - only fitted the the ship in UK waters. To his Sperry gyro, larger than a washing machine in its own as space below decks, accurate to better than a degree after a 4 month voyage.

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Re: Historical computers...

#37 Post by ian16th » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:58 am

Decca was a variant of Gee/Ames7k
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Re: Historical computers...

#38 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Sun Oct 18, 2020 7:39 am

...........To his Sperry gyro, larger than a washing machine in its own as space below decks,


Recall first introduction to INS as fitted to the sidewall of a 707 freighter, took up a few feet each way, ( left/right, up/down ) Leaving London for take off on 10 R I checked it when on the threshold and was amazed that it recorded that we had moved about 1 mile West and half a mile South from the start up position.

I now have one on my wrist.

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Re: Historical computers...

#39 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Oct 18, 2020 8:17 am

ian16th wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:58 am
Decca was a variant of Gee/Ames7k
My father's ship owner, Sir John Ellerman was very canny. As Decca was only of use in UK waters he didn't have one per ship. The pilot would bring it out and take it back when they left.

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Re: Historical computers...

#40 Post by ian16th » Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:54 pm

Pontius Navigator wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 8:17 am
ian16th wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:58 am
Decca was a variant of Gee/Ames7k
My father's ship owner, Sir John Ellerman was very canny. As Decca was only of use in UK waters he didn't have one per ship. The pilot would bring it out and take it back when they left.
Before I was demobbed, Decca were the 1st people to offer me a job.

They tested my honesty by checking the price of a train ticket from Kings Lynn to their place in Surrey, and I claimed at a lower rate 'cos I travelled at the 'forces rate'.
The girl doing the checking let the cat out by saying 'But BR told us............' and as they had done the paper work, they gave me the full rate!!!

The job didn't sound too exiting, it was sitting at the end of a production line, testing and debugging new build kit. But it was nice to have an offer at the 1st place I tried. Boosted my confidence.
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